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Showing 5051 - 5100Cancer.Net, ASCO’s Patient Education Website: Celebrating 10 Years of Trusted Cancer Education
“For 10 years, Cancer.Net has reflected the voice of the physician and given people with cancer and their loved ones the tools they need to actively participate in their cancer care. ASCO has used all the technological advances of the past decade to make information more accessible, interactive,...
Conquer Cancer Foundation Board Member Tom Roberts Cites Need to Grow Research Capacity as Opportunity for Discovery Accelerates
Thomas G. Roberts, MD, dedicates a shelf in his home to memories of patients—photographs, notes, expressions of gratitude, traces of lives linked with his through cancer treatment. He looks at it every day, he says, and the memories inform his mission. “In oncology, you become part of people’s...
Progress in Treating Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Has Led to Across-the-board Improvements in Survival
Four decades ago, Kanti R. Rai, MD, was determined to figure out why some of his patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) died within 2 years after their diagnosis, while others lived for 20 or even 30 years. At the time, Dr. Rai was a young scientist doing research in leukemia at...
SIDEBAR: Learning from Advanced Disease
Current testing of immunotherapy approaches against cancer involves patients in whom standard therapies have failed. “That really puts us at a great disadvantage because a lot of the standard therapies are immunosuppressive, as is the tumor itself as it grows,” Olivera Finn, PhD, said at a press...
Managing Febrile Neutropenia: What Are the Best Antibiotic Regimens?
Management of patients with cancer who have fever and a low neutrophil count is one of the most common scenarios oncologists face today. “Physicians have to be keenly aware of the infection risks, diagnostic methods, and microbial therapies required for managing febrile neutropenic patients because ...
Advances in Prostate Cancer Accompanied by Ongoing Debates
Scientific advances have markedly improved prostate cancer survival, but this clinical success story is not without its share of controversy. From screening through treatment, a growing array of options offer an admixture of promise and confusion for clinicians and patients. Moreover, today’s...
Maintenance of Certification in Medical Oncology
It is said that time is perhaps the most treasured asset we have. If you are a practicing oncologist, everyone wants more and more of your time, and I’m not referring to patients. Rather, there is an increasing proliferation of folks who want to make sure we’re doing a good job, and they are...
Physicians Need to Be Involved in Reducing Costs
I am so proud of ASCO for participating in the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation’s Choosing Wisely campaign (see The ASCO Post, May 1, page 19; and page 75 of this issue). I am the Associate Medical Director for a 280-physician multispecialty group in the Hudson Valley of New York,...
Surviving the Aftermath of Cancer
With medical information now just a click away, it’s difficult to imagine a time before the Internet existed, when finding answers to questions about serious diseases was nearly impossible. When I was diagnosed with liposarcoma 33 years ago, there was only one oncologist in my hometown of Tyler,...
Will Study Showing Increased Complications Compared to Whole-breast Irradiation Put the Brakes on Brachytherapy?
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. Older women treated for invasive...
ASCO Reexamines the Oncology Workforce Shortage
A study commissioned by ASCO in 2006 predicted a significant shortage of medical and gynecologic oncologists in the United States by 2020. As a result, the organization created the Workforce Implementation Group to develop recommendations to stem the projected workforce shortfall and ensure ongoing ...
Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation Initiatives Are Leading to More Effective Targeted Treatment
In 1996, at just 37, the last thing Kathy Giusti expected to hear was that she had the fatal blood cancer multiple myeloma. An executive at Searle Pharmaceuticals and the mother of an 18-month-old daughter, Giusti was told she probably had 3 years to live. At the time, treatments for the disease...
Markers in Cancer 2012, to be Held October 11–13, Will Seek to Move the Field of Biomarkers to the Next Phase
There are hundreds and hundreds of papers published on biomarkers in cancer each year, but very few make it over the hurdles necessary to be used in actual patient care, said James L. Abbruzzese, MD, Chair of the Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson ...
Full Membership: What It Means, What It Offers, and Why It’s Essential
As part of our series explaining the benefits of ASCO’s various membership categories, in this issue we focus on the Full Membership Category Involvement in ASCO—the largest and most inclusive professional organization in oncology—allows those involved in cancer care to chart the very course of the ...
Cancer Survivors Stand Up, Give Thanks, and Give Back
“I have me back,” is how breast cancer survivor Jeanette Daniel of Memphis described her life after being treated on a clinical trial at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville. Being conducted by the Stand Up To Cancer P13K Dream Team, whose leader discovered the PI3K pathway, the trial...
Risk Stratification and Targeted Therapy, Abetted by Collaboration, Improve Outcomes for Children with Cancer
Outcomes for children with cancer have “improved over the course of the years incrementally, mostly not from the development of new drugs, because virtually all the drugs that we use now in leukemia were available in the 1970s. It is really through better understanding of the heterogeneity of the...
Postsurgical Local Breast Cancer Therapies Compared in Two Large Studies
A study presented at the 13th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Breast Surgeons suggested that accelerated partial-breast irradiation (APBI) using brachytherapy might control the tumor bed better than whole-breast irradiation (WBI), while another study suggested that radiofrequency ablation ...
Can Whole-genome Sequencing Predict Cancer Risk and Improve Public Health?
If, as expected, the cost of whole-genome sequencing continues to drop, perhaps down to the $1,000 vicinity, it may become an alluring option for consumers who want to know about their risks for cancer and other diseases. But can genome sequencing really provide practical information about...
At More than a Century Old, American Association for Cancer Research Continues to Evolve
Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), has been Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) since 1982, and has been instrumental in launching some of the most seminal efforts of the cancer research organization. Over the past 4 years, she has helped spearhead the AACR’s...
Crizotinib Yields Benefits in Aggressive Pediatric Tumors
The value of the targeted agent crizotinib (Xalkori) may not be restricted to the 5% of patients with non–small cell lung cancer who have abnormalities in the ALK gene. In a phase I study conducted by the Children’s Oncology Group consortium, crizotinib halted tumor growth and, in some cases,...
Expert Point of View: Encouraging Results with Neoadjuvant Therapy for High-risk Prostate Cancer
“This is one of the first, if not the first, study to show that a treatment can make prostate cancer in the prostate gland itself disappear in a reproducible number of patients, and it is an exciting step forward,” said Nicholas Vogelzang, MD, moderator of the pre–ASCO Annual Meeting press...
Encouraging Results with Neoadjuvant Therapy for High-risk Prostate Cancer
Use of the CYP17 inhibitor abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) in combination with leuprolide and prednisone prior to radical prostatectomy achieved pathologic complete response or near complete response in one-third of men with high-risk, localized prostate cancer. Abiraterone is FDA-approved for...
Decoding the Genetic Blueprint of Cancer Cells: Findings in Multiple Myeloma and Breast Cancer
Advances in next-generation DNA sequencing technologies are allowing scientists to decipher the whole genome or whole exome (ie, the coding region of the genome) of cancer specimens more quickly and inexpensively than ever before. And the results are revealing genes that had not previously been...
When It Comes to Scientific Exploration, Renowned Clinical Investigator Lets the Work Guide His Path
Internationally renowned clinical investigator Daniel D. Von Hoff, MD, FACP, attended grade school in a one-room schoolhouse on the rural outskirts of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Polio was a scourge at the time, and Dr. Von Hoff recalled lining up with his skittish classmates to get the newly developed...
Trailblazing Oncologist Had Instrumental Role in France’s War on Cancer
David Khayat, MD, PhD, Chair of the Department of Medical Oncology at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, was inspired to become an oncologist by an episode that could have been ripped from the pages of one of his best-selling novels. At the age of 18, Dr. Khayat was the witness at his best...
After 3 Decades at MD Anderson, Leukemia Researcher Shows No Sign of Slowing Down
Hagop M. Kantarjian, MD, Chair of the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, was born in Lebanon. The only member of his family to have pursued a career in medicine, he received his medical degree from the American University of Beirut (AUB), which was founded...
Trailblazing Neurologist Leads the Way in Advancing Treatment of Cancer Pain
Kathleen M. Foley, MD, began her life’s work in cancer pain management at a time when suffering was a universally accepted consequence of the disease. Since then, Dr. Foley’s tireless work in the clinic and public forum has advanced not only the clinical treatment of cancer pain, but also the...
Reflections on the Evolution of Clinical Cancer Research and Turning Points in a Distinguished Career
Since May 1, 2005, Karen H. Antman, MD, has served as Dean of Boston University School of Medicine and Provost of the Boston University Medical Campus, located in the historic South End of Boston. Her road to this esteemed institution was paved with prominent positions, such as former ASCO...
Too Soon to Know How Circulating Tumor Cells Might Be Used to Guide Treatment of Breast Cancer
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. “A simple blood test.” These were...
ASCO’s CancerLinQ: Building a Transformation in Cancer Care
Cancer science and information technology are advancing rapidly, but the way we care for patients today cannot fully capitalize on those advances. The proliferation of scientific results and novel treatments is a growing challenge for all oncology professionals as we enter the era of highly...
Older Breast Cancer Drugs Prove Superior to Newer Ones
In the treatment of metastatic breast cancer, established older agents outperformed newer, more expensive drugs in two studies that made news at the 2012 ASCO Annual Meeting. Microtubule Inhibitors In the phase III open-label CALBG 40502/NCCTG N063H trial of 799 chemotherapy-naive patients with...
Expert Point of View: Mark Gilbert, MD
Commending the investigators for their undertaking, Mark Gilbert, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said, “Perseverance and analysis of long-term outcomes lead to practice-changing findings and important insights.” He pointed out that two randomized trials...
New Standard of Care for Anaplastic Oligodendroglial Tumors with 1p/19q Codeletions
Adjuvant chemotherapy with PCV (procarbazine [Matulane], lomustine [CeeNU], and vincristine) following standard radiation therapy delayed disease progression and increased survival in patients with a relatively rare type of brain tumor called anaplastic oligodendroglioma. A subgroup analysis found...
Prostate Cancer Management: A Day Late and A Dollar Short?
In the May 15 issue, The ASCO Post reported on the relative cost-effectiveness of approaches to treating localized prostate cancer (“Advances in Prostate Cancer Accompanied by Ongoing Debates,” page 1). The article analyzed an important scientific paper presented at both urology and radiation...
Breast Cancer and Noncommunicable Diseases: Where in the World Do We Start?
As the world’s most common cancer among women, and the most likely reason around the globe that a woman will die of cancer, breast cancer affects countries at all economic levels. Despite the common misconception that breast cancer is primarily a problem of high-income countries, the majority of...
New PSA Recommendations: The Debate over Prostate Cancer Screening Continues
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recently issued a recommendation statement advising against the use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-based testing for prostate cancer,1 leaving many in the oncology community concerned that decades of clinical progress will be stalled, and setting ...
MEK Inhibitor Reduces Progression of BRAF-mutated Melanoma and Might also Benefit Others
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. The MEK inhibitor trametinib...
Identification of Novel Mechanism for Suppression of Antitumor Immunity
The efficacy of cancer immunotherapy has been limited, likely reflecting in large part the incomplete understanding of the complex interactions between tumors and the immune microenvironment. A study presented at the 2012 ASCO Annual Meeting helps clarify some of these interactions. Changes in...
My Breast Cancer Had Been Coming for Years
I’ve never had a normal mammogram screening. There was always something suspicious the test picked up: macrocalcifications in one breast 1 year and a cyst in the other breast the next year. Over a period of 3 years, I had six tissue biopsies, all benign for cancer. So when I flunked another...
ASCO Bookstore Revamped
ASCO has redesigned its online bookstore. Now visitors can enjoy a streamlined environment powered by Amazon, allowing them to search in just about any way they want to: newest to oldest, most popular, by disease type, by professional interest, and the list goes on. The new bookstore platform,...
ASCO Launches Oncology Practice Census
How many oncologists are in private practice and how many are employed by hospitals and academic medical centers in the United States? No one knows the answer for sure, but ASCO is undertaking an ambitious national effort to determine where oncologists are practicing these days. Online Survey...
After a Decade of Decline in Smoking Rates, Progress Has Stalled
Approximately 20% of all Americans smoke, and 443,000 of them will die each year as a result. Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States and the greatest behavioral determinant of morbidity and mortality (6%–10% of U.S. health-care costs). Nearly 30% of all cancer...
PACE Trial Update: Ponatinib Produces High Response Rates in CML
The third-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor ponatinib showed robust efficacy in the 10-month follow-up of the phase II PACE trial (Ponatinib Ph+ALL and CML Evaluation), which is evaluating ponatinib in treatment-refractory chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)1 At the 2012 ASCO Annual Meeting, Jorge E. ...
New Study on Communicating Bad News, from the Patient’s Perspective
There is limited evidence in the literature about how oncologists should discuss bad or serious news with their patients. A recent study sought to understand what patients with cancer value when their doctors communicate news of recurrence.1 The ASCO Post spoke with the study’s lead author, Anthony ...
Expert Point of View: Axel Grothey, MD
Over the past 10 years, agents targeting the VEGF system, such as bevacizumab, have become standard components of anticancer therapy in various malignancies. Recently, it has become increasingly evident that prolonged duration of anti-VEGF therapy is needed to optimize the therapeutic effect of...
ASCO Studies Point to Risks Associated with Treating Childhood Cancers
Risks associated with being a young cancer survivor were emphasized by two studies highlighted in press briefings at the 2012 ASCO Annual Meeting. Investigators from the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) reported that adolescents and young adults treated for high-risk B-precursor acute lymphoblastic ...
Expert Point of View: Benjamin J. Solomon, MBBS, PhD
“The LUX-Lung 3 study has been much awaited. It is the first study to use cisplatin/pemetrexed [Alimta], which we now recognize as the best comparator arm. The study was positive for afatinib. While the use of maintenance pemetrexed may have dented the hazard ratio, I doubt this would have impacted ...
Landscape for Treatment of Metastatic Melanoma Is Expanding
Metastatic melanoma was long considered untreatable and incurable. The FDA approval of ipilimumab (Yervoy) and vemurafenib (Zelboraf) ushered in a new era for this disease, and now additional treatment options are in late stages of clinical development. Dabrafenib, a novel oral BRAF inhibitor, and...
Lung Cancer Death Rates Increase among White Women in Some States
A new study comparing lung cancer death rates among women by year of birth shows dramatic differences in trends between states, likely reflecting the success or failure of tobacco control efforts. The study, published early online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,1 finds that while lung cancer...
Reflections from the Old World
A few years ago, I was a key witness for a patent dispute at a trial in Delaware. Acting for the complainant, I was briefed that the opening gambit of the opposition lawyer would be to discredit my CV and, therefore, the value of my testimony. “So you are a full Professor at the University of...
