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Showing 4601 - 4650The Arrival of Generic Imatinib Into the U.S. Market: An Educational Event
Imatinib mesylate (Gleevec), a Bcr-Abl tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is approved therapy for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in the United States. Imatinib is a miraculous drug that results in a normal functional lifespan in most patients with CML who can afford and comply with the treatment and who ...
What ASCO Can Do for You—and for Our Patients
This is an exciting time to be an oncologist. I often say I wish I were 30 again and just starting out in my oncology career. Never before have we had such sophisticated technology for evaluation of the tumor or such a potent arsenal of targeted and effective therapies to treat cancer. Further, the ...
Site of Tumor Impacts Survival and Choice of Treatment in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
In metastatic colorectal cancer, the anatomic location of the tumor within the colon appears to make a difference in overall survival as well as response to pivotal treatments, according to a retrospective analysis of the pivotal CALGB/SWOG 80405 (Alliance) trial.1 “While previous studies had...
HIV-Infected Patients With Cancer May Be Likely to Receive Cancer Treatment
A study found that human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients with cancer in the United States appear to be less likely to receive cancer treatment, regardless of insurance and other existing health conditions. The study, by researchers at the University of Utah, the National Cancer...
AATS 2016: Stage IIIA NSCLC Survival Rates Improved When Care Included Four Specific Quality Measures
Current guidelines from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) and American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) recommend that operable patients with clinical stage IIIA non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) should receive induction chemotherapy (with or without concurrent radiotherapy) ...
American Cancer Society Report Assesses Progress Against Goals Set for Nation 25 Years Ago
A new report assesses how the nation fared against the ambitious goal set by the American Cancer Society (ACS) to reduce cancer death rates by 50% over 25 years ending in 2015. The report finds areas where progress was substantial, and others where it was not. Published by Byers et al in CA: A ...
Cancer Stole My Identity
In 1997, just 6 weeks after giving birth to my second child, I started having fevers and night sweats and my lymph nodes were swollen. I’m a physician, so I knew something was wrong and that my symptoms were unrelated to having just given birth. I had a blood test, and a biopsy was performed on one ...
The Parker Foundation Launches the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy With a $250 Million Grant
On April 13, The Parker Foundation announced a $250 million grant to launch the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, a collaboration between scientists, clinicians, and industry partners to lead an unprecedented cancer immunotherapy research effort. The gift is the largest single contribution ...
A History of Medical Care for the Dying
In 2006, palliative care became a board-certified subspecialty of internal medicine, with specialized fellowships for physicians interested in the field. Despite its formal integration into best practices medical care, about 70% of Americans describe themselves as “not at all knowledgeable” about ...
Breakthrough Therapy Efforts Result in Unprecedented Success
Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have been working together for many years on an idea known as breakthrough therapy, and it has produced results beyond anyone’s hopes. Said Ellen Sigal, PhD, Friends Chair and Founder, “When we were first talking...
Expert Point of View: Julie Margenthaler, MD and Mahmoud El-Tamer, MD
Press briefing moderator Julie Margenthaler, MD, of Washington University Siteman Cancer Center, St. Louis, who is Communications Committee Chair for the American Society of Breast Surgeons, agreed that surveillance would be acceptable only within a clinical trial, and one is underway now....
Sheldon M. Feldman, MD, Named President of ASBrS
Sheldon M. Feldman, MD, was named President of the American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBrS) at the organization’s 2016 Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Feldman is the Chief of Breast Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center and the Vivian L. Milstein Associate...
ASH Meets With Officials, Provides Recommendations for the National Cancer Moonshot Initiative
On April 26, 2016, American Society of Hematology (ASH) President Charles S. Abrams, MD, shared the following statement: “Today ASH met with the White House to share scientific recommendations for the National Cancer Moonshot, an initiative spearheaded by Vice President Joe Biden that aims to make...
Interactive, Focused Learning at the ASCO Annual Meeting
The ASCO Annual Meeting, which will be held June 3–7, 2016, in Chicago, brings together more than 30,000 oncology professionals from around the world to learn about and discuss the latest therapies, treatment modalities, research, and controversies in the field. Attendees are able to personalize...
New JOP Articles Highlight the Impact of NCI Programs on Clinical Trial Enrollment
Two new original contributions in the Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP) highlight how National Cancer Institute (NCI) programs have impacted clinical trial enrollment. The first1 looked at the pilot phase of the NCI’s Community Cancer Centers Program (NCCCP) and found that trial availability and...
Moving Forward in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer: The TERRAIN and STRIVE Studies
It was over 2 decades ago that my colleagues and I reported in The New England Journal of Medicine that a first-generation oral antiandrogen, flutamide, when added to a luteinizing hormone–releasing hormone (LHRH) agonist, improved survival by nearly 6 months compared to an LHRH agonist alone in...
Breaking Down Dogma With the Outgoing President of SGO
At the 2016 Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer, The ASCO Post sat down with the SGO’s outgoing President, Robert L. Coleman, MD, and discussed the revolutionary potential of blood biomarkers, why enhanced recovery after surgery protocols is a significant...
Roundup of Ovarian Cancer Abstracts From 2016 SGO Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer
At the 2016 Society of Gynecologic Oncology’s (SOG’s) Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer, Thomas J. Herzog, MD, Clinical Director, University of Cincinnati (UC) Cancer Institute and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UC College of Medicine, provided commentary on several noteworthy ovarian...
Nivolumab: New Standard of Care for Progressive Head and Neck Cancer After Platinum Therapy
Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck that progresses after platinum-based therapy has a dismal prognosis, and there is no effective standard of care. No treatment has improved survival for this patient population, but that may be about to change. Nivolumab (Opdivo), an anti–PD-1 (programmed ...
Using Telemedicine to Reduce Wait Times for Veterans
John Farrow, a 67-year-old Vietnam veteran, had not been able to sleep for days. A week ago, his primary care doctor at his local outpatient Veterans Administration (VA) clinic told him that his prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood level was rapidly increasing, and his prostate was abnormal on...
Study Explores Differential Localization of Glioblastoma Subtypes and Pathogenesis
Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine have demonstrated that distinct types of glioblastoma tend to develop in different regions of the brain. This finding provides an explanation for how the same cancer-causing mutation can give rise to different types of brain...
ESTRO 2016: Radiation and L19-IL2 Immunotherapy Combination Shows Activity in Preclinical Models
Radiation therapy not only targets and destroys cancer cells, but also helps to activate the immune system against their future proliferation. However, this immune response is often not strong enough to be able to completely eradicate tumors, and even when it is, its effect is limited to the area...
A Critical Analysis of Early Bladder Cancer Recurrence After Laparoscopic Radical Cystectomy
Although laparoscopic radical cystectomy and robotic-assisted radical cystectomy continue to grow in popularity and are successful in the treatment of bladder cancer, they are still considered experimental approaches. Using data collected by the Section of Uro-Technology of the European Association ...
Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy May Offer a Higher Cure Rate in Prostate Cancer Than More Traditional Approaches
A 5-year study published by Hannan et al in the European Journal of Cancer showed that stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) to treat prostate cancer offers a higher cure rate than more traditional approaches, according to researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center Harold C. Simmons...
AACR 2016: Neoadjuvant Trastuzumab Emtansine Plus Pertuzumab May Improve Outcomes for Women With HER2-Positive Breast Cancer
Results from the I-SPY 2 TRIAL show that a neoadjuvant therapy combination of the antibody-drug conjugate ado-trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) and pertuzumab (Perjeta) was more beneficial than paclitaxel plus trastuzumab for women with HER2-positive invasive breast cancer, according to research...
Expect Questions About Potential Trade-Offs of Contralateral Prophylactic Mastectomy
Women who were diagnosed with breast cancer and had contralateral prophylactic mastectomy had only marginal improvement in psychosocial well-being, such as feeling confident and emotionally healthy, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.1 Those who also had breast...
Quality-of-Life Benefits of Contralateral Prophylactic Mastectomy May Be Too Small to Be Clinically Meaningful
Women diagnosed with breast cancer who chose contralateral prophylactic mastectomy reported improvement in psychosocial well-being and breast satisfaction, but “the magnitude of the effect may be too small to be clinically meaningful,” according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.1...
Friends of Cancer Research Encourages FDA to Modernize and Consolidate
“In order to take advantage of today’s advancements in science, drug development, and patient treatment, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) structure needs reorganization to focus its resources and ensure the best outcomes for patients. Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) proposes...
Raising Awareness of Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma
I’m used to having bumps and cysts pop up on my body, so when I felt a lump on the front of my throat, just below my Adam’s apple, I brushed it off. But when it was still there 6 months later, I became concerned and decided to see an ear, nose, and throat specialist. He performed a fine-needle...
Immunotherapy Could Be the Wave of the Future, but Problems and Challenges Cannot Be Ignored
Immunotherapy is on its way. A few agents have already been approved: ipilimumab (Yervoy) in 2011 for melanoma; nivolumab (Opdivo) in 2015 for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and then later that year for renal cell carcinoma; and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for NSCLC. In addition, many clinical...
Drug Prices and Value: Finding Middle Ground
The advent of targeted therapies along with complex personalized treatment regimens has added many effective tools to the oncology armamentarium. But progress has a price tag. Although the oncology community needs new drugs, there is growing concern that the price of many newer compounds is...
Blue Ribbon Panel to Help Guide National Cancer Moonshot Initiative
On April 4, 2016, The National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced a Blue Ribbon Panel of scientific experts, cancer leaders, and patient advocates that will inform the scientific direction and goals at NCI of Vice President Joe Biden’s National Cancer ...
DigniCap Scalp-Cooling System Now Available for Women With Breast Cancer at 10 U.S. Cancer Treatment Centers
Dignitana Inc. recently announced that the DigniCap scalp cooling system, which was cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2015 to effectively reduce the likelihood of chemotherapy-induced hair loss in women with breast cancer, is now available at 10 cancer treatment...
Expert Point of View: Douglas A. Levine, MD
In the discussion session, Douglas A. Levine, MD, Head of Gynecology Research Laboratory at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said that while advanced genomics can help to predict outcomes, stratify treatment, and understand biology, one of the problems of precision medicine is that...
Physicians as Champions for Quality Improvement
Interest in quality measurement and improvement was once primarily a concern of regulators, insurers, and consumer advocates. Today, quality improvement is front and center in health care—a continuous mission requiring the efforts of everyone on the health-care team. At the recent ASCO Quality Care ...
Benefits and Risks of Transplantation: The Changing Therapeutic Paradigm for Multiple Myeloma
Although high-dose chemotherapy plus autologous transplantation has been a standard of care in the treatment of younger patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, the advent of effective novel agents for the cancer over the past 15 years has raised the question of whether transplantation, with ...
Novel Strategies Emerging for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
Compelling hypotheses are emerging about the mechanisms driving triple-negative breast cancer, and they are driving drug development in this area, according to Joyce O’Shaughnessy, MD, Celebrating Women Chair of Breast Cancer Research at Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center. She is also Medical...
AACR 2016: LOXO-101 Shows Continued Promise in Patients Whose Tumors Had NTRK Gene Fusions
The investigational drug LOXO-101, which selectively targets a family of proteins called neurotrophic tyrosine kinase receptors (NTRKs), produced significant tumor regression in patients whose tumors had NTRK gene fusions, according to data from a phase I clinical trial presented by Hong et al at...
ELCC 2016: Osimertinib Given as First-Line Treatment May Alter Biology of EGFR-Mutated Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
The third-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor osimertinib (Tagrisso) is effective in the first-line treatment of EGFR-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a late-breaking abstract presented by Ramalingam et al (Abstract...
The Parker Foundation Launches the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy With a $250 Million Grant
On April 13, The Parker Foundation announced a $250 million grant to launch the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, a collaboration between scientists, clinicians, and industry partners to lead an unprecedented cancer immunotherapy research effort. The gift is the largest single contribution ...
FDA Approves Venetoclax for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia With 17p Deletion
On April 11, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved venetoclax (Venclexta) for the treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) with 17p deletion, as detected by an FDA-approved test, who have received at least one prior therapy. Venetoclax is the first...
sFRP2 in Aged Melanoma Tumor Cells Drives Metastasis and Therapy Resistance
Cancer risk increases with one's age as accumulated damage to our cells and chronic inflammation occur over time. Now, an international team of scientists led by The Wistar Institute has shown that aged tumor cells in melanoma behave differently from younger tumor cells, according to study results...
Compartmentalizing Cancer
I was the last one on the oncology team to meet Mel. He was 36 years old, and by then Mel had been living with metastatic colon cancer for several years. During that time, his clinicians had never referred him to our psycho-oncology team because of his strong attitude and outlook. Mel’s outward...
A Political Activist Challenges the Drug Approval Process and the U.S. Government
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) primary concern in the drug approval process is to ensure that the drug is safe and effective. For the past several decades, the advocacy groups have vociferously painted the agency as a stodgy bureaucracy that prevents desperate patients access to...
Things May Not Be What They Seem: Are Old Cancer Treatment Theories New Again?
The adage “you can’t judge a book by its cover,” is true, but authors still need to be aware of the importance of first impressions. The title of science writer Travis Christofferson’s book Tripping Over the Truth: The Return of the Metabolic Theory of Cancer Illuminates a New and Hopeful Path to ...
Michael J. Birrer, MD, PhD, Named Recipient of the 2016 Claudia Cohen Research Foundation Prize for Outstanding Gynecologic Cancer Researcher
The Claudia Cohen Research Foundation and the Foundation for Women’s Cancer announced Michael J. Birrer, MD, PhD, as the 2016 recipient of the Claudia Cohen Research Foundation Prize for Outstanding Gynecologic Cancer Researcher. The $50,000 prize was presented at the Society of Gynecologic...
Joan Massagué, PhD, to Receive 2016 Pezcoller Foundation–AACR International Award for Cancer Research
The 2016 Pezcoller Foundation-American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) International Award for Cancer Research will be presented to Joan Massagué, PhD, Director of the Sloan Kettering Institute and Alfred P. Sloan Chair at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, at the AACR...
Phase Ib/II Study Reports High Response Rates Seen With Addition of Cisplatin to Regimen for Advanced Pancreatic Cancer
The oncology research team at HonorHealth Research Institute in Scottsdale, Arizona, is spearheading a phase Ib/II trial that is demonstrating promising results with a novel regimen in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. “The patients we are treating have advanced adenocarcinoma of the...
Survival Period for Esophageal Cancer Is Tied to Race and Income
African American patients with esophageal cancer survive fewer months after diagnosis than white patients, but only if they also have low incomes, according to a study presented by Loretta Erhunmwunsee, MD, at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Dr. Erhunmwunsee led the study...
Providing Perspective on Pressing Economic Issues Facing Cancer Care—Now and in the Future
CANCERSCAPE, the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC), provided a forum for about 300 attendees to gain insight into the complexities of oncology treatment, where “clinical advances, policy mandates, and value-based payment reform intersect.” Of particular...
