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Showing 5551 - 5600Clinical Cancer Advances 2020: ASCO Names Advance of the Year, Issues Research Priorities for the Cancer Community
In the release of its annual report on progress against cancer, Clinical Cancer Advances 2020, ASCO recognized progress in the refinement of the surgical treatment of cancer as the Advance of the Year. In particular, the emergence of novel systemic therapies—combined in new and better ways—has...
ASCO Guideline Addresses Surveillance of Lung Cancer After Curative-Intent Therapy
ASCO has released a new guideline providing recommendations to practicing clinicians on radiographic imaging and biomarker surveillance strategies after definitive, curative-intent therapy in patients with stage I to III non–small cell lung cancer or small cell lung cancer. These guideline...
World Cancer Day 2020: 20th Anniversary of the Global Initiative
Today’s World Cancer Day, led by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), aims to mobilize urgent action from individuals, governments, and the global cancer community to close gaps in cancer risk awareness between higher and lower socioeconomic groups and the subsequent impact on their...
CAR T-Cell Gene Therapy in Non-Hodgkin Lymphomas: Present and Future
To complement The ASCO Post’s continued comprehensive coverage of the 2019 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are several abstracts selected from the meeting proceedings focusing on novel immunotherapies for patients with different types of non-Hodgkin...
AMA Foundation Launches New Initiative to Address LGBTQ Health Disparities
The American Medical Association Foundation (AMAF) recently announced a new initiative to create a cadre of LGBTQ health specialists through the AMA Foundation LGBTQ Fellowship Program—a national fellowship program to promote best practices and shared outcomes, while improving the quality of LGBTQ ...
Addition of Secondary Surgical Cytoreduction to Chemotherapy in Recurrent Platinum-Sensitive Ovarian Cancer
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Robert L. Coleman, MD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues, the phase III trial Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG)-0213 trial has shown no overall survival benefit with secondary surgical cytoreduction followed by chemotherapy with or...
Real-World Use of Palbociclib and Abemaciclib Explored in Two Studies Based on Electronic Health Records Database
Cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and 6 (CDK4/6) inhibitors are changing the landscape of the treatment of hormone receptor (HR)-positive/HER2-negative breast cancer. Three CDK4/6 inhibitors are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration—ribociclib, palbociclib, and abemaciclib—as first- or...
ASCO’s Inaugural Breakthrough Global Summit Showcased Evolving Technologies Poised to Revolutionize Cancer Care
Unlike ASCO’s Annual Meeting, symposia, and conferences, which highlight the current scientific advances in specific cancers and how they are improving cancer outcomes for the more than 18.1 million people worldwide diagnosed with cancer each year,1 ASCO Breakthrough: A Global Summit for Oncology...
Patient Aid Improved Lung Cancer Screening Informed Decision-Making
In the first comparative clinical trial of lung cancer screening decision aid vs standard educational information, researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center showed that a decision aid delivered through tobacco quitlines effectively reaches a screening-eligible population...
Expert Point of View: Joshua Brody, MD
Joshua Brody, MD, Director of the Lymphoma Immunotherapy Program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, commented on where zanubrutinib might fit in once the drug is approved. “The two abstracts presented at ASH 2019 …demonstrated remarkably high response rates, durations of...
Novel Guideline Addresses the Clinical Utility of Molecular Biomarkers in Localized Prostate Cancer
In men, prostate cancer has the highest incidence of any neoplasm and is the second-leading cause of cancer-related mortality. A plethora of tissue-based biomarkers are available to inform the diagnosis and prognosis for men with newly diagnosed, clinically localized prostate cancer. However, to...
Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy and Cancer-Related Psychiatric Distress
In a study published by Agin-Liebes et al in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, researchers found that psychotherapy involving psilocybin—the active ingredient in “magic” or “psychedelic” mushrooms—may aid in long-term relief from cancer-related psychiatric distress. Study Background and Design An ...
Immunotherapy Combination in Previously Treated Advanced Sarcoma
In a single-institution phase II study reported in JAMA Oncology, Kelly et al found that the combination of talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) and pembrolizumab produced durable responses in patients with previously treated advanced sarcoma. As noted by the investigators, T-VEC has been found to...
When Added to Other Systemic Therapies, Capecitabine Improves Outcomes in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
Capecitabine is often used to treat breast cancer, but the best use of capecitabine is open for discussion. According to a large meta-analysis of the effects of capecitabine in early breast cancer, capecitabine improves disease-free and overall survival for patients with triple-negative breast...
Brian M. Wolpin, MD, on Performance of a Blood-Based Test for the Detection of Multiple Cancers
Brian M. Wolpin, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses a noninvasive blood test evaluating methylation of circulating free DNA. In his study, the blood test detected multiple gastrointestinal cancers at a sensitivity of approximately 81% and a prespecified specificity of > 99%. It also...
Gabrielle Rocque, MD, MSPH, Followed Three Generations of Doctors Into a Career in Medicine
In 2017, breast cancer expert Gabrielle Rocque, MD, MSPH, received an American Cancer Society Mentored Research Scholar Grant for her work in enhancing shared decision-making for patients with advanced breast cancer. “I come from three generations of physicians,” shared Dr. Rocque. “My father (Dr. ...
STS 2020: Intraoperative Molecular Imaging Technology Helps Surgeons to Detect NSCLC
A tumor-highlighting technology—OTL38—enhances the visualization of lung cancer tissue, providing surgeons with a significantly better chance of finding and removing more cancer than previously possible, according to a scientific presentation by Gangadharan et al at the Plenary Session of the 56th...
Late-Stage Cancer Diagnoses After Massachusetts Health Insurance Reform Law
Advanced-stage cancer diagnoses declined following health insurance expansion in Massachusetts, likely due to increased access to screening and diagnostic services that identified cancers earlier, according to new research published by Sabik et al in the journal Medical Care. The analysis...
Ringing a Bell on the Last Day of Radiation Therapy: Helpful or Harmful?
Some patients with cancer celebrate the end of a course of radiation or chemotherapy by ringing a bell. Indeed, many patients say they love the graduation-like ceremony and the sense of closure it gives them. However, a study published by Williams et al in the International Journal of Radiation...
How Real-World Data Can Help Contextualize New Treatments in Older Patients
Consider a patient who is referred for neoadjuvant therapy for stage IIIA, HER2-positive breast cancer. She is otherwise healthy, with no significant medical history, an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0, unremarkable baseline labs, and a left-ventricular ejection fraction...
Expert Point of View: Richard L. Schilsky, MD, FACP, FSCT, FASCO
Richard L. Schilsky, MD, FACP, FSCT, FASCO, Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of ASCO, who is also a gastrointestinal oncologist, called the 74% response rate to cisplatin/gemcitabine “remarkable.” “What’s impressive to me is the high response rate, as well as the progression-free ...
‘Unprecedented’ Responses to Cisplatin/Gemcitabine in BRCA-Mutated Advanced Pancreatic Cancer
As first-line treatment of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and a germline BRCA/PALB2 mutation, cisplatin plus gemcitabine yielded high response rates and encouraging survival, establishing this doublet as a standard approach in this subset of patients, according to Eileen M....
Obstacles to Early Detection of Skin Cancer in Patients Living in Rural Western States
Residents of rural, sparsely populated “frontier counties” in the western United States have a higher incidence of skin cancer and related mortality rates. New research published by Jensen et al in Psychology, Health & Medicine indicated that the biggest obstacle to early detection and...
Expert Point of View: A. Jo Chien, MD
The formal discussant of this abstract on the ATEMPT trial, A. Jo Chien, MD, Associate Professor at UCSF’s Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Francisco, said that a median follow-up of 3-years is relatively short for this trial, considering about 75% of patients had hormone...
Study Reports Similar Efficacy but No Less Toxicity With Adjuvant T-DM1 vs Taxane/Trastuzumab in Early Breast Cancer
The antibody-drug conjugate ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) failed to show improved safety when compared with paclitaxel plus trastuzumab as adjuvant therapy in patients with stage 1 HER2-positive breast cancer. These results of the randomized, phase II ATEMPT trial were presented at the 2019 San ...
2020 GI Cancers Symposium: Data From Colorectal Cancer Cohorts of TAPUR Study Presented
Positive findings from three Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR) study cohorts on the potential benefit of various molecularly targeted drugs in patients with advanced colorectal cancer were presented at the 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. The TAPUR study is the first ...
Surgeon General Releases Report Focused on Smoking Cessation
Three decades after the first Surgeon General's report on smoking cessation, the Surgeon General has released a new report that reviews and updates evidence on the importance of quitting smoking. The report finds that more than two-thirds of U.S. adult cigarette smokers report an interest in...
Expert Point of View: Steven J. Isakoff, MD, PhD
“It is encouraging that the invasive disease–free survival observed in the primary analysis is holding up, particularly in the node-positive population. With longer follow-up, the addition of pertuzumab to chemotherapy and trastuzumab appears to show benefit in hormone receptor–positive patients as ...
APHINITY Update Supports Benefit of Pertuzumab-Based Triplet in Early HER2-Positive, Node-Positive Breast Cancer
Six-year follow-up of the APHINITY trial found a modest, but not statistically significant, overall survival benefit for the addition of pertuzumab to chemotherapy plus trastuzumab vs chemotherapy/trastuzumab as adjuvant therapy in patients with early HER2-positive breast cancer. The benefit was...
Expert Point of View: Virginia Kaklamani, MD, Steven Vogl, MD, Gary Lyman, MD, MPH, and Ginny Mason, BSN
For several breast cancer experts interviewed by The ASCO Post, the phase III oral paclitaxel study and the drug itself had some limitations. Virginia Kaklamani, MD, of UT Health San Antonio, moderator of a press briefing, thought that the dosing process and the 11 pills or so per day was a...
Expert Point of View: Charles L. Shapiro, MD
Charles L. Shapiro, MD, Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Oncology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, commented on the Women’s Health Initiative update. “These trials involved more than 27,000 women between the ages of 50 and 79. The women with a uterus were randomly...
Oral Paclitaxel Outperforms Intravenous Formulation in Phase III Trial
In the first reported phase III study of an oral taxane, an investigational oral form of paclitaxel yielded a higher overall response rate and produced less neuropathy than standard intravenous paclitaxel, researchers reported at the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 “Oral paclitaxel...
Studies Find Estrogen Alone Protective, Estrogen Plus Progestin Detrimental in Postmenopausal Women
In postmenopausal women without prior breast cancer, estrogen alone reduced the risk of breast cancer, not only during treatment, but for years after estrogen was stopped. It also reduced deaths as a result of breast cancer and deaths after breast cancer from all causes. However, in contrast,...
Kunle Odunsi, MD, PhD, FRCOG, FACOG, Elected to Lead AACR Immunology Working Group
Chosen for his passion and leadership in immunotherapy research, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center Deputy Director Kunle Odunsi, MD, PhD, FRCOG, FACOG, was elected as the Cancer Immunology Working Group (CIMM) Chairperson-Elect for 2020–2021. CIMM is a scientific working group within the...
Expert Point of View: Shelley Hwang, MD, MPH
Shelley Hwang, MD, MPH, the Mary and Deryl Hart Distinguished Professor of Surgery, Duke University School of Medicine in North Carolina, discussed the APBI IMRT Florence trial in a meeting highlights session at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. She called physician-reported cosmesis “the...
Taking Action Against Cancer: Celebrating 20 Years of World Cancer Day
February 4, 2020, will mark the 20th anniversary of World Cancer Day, an annual event meant to raise cancer awareness and encourage governments, oncology societies, nongovernmental organizations, businesses, and individuals to take action against the global impact of the disease. Formed in...
Largest Single-Year Drop in Cancer Mortality Ever Reported: 2016–2017
The cancer death rate declined by 29% from 1991 to 2017, including a 2.2% drop from 2016 to 2017—the largest single-year drop in cancer mortality ever reported. These findings were reported in “Cancer Statistics, 2020,” the latest edition of the American Cancer Society’s annual report on cancer...
Oral CC-486 Maintenance Therapy Extends Survival in Older Patients With AML
Use of CC-486—an investigational oral form of azacitidine—as maintenance therapy significantly improved overall survival and relapse-free survival in older patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who were in remission following induction chemotherapy with or without consolidation ...
Innovator and Leader in Radiation Oncology, Eli J. Glatstein, MD, FASCO, Dies
Eli J. Glatstein, MD, FASCO, Morton M. Kligerman Professor, Radiation Oncology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, made a significant impact on how different cancers are diagnosed and treated. His research improved how physicians stage and treat cancer,...
Olaparib as Maintenance Therapy for Germline BRCA-Mutated Metastatic Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma
On December 27, 2019, the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor olaparib was approved for the maintenance treatment of adult patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline BRCA-mutated metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma, as detected by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration...
ADMIRAL Trial: More Than Standard Chemotherapy Needed for FLT3-Mutant Advanced AML
The important ADMIRAL trial, reported by Perl et al in The New England Journal of Medicine1 and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, shows the efficacy of a specific FLT3 inhibitor in patients with advanced acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and enhances the era of personalized medicine in leukemia. ...
Enfortumab Vedotin-ejfv for Previously Treated Advanced Urothelial Cancer
On December 18, 2019, the antibody-drug conjugate enfortumab vedotin-ejfv (PadcevTM) was granted accelerated approval for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer who have previously received a programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) or programmed cell...
Expert Point of View: Debra A. Patt, MD, MPH, MBA, FASCO, and C. Kent Osborne, MD, FASCO
Debra A. Patt, MD, MPH, MBA, FASCO, Clinical Professor at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin and Executive Vice President of Public Policy and Strategy Initiatives for Texas Oncology, told attendees in a symposium highlights talk, “We all identify and follow some patients who ...
Fam-trastuzumab Deruxtecan-nxki for Previously Treated Unresectable or Metastatic HER2-Positive Breast Cancer
On December 20, 2019, the antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki was granted accelerated approval in the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer who have received two or more prior anti–HER2-based regimens in the metastatic setting.1,2...
Breast Cancer Chemoprevention Effect Maintained Long After Stopping Anastrozole Therapy
For postmenopausal women at high risk for developing breast cancer—largely based on family history—anastrozole taken for 5 years maintained a preventive effect for at least an additional 7 years after stopping the drug in the IBIS-II trial, which included nearly 4,000 subjects. Women randomly...
Atezolizumab With Chemotherapy for Metastatic Nonsquamous NSCLC Without EGFR/ALK Aberrations
On December 3, 2019, atezolizumab in combination with nab-paclitaxel and carboplatin was approved for first-line treatment of metastatic nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with no EGFR or ALK genomic tumore aberrations.1,2 The approval was based on findings in the open-label phase III...
Practicing Wellness to Reduce Burnout
Numerous wellness strategies are accessible to busy physicians and oncologists, which can be incorporated into their daily routine. Here we discuss such aspects as stress reduction, mindfulness, eating well, sleeping well, and spirituality for the wellness of oncologists. Those who regularly adhere ...
A Deeper Understanding of the Miracle of the Human Body
Despite millennia of anatomic and biomedical search and discovery, there are parts and functions of the human body that remain a mystery. For years, medical students were taught that there are 78 organs in the human body. In February 2017, that number was revised, with the announcement of a new...
A Caregiver’s Tale of Struggle and Lingering Questions
The role of caregiver in the cancer scenario is complicated by various emotions and circumstances beyond the control of the caregiver and the person with cancer. Caregiver stress occurs when there isn’t the time to do all that’s asked or expected of one. Caregiver stress evolves into burnout when...
The Anesthesia Era: 1845–1875
The text and photograph here are excerpted from a four-volume series of books titled Oncology: Tumors & Treatment, A Photographic History, The Anesthesia Era: 1845–1875 by Stanley B. Burns, MD, FACS, and Elizabeth A. Burns. The photograph appears courtesy of Dr. Burns and The Burns Archive. To...
