The University of Michigan (U-M) Comprehensive Cancer Center in Ann Arbor has named Kathleen Cooney, MD, as Deputy Director for Clinical Services. Dr. Cooney is Frances and Victor Ginsberg Professor of Hematology/Oncology and Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the U-M Medical School...
For nearly 30 years, from the time he was a young resident at the Collis P. Huntington Memorial Hospital for Cancer Research of Harvard University, until his death from lung cancer on August 31, 1969, David A. Karnofsky, MD, dedicated himself to the pursuit of scientific excellence and the...
The Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center has welcomed five new clinician-scientists specializing in leukemia. These practitioners joined the HICCC faculty in early January 2013. The new staff members are Mark G....
From the initial discovery of the HER2 family of receptors in the mid-1980s to the present, a “wealth of riches” has been uncovered in terms of agents that can target pathways relevant to this aggressive breast cancer type, notes Hope S. Rugo, MD, Director of Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials...
Melanomas that develop in the eye often are fatal. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine and the Siteman Cancer Center, St. Louis, Missouri, report they have identified a mutated gene in melanoma tumors of the eye that appears to predict a good outcome. The research was...
Thanks to the membership category ASCO designed for physicians in developing countries, Brazilian oncologist Milena Mak, MD, can greatly enhance the care she delivers in the very busy 580-bed Instituto do Cancer do Estado de Sao Paulo. And radiation oncologist Pooja Nandwani Patel, MD, can use the...
The 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) featured about 5,000 abstracts, including oral sessions and posters, as well as named lectures and symposia. In addition to our regular news coverage from the meeting, below are capsule summaries of a few news highlights that we...
Press conference moderator William G. Woods, MD, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Director and the Daniel P. Amos Children’s Chair, Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, called the phase III FRALLE trial “an important confirmatory step regarding the front-line...
The term “patient-centered cancer care” has become ingrained in today’s health-care vernacular. However, no matter what modifications occur in clinical oncology practice, the terms value and cost-effectiveness are now a solid part of the equation. At ASCO’s Quality Care Symposium, Linda D....
When I began experiencing severe neck and back pain about 9 years ago, I had no idea it could be a late side effect from the radiation therapy I had received 31 years ago to treat my Hodgkin lymphoma. And none of the doctors I’ve seen over the past decade have been able to make the connection...
Breast cancer patients who achieve a pathologic complete response to neoadjuvant therapy have more favorable outcomes than those who do not, according to a meta-analysis of neoadjuvant trials presented at the 2012 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 Patients who achieved a pathologic complete...
We owe our life to radiation. The universe was created in a thermonuclear explosion, and continued existence of life on Earth depends on plants using chlorophyll to capture light energy emitted by the sun (and exploding supernovas) and converting it into chemical energy, with the subsequent...
Athough the majority of the more than 69,000 adolescents and young adults (AYAs) diagnosed with cancer each year will survive their disease, many of them will experience interruptions in their education and a derailment in their career tract, curtailing their lifetime earning potential and reducing ...
“Receiving a cancer diagnosis represents a ‘teachable moment’ for delivering smoking cessation and relapse prevention interventions,” concluded a study in the journal Cancer1 about smoking relapse in patients with thoracic cancer or head and neck cancer. Previous research by two of the study’s...
In the News focuses on media reports that your patients may have questions about at their next visit. This continuing column will provide summaries of articles in the popular press that may prompt such questions, as well as comments from colleagues in the field. Patients with head and neck or lung...
For more than 2 decades, the guiding principle of the Medical Oncology Association of Southern California (MOASC) has been to ensure the continuation of the private practice of medical oncology and to provide the highest quality care to cancer patients. Founded in 1990, MOASC is the largest...
While IBM’s Watson supercomputer may have defeated two former champions on the TV game show Jeopardy! 2 years ago, it is now facing its greatest challenge yet: deciphering huge amounts of scientific data and interpreting clinical information to help oncologists make personalized evidence-based...
People are more optimistic today about their chances of surviving cancer, according to findings from a new international survey commissioned by Lilly Oncology. The phone survey of 4,341 individuals (including people in the general population, cancer survivors, and caregivers) in six countries (the...
A risk assessment to identify how errors occur when oral chemotherapies are used by pediatric patients at home (and to propose risk-reduction strategies) relied on input from those primarily in charge of oral chemotherapy use at home—the parents. A total of 18 parents were recruited at three...
An oral chemotherapy prescription-writing module grafted to a shared electronic medical record is part of a series of quality improvement efforts undertaken at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston to prevent errors in prescribing oral chemotherapy agents. While oncologists have readily accepted...
NYU Langone Medical Center, which stretches across four blocks on Manhattan’s East Side and comprises four hospitals, a medical school, and an outpatient cancer institute, sustained an estimated $1 billion in damages to its main inpatient campus, which is located one block from the East River....
When Hurricane Sandy slammed into the East Coast last October, the magnitude of devastation it left in its wake exceeded even the most dire predictions. Eighty mile per hour winds and record storm surges destroyed antiquated electrical grids and flooded subway stations, leaving much of New York...
The 2013 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium marked the 10th anniversary of the meeting. Richard M. Goldberg, MD, the Klotz Family Chair in Cancer Research, Professor of Medicine, and James Cancer Hospital Physician-in-Chief at The Ohio State University, looked back over the decade to highlight the...
The study’s formal discussant, Johanna C. Bendell, MD, Director of Gastrointestinal Cancer Research and at the Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Nashville, said COUGAR02 had “good and appropriate stratification factors” and “importantly, included quality-of-life studies.” This is critical, she said, ...
Neal J. Meropol, MD, Chief of Hematology and Oncology at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, commented that the quality of the data on ramucirumab is “very high,” and therefore, “we can believe these results.” The magnitude of the benefit,...
A post hoc analysis of the AFFIRM trial found that on-study use of corticosteroids led to worse outcomes in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer regardless of whether patients were randomly assigned to enzalutamide (Xtandi) or placebo.1 On-study corticosteroid use was associated with...
Recently reported data from the Prostate Cancer Outcome Study (PCOS) can “serve as a tool for a medical oncologist, a urologic oncologist, or a radiation oncologist to say, ‘Here is what could happen on average at 2, 5, 15 years after treatment with either surgery or radiation,’” according to the...
Fifteen years after being treated with radical prostatectomy or external-beam radiation for localized prostate cancer, “the prevalence of erectile dysfunction was nearly universal,” among men enrolled in a long-term functional outcomes analysis of the Prostate Cancer Outcomes Study (PCOS). There...
Women are 30% less likely to die of ovarian cancer if they have guideline-recommended treatment, yet nearly two-thirds of those with the disease do not receive it, often because they are cared for at hospitals that treat a small number of ovarian cancer patients. These are the findings of a study...
Optimal reinduction therapy for patients with relapsed pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains undefined. Liposomal daunorubicin (DaunoXome), which offers the potential for reduced cardiotoxicity compared with traditional daunorubicin, is effective in this setting. Gertjan J.L. Kaspers, MD,...
It is clear from our study, and other studies examining mind-body interventions in patients with cancer, that it is important for patients to consider participating in some kind of program to manage their stress and improve their quality of life. This is particularly true for patients who are...
Enabling adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients to become involved in advance care planning can help parents and health-care agents make informed decisions, alleviate distress, and possibly improve the patients’ quality of life, according to researchers at the National Cancer Institute’s...
As we all now know, the start of the sequestration prescribed by the Budget Control Act of 2011 was delayed until March 1, 2013, by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. With Congress unable to strike a deal, the mandatory reductions in Federal spending were triggered on March 1. Those...
The 39th Annual National Meeting of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) was held in Washington, DC, in March. With a focus on business, economics, and policy, the program included the inauguration of a new ACCC President (see page 102), a keynote speech on the future of health care,...
In March 2011, the National Cancer Policy Forum of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), in conjunction with ASCO, held a workshop to discuss a collaborative approach to making the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded clinical trials system more viable and productive. That workshop included...
The Conquer Cancer Foundation’s Patient Advocate Scholarship Program enables advocates to attend ASCO meetings so they may further educate themselves on important advances in their areas of interest. The scholarship program is one of many programs ASCO and the Conquer Cancer Foundation provide for...
Two Indiana University researchers have been awarded a multiyear, $3.2 million grant to develop and improve therapies for pancreatic cancer, the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Mark R. Kelley, PhD, Betty and Earl Herr Professor of Pediatric Oncology Research, and Melissa...
Appointed by the President and called “America’s Doctor,” the Surgeon General’s chief task is to protect and advance the health of the nation. Most of our Surgeon Generals have tiptoed around hot-button public health issues that might bruise political sensibilities and their own careers. C....
Receiving a cancer diagnosis can be a frightening and overwhelming experience, and the first thing many people do upon receiving the news is seek out information, hoping to be empowered through knowledge. At the Conquer Cancer Foundation, we are working to ensure that vital information—focusing on...
In the fast-paced world of oncology, where the science of patient care is constantly evolving, it is critical for practitioners—and, by extension, their Society—to consistently be one step ahead. For ASCO and the Conquer Cancer Foundation, that means maintaining a strong focus not only on the...
ASCO has released the latest edition of ASCO-SEP®, a comprehensive resource designed to help medical providers assess and improve their level of knowledge in the various areas of oncology, enabling them to provide care that will optimize the quality of life for people with cancer. ASCO-SEP, 3rd...
In August 2011, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania published their breakthrough findings of a pilot study showing sustained remissions of up to 1 year in a small number of patients with advanced chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who had been treated with genetically engineered...
Last fall, a consortium of more than 300 researchers from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network published the results of their large-scale genetic analysis of squamous cell lung cancer in the journal Nature.1 The study, the first of its kind, compared the tumor cells from 178 untreated...
There are a few things about ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) on which everyone agrees: Incidence increased dramatically with the advent of mammography screening, not all cases detected will go on to cause symptoms in the patient’s lifetime, and there’s no proven way to tell which cases will...
Axel Grothey, MD, Professor of Oncology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, said that classifying colorectal cancer by intrinsic subtypes is “the right route forward,” especially if subtypes can be reliably linked to therapeutic response and survival. “We will not be treating all colorectal...
Some 5% to 10% of patients with colorectal cancer harbor the BRAF mutation, placing them at risk for poor treatment response and worse outcomes. The ASCO Post interviewed S. Gail Eckhardt, MD, an expert in this area who is Professor and Head of the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of...
Studies show virtually all cancer survivors will experience some form of sexual dysfunction following a cancer diagnosis and treatment. Yet few cancer survivors seek help for physical problems they may be experiencing, such as vaginal dryness, dyspareunia, chemically induced menopause, reduced...
The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Survivorship Program and its Directors, K. Scott Baker, MD, and Karen Syrjala, PhD, have been selected to lead a nationwide study that aims to improve long-term health outcomes for cancer survivors between the ages of 18 and 39 years. Underway this spring, ...
Just 1 month after undergoing a mammogram that was deemed normal with some dense tissue in my left breast, my gynecologist felt a mass in that breast about the size of a cherry tomato during a routine well visit. After watching the lump for a month to see if it was cyclical, she sent me for another ...
“SEER data showed a small but statistically significant increase in the incidence of breast cancer with distant involvement for women aged 25 to 39 years,” concluded a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.1 “The trajectory of the incidence trend predicts that an...