“These results are interesting, important, and relevant for maintenance post chemotherapy, but if we are not using chemotherapy, they may not be relevant,” said Richard Furman, MD, of Weill Cornell Medical College, New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York. He said that newer drugs such as...
While momentum around immunotherapies for cancer continues to build, the high cost of these therapies places them at the center of debate about how best to define and measure value in cancer care. As these therapies are increasingly integrated into practice, all stakeholders—providers,...
In an article published by Siegel et al in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, researchers assert that exposure to medical radiation does not increase a person’s risk of getting cancer. The long-held belief that even low doses of radiation, such as those received in diagnostic imaging, increase...
As some national guidelines now recommend against routine prostate cancer screening, the overall rate of men receiving treatment for the disease declined 42% between 2007 and 2012, a new study published by Borza et al in Health Affairs found. The decline reflects efforts to decrease overdiagnosis...
Out-of-pocket expenditures are thought to be a significant barrier to receiving cancer preventive services, especially for individuals of lower socioeconomic status. A new study published by Cooper et al in Cancer looked at how the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which eliminated such out-of-pocket...
In a prospective longitudinal study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Janelsins et al found that nearly half of women with breast cancer reported a clinically significant decline in cognitive function from before to after chemotherapy, compared with only 10% of age-matched noncancer...
As more cost pressures are placed on the health-care system, and the transition to value-based care gains momentum, the Association of Community Cancer Centers’ (ACCC) 7th annual Trends in Cancer Programs survey revealed critical challenges and emerging trends in U.S. cancer programs. The...
New research from the University of Wisconsin (UW) Carbone Cancer Center has clarified the mechanisms involved in a common growth pathway implicated in many solid tumor types and could lead to better outcomes for patients with head and neck, lung, and triple-negative breast cancer,...
Mutations that have been linked to endometrial cancer can be found in the uterine lavage fluid of pre- and postmenopausal women both with and without detectable cancer, according to a study published by Nair et al in PLOS Medicine. “Today, there are no effective screening methods for...
In a new study published by Jagsi et al in JAMA Surgery, nearly half of patients with early-stage breast cancer considered having double mastectomy, and one in six received it—including many who were at low risk of developing a second breast cancer. Many patients who chose double...
One of the main reasons cancer remains difficult to treat is that cancer cells have developed a multitude of mechanisms that allow them to evade destruction by the immune system. One of these escape mechanisms involves a type of immune cell called myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs). A recent...
Twenty-five years ago, I was a physically fit woman of 45 in training to run a marathon, which had been a lifelong goal. I was feeling fine and had no hint of the illness that would nearly take my life and has forever changed it. While ramping up to go the 26.2-mile distance, I decided to have a...
An analysis of data from nearly 6 million screening mammograms found no evidence for a clear cutoff age to stop breast cancer screening. Screening mammography among women aged 75 years was associated with higher cancer detection and lower recall rates than among younger women in the study. These...
One of the featured “Big Debates” at the 2016 World Cancer Congress in Paris addressed this question: Are scarce resources best applied to prevention rather than treatment? Many experts do not see prevention vs treatment in such stark terms or even as a realistic scenario. It’s a false dichotomy,...
The following five abstracts were chosen as the best submitted studies presented at this year’s International Conference of the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO). They represent a diverse group of integrative therapies and interventions in the care of patients with cancer, including an...
Press conference moderator Carlos L. Arteaga, MD, said: “This drug is not necessarily the same as palbociclib [Ibrance] or ribociclib. There are subtle differences among these three [cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6] inhibitors. The tissue analysis provides us with an enormous opportunity to...
Researchers working on whole-exome and transciptome sequencing of endocrine-resistant estrogen receptor–positive metastatic breast cancer have shown that the mutational landscape differs from that of estrogen receptor–positive primary breast cancer, and these differences have the potential to...
How can the results of this trial be applied to clinical practice? Press conference moderator, Virginia Kaklamani, MD, of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, said: “The landscape has changed. Now we treat postmenopausal hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative metastatic...
The addition of everolimus (Afinitor) to fulvestrant (Faslodex) doubled progression-free survival in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer resistant to aromatase inhibitor therapy compared with fulvestrant plus placebo, according to the...
On Tuesday, December 13, President Obama signed into law the 21st Century Cures Act, landmark legislation designed to improve and accelerate the pace of biomedical research in the United States. ASCO Chief Executive Officer Clifford Hudis, MD, FACP, FASCO, attended the White House signing ceremony ...
On December 21, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allowed marketing of a new tissue-expander system for soft-tissue expansion in two-stage breast reconstruction following mastectomy and in the treatment of underdeveloped breasts and soft-tissue deformities. A patient uses a dose...
“This study shows that a great deal of innovation can come from existing knowledge. The 7+3 regimen has been around since I was an intern,” admitted Armand Keating, MD, of the University of Toronto and Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. “Using the liposomal formulation of...
The following essay by Jeremy K. Hon, MD, is adapted from The Big Casino: America’s Best Cancer Doctors Share Their Most Powerful Stories, which was coedited by Stan Winokur, MD, and Vincent Coppola and published in May 2014. The book is available on Amazon.com and thebigcasino.org. As physicians, ...
Despite the fact that 28 states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws to permit the use of cannabis and cannabinoid-based drugs to treat medical conditions, including cancer and symptoms from its treatment, federal law prohibits physicians from prescribing marijuana to their patients,...
W.K. Alfred Yung, MD, has wanted a career in medicine since he was a high-school student and has spent nearly 4 decades fulfilling that dream, specifically in the research and treatment of one of the deadliest cancers, malignant brain tumor, especially glioblastoma multiforme, the most common...
In a study reported in Nature Genetics, Bishoy M. Faltas, MD, of Weill Cornell Medicine, and colleagues identified factors in the clonal evolution of chemotherapy-resistant urothelial carcinoma.1 As stated by the investigators: “Chemotherapy-resistant urothelial carcinoma has no uniformly curative...
The results of every Presidential election offer both challenges and opportunities for ASCO’s advocacy efforts. ASCO’s mission is to help practices and patients with cancer thrive—in every setting and in every community. Through each administration and Congress, the Society works closely with...
There has been no better time than the present for women in the field of oncology: Women at all stages of their careers are finding more opportunities and avenues to excel. At the time of the last ASCO workforce survey, women made up 28.4% of the oncologist workforce, and that proportion is rising...
The importance of achieving complete response after intensive therapy in older adults with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) was confirmed in a follow-up analysis of the E2906 North American Intergroup trial.1 Patients in complete response had superior survival in this landmark analysis. This finding...
The diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer have long been a source of controversy among the oncology community, the political sector, and patient advocacy groups. Most notably, the decision to biopsy a man’s prostate gland rests largely on his prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test numbers, the...
Michael Gnant, MD, Professor of Surgery at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria and President of the Austrian Breast & Colorectal Cancer Study Group, was the invited discussant of the three studies of extended endocrine therapy. “The trials did not reach the necessary statistical levels ...
A routine blood test may predict how long patients with cancer in palliative care will survive, researchers reported at the ESMO Asia 2016 Congress in Singapore. “Cancer patients in palliative care want honest and accurate prognostic information but this information needs to be shared...
A brain-boosting protein plays an important role in how well people respond to chemotherapy, researchers reported at the ESMO Asia 2016 Congress in Singapore. A study (Abstract 497O_PR) found that patients with cancer suffering from depression have decreased amounts of brain-derived neurotrophic...
Studies suggest that approximately 30% to 40% of women with breast cancer report persistent hot flashes. Nocturnal hot flashes are among the most problematic because they can contribute to poor sleep. A new study published by Garland et al in Menopause shows that electroacupuncture may be effective ...
Integrating palliative care into the treatment of patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for cancers like leukemia and lymphoma can improve their quality of life, relieve symptoms associated with the procedure, and reduce depression and anxiety, not only during the 3- to 4-week ...
The artificial-intelligence platform Watson for Oncology (WFO) achieved a high degree of concordance with the recommendations of a panel of oncologists in a double-blinded validation study, according to results presented at the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held December 6 to 10...
Reports of rare, but in some cases fatal, cardiac complications when the checkpoint inhibitors ipilimumab (Yervoy) and nivolumab (Opdivo) are used in combination should be taken seriously but should not scare patients away from potentially life-saving drugs, according to Javid J. Moslehi, MD. Dr....
Cardiovascular toxicities associated with cancer treatments are not new. What is new, and what has prompted recent articles in The New England Journal of Medicine,1,2 is the explosion of cancer therapies, which has dramatically changed the natural course of many cancers but can lead to cardiac,...
Among women enrolled in the International Breast Cancer Intervention Study I (IBIS-I), those who had certain symptoms of menopause—nausea/vomiting and headaches—were significantly less likely to be adherent to the assigned medication 4.5 years after starting the treatment, according to...
A few years ago, I had the good fortune to join a research team that intended to create a device to help dying children express their wants and needs despite communication challenges. The brain tumor team at SickKids [also known as The Hospital for Sick Children] had cared for several children...
In its November 2016 issue, the Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP) has published a special series that represents the results of a unique project launched in 2014 by ASCO and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to heighten awareness of ways to enhance team-based care in oncology. Concerns about...
In recognition of wide-ranging contributions to the fields of cancer prevention; patient care; and basic, translational, and clinical research, seven faculty members from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of...
People living with serious illness who receive palliative care have better quality of life and fewer symptoms than those who don’t receive palliative care, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Published by Dio Kavalieratos, PhD, Assistant...
Among the most widely attended sessions at the 2016 Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium in September was the keynote lecture, “Wit, Hex, Vin, Life, Death: Using Wit as a Teaching Tool,” given by Margaret Edson, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning play Wit. Wit tells the story of an accomplished ...
On March 10, 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted regular approval to dinutuximab (formerly known as chimeric 14.18 antibody; Unituxin) for use in combination with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interleukin-2 (IL-2), and 13-cis-retinoic acid...
GUEST EDITORAdolescent and Young Adult Oncology explores the unique physical, psychosocial, social, emotional, sexual, and financial challenges adolescents and young adults with cancer face. The column is guest edited by Brandon M. Hayes-Lattin, MD, FACP, Associate Professor of Medicine and...
In 2015, Janet Riddle, MD, and her colleagues published an article1 outlining 12 key themes for delineating how fellowship programs in medical education should be developed (See “12 Tips for Developing Successful Fellowship Programs for Medical Educators,” below.) The ASCO Post talked with Dr....
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) has announced it has committed $40.3 million in new research investments to advance the most promising blood cancer science at leading academic and medical centers around the world, including Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Weill Cornell Medicine; Memorial...
GUEST EDITOR Physiatry in Oncology explores the benefits of cancer rehabilitation in oncology practice to screen survivors for physical and cognitive impairments along the care continuum to minimize survivors’ disability and maximize their quality of life. The column is guest edited by Sean Smith, ...
William Sellers, MD, a widely respected cancer researcher with extensive experience in cancer genomics and therapeutic discovery, is returning to the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Harvard Medical School (HMS) as a...