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Showing 5051 - 5100The Future of Biomedical Research
In January, Congress approved a $1 trillion appropriations bill for the rest of fiscal year 2014. While the new bill includes $29.9 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—$1 billion above FY2013 levels after sequestration—including $4.9 billion for the National Cancer Institute (NCI),...
PREVAIL Trial Shows Enzalutamide to Be a Promising Option for Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer
Encouraging results of the large phase III PREVAIL trial represent another positive milestone for men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Enzalutamide (Xtandi) improved overall survival by 29% and reduced the risk of radiographic progression of disease by 81% in men who had not...
Focus on the Virginia Association of Hematologists and Oncologists
The state of Virginia encompasses a vast area of 40,000 square miles and is divided into five regions: the Atlantic Coastal Plain, the Piedmont, the Blue Ridge, the Appalachian Ridge and Valley Region, and the Appalachian Plateau. The diverse geography of the state creates unique challenges for...
Cancer Has Allowed Me to Put My Goals First
Despite my family history of cancer—my father had colorectal cancer, his father had gallbladder cancer, and my father’s mother died of what was believed to be uterine cancer—when I complained to my gynecologist about postmenopausal bleeding in the spring of 2011, I was told not to worry about it....
Music Therapy Yields Positive Effects on Coping Skills, Social Integration, and Family Environment for Young Patients With Cancer
A collaborative multisite study has found that teens and young adults undergoing stem cell transplantation as part of cancer treatment gain coping skills and resilience-related outcomes when participating with a board-certified music therapist in a therapeutic music protocol that includes writing...
How to Approach the Problem of CNS Metastasis in HER2-Positive Patients
Central nervous system (CNS) metastasis is a pervasive problem in the setting of HER2-positive breast cancer. While some patients can be managed easily, others are challenging, said Eric P. Winer, MD, Chief of the Division of Women’s Cancers and the Thompson Senior Investigator for Breast Cancer...
How Decoding the Genomes of Exceptional Responders Is Leading to More Effective Treatment for All Patients With Cancer
In 2012, David B. Solit, MD, Geoffrey Beene Chair and Director of the Center for Molecular Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York, and his colleagues published the results of a phase II study1 of 45 patients with advanced bladder cancer. The purpose of the clinical...
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Committee Identifies Eight Palliative Care Priorities in Pediatric Oncology
About 2½ years ago, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis conducted a series of focus groups to better understand the palliative care priorities of bereaved parents. Their findings were never intended to be generalized, but rather to be used to formulate a strategic plan for an...
Affordable Care Act to Cover Chemoprevention for Women at High Risk for Breast Cancer
On January 9, 2014, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, announced that under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, women at increased risk of breast cancer will be entitled to preventive medications without incurring out-of-pocket costs (with the...
ASCO’s Membership Grows to Nearly 35,000
ASCO has much to celebrate this year—namely, the Society’s 50th Anniversary. This occasion brings with it many other notable milestones. 2014 is a prime time to reflect on the remarkable growth of ASCO, from seven founders and 51 physicians at its first Annual Meeting to nearly 35,000 members...
ASCO Holds Leadership Summit to Address Value in Cancer Care, Cost of Cancer Drugs and Technologies
ASCO convened a leadership summit in late January with pharmaceutical representatives, insurance payers, patient advocates, and physicians to initiate a dialogue on the challenge of defining value in cancer care. This meeting was held amid growing concerns about the sustainability of continued...
Advanced Practitioners in Oncology: Diverse Experiences, Shared Challenges
The professional paths of advanced practitioners (APs) in oncology are as varied as the locations in which they work. The first annual JADPRO Live 2014 educational symposium was held in St. Petersburg, Florida, and hosted by JADPRO, the Journal of the Advanced Practitioner in Oncology. A...
FDA Orders Cessation of Sale, Distribution of Four Tobacco Products
FDA has issued orders to stop the further sale and distribution of four tobacco products currently on the market. The action marks the first time the FDA has used its authority under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act to order a manufacturer of currently available tobacco...
Crizotinib Proves Effective in ALK-Positive Lymphoma
Crizotinib (Xalkori) produced promising results in patients with ALK-positive lymphoma in two small studies presented at the 2013 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting. Crizotinib exerted potent antitumor activity in advanced ALK-positive lymphoma and achieved durable responses in...
Gemtuzumab Ozogamicin Reduces Relapse, Improves Event-Free Survival in Pediatric AML
The monoclonal antibody gemtuzumab ozogamicin (Mylotarg) improved event-free survival and reduced the risk of relapse in children with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in a study from the Children’s Oncology Group, presented at the 55th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition ...
Idelalisib Achieves High Response Rates in ‘Double-Refractory’ Indolent NHL
In patients with indolent B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) refractory to both rituximab (Rituxan) and an alkylating agent, monotherapy with the selective oral PI3K-delta inhibitor idelalisib produced a high response rate, with responses persisting for 1 year in the average patient, according to...
Idelalisib Plus Rituximab in Heavily Pretreated Relapsed CLL: ‘Dawn of a New Age’?
Idelalisib plus rituximab (Rituxan) improved progression-free survival, overall response rates, and overall survival compared with rituximab alone in heavily pretreated patients with relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Moreover, the combination provided effective, durable disease control...
Novel Therapies May Help Wipe Out Residual Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Minimal residual disease after induction and consolidation for the treatment of acute leukemia might be eradicated by novel therapies, thus obviating the need for stem cell transplantation. That is the prediction of Matthew J. Wieduwilt, MD, PhD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the...
Transition From Busy Oncologist to Retiree: Challenges and Opportunities
Oncology is a demanding field that requires special qualities to care for very sick patients, many of whom will die prematurely of their disease. Research indicates that years of facing life-and-death decisions in the clinic can be associated with oncology burnout syndrome, which effects physician...
Have You Heard?
“It’s not a matter of if a child will be seriously poisoned or killed. It’s a matter of when.” Lee Cantrell, PharmD, Director of the San Diego Division of the California Poison Control System and Professor of Clinical Pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco, commenting on the...
MD Anderson Honors Two Champions for Women in Medicine and Research
Two champions of gender equality in medicine and research were recently honored by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Laurie Glimcher, MD, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College and Provost for Medical Affairs of Cornell University since 2012, received...
Two Behavioral Interventions Help Cancer Patients Struggling With Sleep Issues, Penn Medicine Study Finds
Patients with cancer who are struggling with sleep troubles, due in part to pain or side effects of treatment, can count on two behavioral interventions for relief—cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia and mindfulness-based stress reduction—Penn Medicine researchers reported in a recent study...
The FDA’s Bad Ad Program
INSIDE THE BLACK BOX is an occasional column providing insight into the FDA and its policies and procedures. In this installment, Robert Dean, MBA, Director, and Michael Sauers, Deputy Director, of Division II in the FDA’s Office of Prescription Drug Promotion discuss the FDA’s Bad Ad program. The...
The CoMMpass Trial in Multiple Myeloma
When I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2008, at just 47, I was lucky. I was asymptomatic, my cancer was detected through a routine blood test, and I had the smoldering type, so I didn’t need immediate treatment. Plus, I knew that recent advances in more effective therapies were making it...
Unraveling the Molecular Complexity of Multiple Myeloma
In 2011, the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) announced the launch of CoMMpass (Relating Clinical Outcomes in Multiple Myeloma to Personal Assessment of Genetic Profile), a clinical study at the heart of its Personalized Medicine Initiative. CoMMpass will follow 1,000 newly diagnosed...
Does ‘Specialist Bias’ Contribute to Overtreatment of Prostate Cancer?
Specialist bias, in which specialists recommend the therapy that they are capable of delivering, is thought to influence the treatment of patients with localized prostate cancer and to contribute to overtreatment of men with limited life expectancy,” Ayal A. Aizer, MD, MPH, and colleagues, from the ...
Decision Time for Lung Cancer Screening in High‑Risk Populations
For decades, dedicated members of the oncology community have fought to increase the nation’s focus on lung cancer prevention and treatment. Although smoking cessation initiatives have reduced cigarette consumption, lung cancer 5-year survival has remained stagnant at 15%, lagging far below most...
Informed Consent: Not Just About Blood Tests and Procedures Anymore
On February 24, the Institute of Medicine National Cancer Policy Forum convened a workshop, “Contemporary Issues in Human Subjects Protection in Cancer Research,” in Washington, DC. In his introduction to the workshop, Steven Piantadosi, MD, PhD, Director, Samuel Oschin Cancer Institute,...
ASCO Signs Joint Open Letter to End Tobacco Sales
ASCO has joined 26 of the nation’s leading public health and medical organizations in signing a joint letter calling on drug stores and other retailers to end the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products. The open letter came just weeks after CVS Caremark announced it would stop selling...
Raj Mantena, RPh, Makes $1 Million Donation to Conquer Cancer Foundation to Help Build the Future of Cancer Care
It is a challenge faced time and time again by oncologists: how to achieve the best possible outcomes for patients while simultaneously controlling costs, providing care that is both high quality and high value. Raj Mantena, RPh, the first individual to donate $1 million dollars to the Conquer...
Cancer Research Funding Still Tight—and Getting Tighter
Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), CEO of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), welcomed about 150 congressional staffers to a March briefing in Washington, DC, with a plea for increased federal funding. “Extraordinary progress is being made in cancer research today, as evidenced by the...
Individualized Care Key to Cancer Pain Management at Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
Learning about the particulars of each cancer patient’s pain and treating each case uniquely is the key to keeping pain manageable. That is the goal of the Duffey Pain and Palliative Care Program at The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center in Baltimore. The team consists of physicians, nurse...
Electronic Cigarette Use and Smoking Among Adolescents
Use of e-cigarettes does not discourage, and may encourage, conventional cigarette use among U.S. adolescents.” This was the conclusion of a cross-sectional analysis of survey data from a representative sample of middle and high school students who completed the National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) ...
Thyroid Cancer On the Rise: Is It Clinically Meaningful?
According to data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program, rates for new cases of thyroid cancer in the United States have been rising on average 6.4% each year over the past 10 years, and death rates have been rising on average 0.9% each year over the same period. The...
Overcoming Physician Bias in Recommending Palliative Care
In 2010, Jennifer S. Temel, MD, published her landmark study in The New England Journal of Medicine showing that the introduction of palliative care early after a diagnosis of metastatic non–small cell lung cancer, along with cancer therapy, not only provided patients with a better quality of life...
Detecting Accelerated Aging in Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancer
Last fall, Kirsten K. Ness, PhD, published her study1 on the prevalence of frailty as a sign of accelerated aging in adult survivors of childhood cancer, and the results are startling. Among the 1,922 participants in the study, the prevalence of prefrailty was 31.5% among women and 12.9% among men; ...
Complications Other Than Incontinence or Erectile Dysfunction After Prostatectomy or Radiotherapy for Prostate Cancer
Studies of complications of surgery or radiotherapy for prostate cancer generally focus on incontinence and erectile dysfunction. In a population-based cohort study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Robert Nam, MD, MSc, FRCS(C), Professor of Surgery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of...
The Canadian National Breast Screening Trial Had So Many Flaws That Its Results Should Not Be Used to Guide Screening Recommendations
If a randomized, controlled trial of therapy for breast cancer was submitted for publication in which 1. The drug being tested was old and ineffective, and 2. prior to randomization, the women underwent a clinical breast examination and the study coordinators knew who had the largest cancers, and...
Flaws in CNBSS Are Vast, Impact on Screening Recommendations Is Nil
The recent report from the Canadian National Breast Screening Study (CNBSS)—published in BMJ and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post—concluded that annual mammography in women aged 40 to 59 does not result in a reduction in mortality from breast cancer beyond that of physical examination alone...
‘Double-Hit’ Lymphomas a Challenge for the Oncologist
"Double-hit” lymphomas remain challenging tumors, and the best means of treatment remains somewhat elusive, according to studies presented at the 2013 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting in New Orleans, and experts who commented on these findings. “We still don’t have a standard of...
Better Options Emerging for Salvage Therapy in Hodgkin Lymphoma
Emerging effective treatment options for salvage therapy in Hodgkin lymphoma were described by Anas Younes, MD, Chief of the Lymphoma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, at the 2014 Highlights of ASH in North America meeting in Miami. “This is an exciting time in Hodgkin...
Bladder Cancer Patient With Rare Genetic Mutations Shows Exceptional Response to Everolimus/Pazopanib Combination
A patient with advanced bladder cancer experienced a complete response for 14 months to the drug combination everolimus (Afinitor) and pazopanib (Votrient) in a phase I trial, and genomic profiling of his tumor revealed two alterations that may have caused this exceptional response, according to a...
Enhance Your ASCO Annual Meeting Experience With Attendee Resources
At the end of the month, more than 25,000 oncology professionals from around the world will meet in Chicago for the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting. Will you be joining this global community? As you’re beginning to consider what to pack for your trip, keep in mind that you have a host of electronic...
Preliminary Study Suggests Veliparib May Be Effective in Resistant, BRCA-Mutated Ovarian Cancers
Veliparib, an oral poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor, appears to be of value in treating women with BRCA-mutated gynecologic cancers that are resistant to other therapies. These preliminary findings of a phase II study support the concept that BRCA-associated ovarian cancers are...
Patients With Thin Melanoma Benefit From Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy
Sentinel node status is “the most powerful predictor” of melanoma-specific survival in patients with thin melanoma, according to a presentation at the 2014 Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) Cancer Symposium in Phoenix.1 As a result, sentinel lymph node biopsy should be considered in patients with...
SIDEBAR: Statement From ASH President Linda J. Burns, MD, on Release of Medicare Physician Payment Data
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released a large and complex set of data about the number and type of health-care services that individual physicians and certain other health-care professionals delivered in 2012, and the amount Medicare paid them for those services. The data,...
Collaborative Exchange: Indications and Dosing
Indications and Dosing of Methotrexate and 5-FU Dr. Campen: The interesting thing about methotrexate is that it has been used for such a long time. You would think there would be a specific dose that would be considered “high dose,” but high dose is actually quite variable. [Dosage] depends on the...
CE Activity Instructions
CE is available on May 1, 2014 and expires on May 1, 2015. A continuing education activity for physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, and other allied health professionals specializing in the field of oncology. This activity is supported by an unrestricted...
Can Empathy Really Be Taught?
In an op-ed article in The New York Times (February 27, 2014) about the challenges of designing training courses to help physicians communicate more effectively with patients about important topics such as end-of-life care, Timothy D. Gilligan, MD, and Mikkael A. Sekeres, MD, of the Cleveland...
Don’t Always Expect Questions From Patients About Prognosis
Although most patients want to know about the potential outcome of their disease and whether treatment is likely to have a significant impact on it, the information needs of patients and how best to fulfill those needs are very variable, Walter F. Baile, MD, told The ASCO Post. Dr. Baile is...
