Search Results
Your search for ,ouT matches 5632 pages
Showing 5201 - 5250Positioning Targeted and Immunotherapy-Based Approaches in Lung Cancer
With immunotherapy changing the face of lung cancer, is there still a place for targeted therapy? Two experts from Emory University debated this issue at the 2015 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology Conference held in Sea Island, Georgia. Fadlo Khuri, MD, was recently named President...
Charting a New Course: From Clinical Investigator to University President
What first intrigued Fadlo R. Khuri, MD, FACP, about the prospect of becoming the 16th President of the American University of Beirut (AUB) in Lebanon was the chance to give back to an institution and a country that had given him so much. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1963, Dr. Khuri was raised ...
Our Patients Are the True Heroes of Cancer Research
A few weeks ago, I read an op-ed1 in The New York Times written by Stan Collender, a patient with Merkel cell carcinoma, a rare and aggressive type of skin cancer. In his article, he described his participation in a clinical trial for a new drug he is hoping will stem progression of his cancer and...
Patient Guides Available Through ASCO University Bookstore
ASCO Answers: Managing the Cost of Cancer Care explains the various costs associated with cancer treatment, including health-care coverage through the Affordable Care Act. It also provides a list of financial resources available to help offset expenses related to care and tips for organizing...
My Positive Attitude Is Keeping Me Alive
Until I was diagnosed with stage III renal cell carcinoma in early 2008, I had no firsthand experience with cancer. To my knowledge, there is no history of cancer in my immediate family, and despite a smoking habit I picked up when I was young, I had been in relatively good health in the 56 years...
Let It Be Hard
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the “Art of Oncology” as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO). These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
Internationally Acclaimed Cancer Researcher, Gianni Bonadonna, MD, Dies at 81
Gianni Bonadonna, MD, was considered the “Father of Italian Oncology,” but his scientific contributions to the field and his generous collegial spirit extended far beyond the shores of his native land. Dr. Bonadonna was at the forefront in the battle to convince the surgical establishment that...
In Search of a Good Ending for a Life Well Lived
BOOKMARK Title: The Conversation: A Revolutionary Plan for End-of-life CareAuthor: Angelo E. Volandes, MDPublisher: BloomsburyPublication date: January 13, 2015Price: $26.00; hardcover, 240 pages A quick Google search on books about end-of-life care will yield pages of hits on the subject. The...
An Unvarnished, Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Hospital Nurse
BOOKMARK Title: The Nurses: A Year of Secrets, Drama, and Miracles With the Heroes of the HospitalAuthor: Alexandra RobbinsPublisher: Workman Publishing CompanyPublication date: April 14, 20155Price: $17.53; hardcover, 368 pages Florence Nightingale, the most famous and influential figure in...
Microbes by the Trillions
BOOKMARK Title: 10% Human: How Your Body’s Microbes Hold the Key to Health and HappinessAuthor: Alanna CollenPublisher: Harper CollinsPublication date: April 27, 2015Price: $39.99; hardcover, 400 pages "As I walked back through the forest that night in the summer of 2005, with twenty bats in...
Updated Analysis of Menopausal Hormone Therapy and Breast Cancer Risk
As reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Chlebowski and colleagues1 reported differing patterns of breast cancer risk during or after hormonal therapy with estrogen plus progestin2 or estrogen alone,3 in an analysis of two Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) trials. This recent update on risk...
NCI Awards Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of New Mexico Cancer Center Comprehensive Cancer Center Designations
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) recently awarded Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah and The UNM Cancer Center (UNMCC) at the University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center status. An NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center must demonstrate depth and breadth of...
Conquer Cancer Foundation Donor Spotlight: Fibrolamellar Cancer Foundation
When Tucker Davis was diagnosed with fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma (FL-HCC) in 2008, there was very little information about this very rare cancer and, as Tucker would soon discover, even fewer treatment options available. An annoying cough and sharp pain radiating down his back leg...
One Doctor’s Road to Palliative Care Services in the Inner City
St. Barnabas Hospital is located in the heart of Bronx, New York, and as such, it has a culturally diverse, largely poor, patient population. The backbone of successful palliative care services is the doctor-patient communication bonding process. However, many of the patients with late-stage cancer ...
For Big Data Projects, Bigger Is Better
In an interview with The ASCO Post, Robert S. Miller, MD, FACP, Senior Director, Quality and Guidelines, ASCO, and Medical Director, CancerLinQ™, described how the system could work with data specific to radiation oncology. “The system is in the rapid build phase now, what we are calling the...
Radiation Oncology Looks to Collaboration for Big Data Systems
Radiation oncologists dream of a day when, faced with a new patient sitting in their office, they can quickly consult a computer database offering specific treatment recommendations based on accurate, freshly updated data from millions of previously treated patients with cancer. To hasten that day, ...
HPV-Positive Head and Neck Cancer: When Can Chemotherapy Be Omitted?
Are there patients with locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) for whom chemotherapy can be omitted? Experts debated this question at the 2015 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology Conference in Sea Island, Georgia,...
Mantle Cell Lymphoma: Is Transplantation Still Necessary?
Autologous stem cell transplantation has played a critical role in the treatment of mantle cell lymphoma, but in the age of novel treatments, is it always warranted? Two experts in the field explored the question at the 2015 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology Conference sponsored by...
About the Summit
The research summit was part of the ASCO Obesity Initiative, which sought to increase awareness of the links between obesity and cancer and to foster research in this area that evaluated the impact of weight loss and increased activity on cancer outcomes. There have been hundreds of observational...
Double-Hit Lymphoma: Many Treatment Strategies, No Standard of Care
"Double-hit lymphoma” represents a challenging malignancy without a standard-of-care treatment, although outcomes for some patients are better than was once believed, according to Jonathon B. Cohen, MD, Assistant Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University, Atlanta. Dr. Cohen...
Making Their Voices Heard: 118 Oncologists Speak Out About Stemming the High Cost of Cancer Drugs
In a bold move to shed light on the ramifications of the ever-increasing cost of cancer drugs for patients with cancer and for the health-care system, 118 prominent oncologists came together to write a commentary in Mayo Clinic Proceedings detailing their concerns.1 To learn more about these...
Expert Point of View: Glenwood Goss, MD, FRCPC, FCPSA
Glenwood Goss, MD, FRCPC, FCPSA, Professor of Medicine and Director of Clinical and Translational Research at the Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre and University of Ottawa, Canada, formally discussed the findings. He noted that this combination in advanced melanoma showed “limited progression-free...
Thomas A. Stamey, MD, Noted Urologist and Prostate Cancer Expert, Dies at 87
Thomas A. Stamey, MD, Professor Emeritus of Urology at the Stanford University School of Medicine and a leader in the study and treatment of prostate cancer, died of Alzheimer’s disease September 4. He was 87. A True Pioneer in the Field Dr. Stamey helped lay the groundwork for the...
Decreased Mortality in Men With Unfavorable-Risk Prostate Cancer and Moderate or Severe Comorbidities Treated With Radiotherapy Alone
Men with unfavorable-risk prostate cancer and moderate or severe comorbidities had significantly decreased overall and cardiac mortality when treated with radiotherapy alone vs radiotherapy and androgen-deprivation therapy, according to a study described in a research letter in The Journal of the...
Diagnosis of Additional Small Cancers Suggests Screening Mammography Leads to Overdiagnosis
A study of screening mammography across U.S. counties found that “the clearest result of mammography screening is the diagnosis of additional small cancers” but without a “concomitant decline in the detection of larger cancers, which might explain the absence of any significant difference in the...
A Practical Guide to Surviving Breast Cancer and Its Treatments
BOOKMARK Title: Bald Is Better With Earrings: A Survivor’s Guide to Getting Through Breast CancerAuthor: Andrea HuttonPublisher: Harper CollinsPublication date: July 7, 2015Price: $17.99; paperback, 224 pages There are a plethora of books written by breast cancer survivors, and there are sure to...
Expect Questions About Treatment for Ductal Carcinoma in Situ
The recent study findings that women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ had a low breast cancer–specific mortality and that preventing ipsilateral recurrences did not prevent breast cancer mortality1 might lead some women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ to question the need for...
Varied Reactions to Study Finding That Preventing Ipsilateral Recurrence Did Not Prevent Death From Breast Cancer
Women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ have a low risk of dying of breast cancer, according to an observational study looking at data from 108,196 women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ between 1988 and 2011.1 The breast cancer–specific mortality rate for these women was 1.1% at 10...
A Cancer Care Model for Rural Areas
Rural cancer patients have long had to adjust to difficult geographic and financial barriers to access high-quality cancer care. These problems are exacerbated by today’s fiscal challenges, which have disrupted many of the small community practices that once served rural communities. In 2006, the...
The Need for a Multidisciplinary Approach to Combating Cancer-Related Pain
The statistics are staggering. Despite the development of novel analgesics and the increasing awareness of the importance of adequately controlling pain from cancer or its treatment, up to 50% of patients undergoing treatment and between 70% and 90% of patients with advanced disease experience some ...
ASCO Asks CMS to Revisit Its Payment Policy to Support Optimal Cancer Care
ASCO has called on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to reconsider revisions to payment policies that could be administratively burdensome to oncology practices and result in reimbursement that inadequately supports optimal cancer patient care. In a comment letter to CMS on...
Older Patients With Cancer: A Growing Population in Need of Evidence-Based Care
The 2013 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report Delivering High Quality Cancer Care: Charting a New Course for a System in Crisis1 identified the dearth of evidence on older adults as a major quality-of-care issue. The U.S. population is aging at a rapid rate, and cancer is a disease that primarily...
Male Breast Cancer: An Understudied Disease and Clinical Challenge
Male breast cancer is an uncommon disease, although the incidence has increased over the past couple of decades. As with many other “orphan” diseases, male breast cancer is understudied, especially in randomized controlled trials. Although it shares similarities with female breast cancer, some...
Bridging the Gap Between Pediatric and Adult Oncology Care
According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), about 70,000 adolescents and young adults—defined by the NCI as those in the 15- to 39-year-old range—are diagnosed with cancer each year in the United States, about six times the number of cases diagnosed in children aged 0 to 14.1 And, although...
Expert Point of View: Solange Peters, MD, PhD
Solange Peters, MD, PhD, of the Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland, put these updates in context of what is known about programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) antibodies in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), concluding that nivolumab (Opdivo) is “one of the best options” for...
Lung Cancer Rates Doubling Among Nonsmokers
Lung cancer is becoming an equal-opportunity malignancy—with rates rising among never-smokers, especially females, according to studies presented at the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Denver. British investigators reported that in one large tertiary medical center, the proportion of...
Ductal Carcinoma in Situ: Where We Have Been and Where We Can Be
Ductal carcinoma in situ has been a recent topic of debate in the news because of a recent article by Narod et al1 and an accompanying editorial2 about the study in JAMA Oncology. This study, summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post, chronicled the long-term outcomes for women diagnosed with...
NCCN Turns 20: Value-Based Care Has Arrived
Twenty years ago, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) began as a cooperative effort of 12 prestigious cancer centers, working to define and promote national guidelines for the care of patients with cancer. A major goal was to encourage uniformity in the management of malignant...
Noted Integrative Oncology Specialist Mitchell L. Gaynor, MD, Dies at 59
Integrative oncology had a long road to acceptance by the mainstream medical community; the field is now widely accepted for its healthful benefits, especially in assuaging the more troublesome side effects of cancer treatments. Many well-known oncologists have adapted integrative oncology into...
Patient Characteristics Differ in Some Clinical Trials From Real-World Population
Patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors in real-world clinical practice tend to be older and sicker than the patients enrolled in pivotal clinical trials of these agents. In addition, patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with the mTOR...
Important Caveats to Consider Concerning Low-Dose Daily Aspirin for the Primary Prevention of Colorectal Cancer
The use of low-dose aspirin by most adults aged 50 to 59 for the primary prevention of colorectal cancer is now included in the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) updated draft recommendation statement, “Aspirin to Prevent Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer.”1 The release of the statement...
Patient Guides Available Through ASCO University Bookstore
ASCO Answers: Managing the Cost of Cancer Care explains the various costs associated with cancer treatment, including health-care coverage through the Affordable Care Act. It also provides a list of financial resources available to help offset expenses related to care and tips for organizing...
The Race of My Life
I've lived my adult life by three guiding principles I learned as an adventure racer: to set goals, to determine how to achieve them, and to persevere in the face of adversity. Those standards helped me complete more than 70 marathons and 7 Ironman competitions, and they helped me conquer breast...
A Snapshot of Early Immunotherapy
Over the past several years, immunotherapy has had a renaissance of sorts, emerging as one of the most active areas in cancer research. For instance, we have seen the therapeutic promise of disrupting the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and its ligand (PD-L1) immune checkpoints in cancer,...
Early Research of David G. Nathan, MD, Ushered in the Field of Pediatric Hematology
When David G. Nathan, MD, was admitted to Harvard University in 1947, he had every intention of becoming an English professor. It was only his lack of writing talent that dissuaded him from a life in the classroom and propelled him into a medical career that has spanned more than 5 decades and has...
Confessions of a Neurosurgeon
BookmarkTitle: Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain SurgeryAuthor: Henry Marsh, CBE, FRCSPublisher: Thomas Dunne BooksPublication date: May 26, 2015Price: $25.99, hardcover; 288 pages “I often have to cut into the brain and it is something I hate doing. With a pair of diathermy forceps I ...
A Neurologist’s Life: Oliver Sacks, MD
BookmarkTitle: On the Move: A LifeAuthor: Oliver Sacks, MDPublisher: Alfred A. KnopfPublication date: April 28, 2015Price: $27.95, hardcover; 416 pages Our ability to detect cancer has grown markedly over the past several decades, with the advent of more sensitive screening methods, new...
Pain, Still Undertreated and Misunderstood
Bookmark Title: A Nation in Pain: Healing Our Biggest Health ProblemAuthor: Judy ForemanPublisher: Oxford University PressPublication date: May 1, 2015Price: $19.95, paperback; 464 pages The subject of pain has been written about extensively, from the intriguing sociopolitical history of opium to...
Glimpses of the Human Condition Through Lively, Medically Themed Short Stories
BookmarkTitle: A View From the Inside: A Collection of Medically Oriented Short StoriesAuthor: Augustine L. Perrotta, DOPublisher: Keith Publications, LLCPublication date: March 31, 2015Price: $14.95, paperback; 246 pages The field of medicine, ripe with dramatic tension, offers an endless array...
California Agency Invests $20 Million in Clinical Trial for Glioblastoma Vaccine
California’s Stem Cell Agency (CIRM) has awarded $19.9 million to ImmunoCellular Therapeutics to carry out a phase III clinical trial in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma using an immunotherapeutic vaccine. “This kind of deadly disease is precisely why we created CIRM 2.0, our new...
