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Showing 5601 - 5650New Member Categories Provide Specialized Support to Cancer Care Team Members
As part of ASCO’s ongoing effort to fully support all members of the cancer care team, it recently created three new member categories: Advanced Practice Providers, Practice Administrators, and Patient Advocates (see sidebar). Originally part of the Affiliated Health Professionals member category, ...
Free PQRS Reporting Now Available Through QOPI®; No Additional Reporting Required
ASCO is pleased to announce that oncology practices can now complete all of their Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS)1 requirements through the Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI®) platform. All users will be able to use the QOPI system to fulfill the Oncology Measures Group set of 7...
Precision Promise Clinical Trial Focuses on Precision Medicine, Collaboration, and Data-Sharing in Pancreatic Cancer
The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network recently announced Precision Promise, the first large-scale precision medicine trial designed to transform outcomes for patients with pancreatic cancer. The organization also announced the 12 initial Precision Promise Clinical Trial Consortium sites selected to...
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Sanger Institute, UK Agree to Full Exchange of Cancer Data
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, UK, have agreed to a full exchange of cancer mutation data to support the discovery and understanding of genetic mutations causing cancers. The agreement will provide regular updates and exchanges of data between both...
Adjuvant Ipilimumab Improves Survival in High-Risk Melanoma
Patients with stage III melanoma who were considered to be at high risk for recurrence derived an overall survival benefit from adjuvant treatment with ipilimumab (Yervoy), although it came at the price of considerable toxicity, according to updated survival results from the phase III European...
With Changing Strategies for Laryngeal Cancer, Multidisciplinary Team Approach Is Key
The treatment of cancer of the larynx has changed dramatically in recent years. With organ preservation now possible in many cases, it is more important than ever for patients to receive guidance from every corner of the field. In a recent article in the Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP),1 a...
NIH Expands National Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced awards to add four regional medical center groups to the national network of health-care provider organizations that will implement the Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program. Combined, the new health-care provider organizations will...
Consensus on Defining and Measuring Lymphedema Is Needed to Advance Efforts to Intervene Early and Prevent Progression
“Early intervention might prevent lymphedema progression,” Alphonse Taghian, MD, PhD, said at the 18th Annual Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium in Chicago, but the lack of a universal definition of lymphedema and agreement on how to optimally measure it impedes phase III studies to test that...
Prognostic and Predictive Molecular Subtypes of Prostate Cancer Identified
Members of the oncology community have long complained that prostate cancer lags behind breast cancer regarding biomarkers for prognosis and treatment, but the good news is that this gap is narrowing. In the largest study of its kind to date, presented at the 58th Annual Meeting of the American...
Stereotactic Radiosurgery Achieves Better Quality of Life and Improved Cognition Than Whole-Brain Radiotherapy
Two separate randomized trials presented at the 58th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) affirmed the value of stereotactic radiosurgery as an option for postoperative treatment of the surgical cavity of resected brain metastases, potentially avoiding the cognitive...
Retrospective Studies Confirm Survival Benefit of Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy in Early-Stage NSCLC
Stereotactic body radiation therapy is becoming more widely adopted for the treatment of early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Along with its increasing uptake, survival has significantly increased over the past decade, according to two large retrospective studies presented at the 58th...
FDA Modifies the Indication of Erlotinib in Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer to Patients With Specific EGFR Mutations
On October 18, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) modified the indication for erlotinib (Tarceva) in the treatment of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to limit its use to patients whose tumors have specific epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations. The labeling...
‘Dear Presidential Candidates’: A Letter From an Oncologist
Dear Presidential Candidates: Wouldn’t it be great if history’s Alexander the Great was actually Dr. Alexander Fleming, the doctor-scientist who saved millions of lives by discovering penicillin, rather than the other Alexander, who conquered and killed thousands of innocent people? Wouldn’t it be...
Expert Point of View: Geraldine M. Jacobson, MD
Geraldine M. Jacobson, MD, of West Virginia University, Morgantown, commented on the study by Moran et al at a press conference held during the American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) meeting, where the data were presented. “To date evidence has been lacking for a radiation boost following...
Vice President Biden Delivers Cancer Moonshot Report, Announces Public and Private Sector Actions to Advance Cancer Moonshot Goals
Today in the Oval Office, Vice President Joe Biden delivered the Cancer Moonshot report to the President and the American public. The report summarizes the work of the Cancer Moonshot Task Force since its creation in January and lays out the Vice President’s strategic plan for transforming...
ESMO 2016: Researchers Identify Factors Associated With End-of-Life Chemotherapy Use
The rates of administering chemotherapy to patients with solid cancers within a month of succumbing to their disease remain high, which calls for a paradigm shift to consider initiating palliative care at an earlier stage and formulating clear guidelines for end-of-life care, according to findings...
Characteristics of HPV-Driven Nonoropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinomas of the Head and Neck
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chakravarthy et al found that human papillomavirus (HPV)-driven tumors accounted for 4.1% of nonoropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck. HPV-positive tumors were associated with poorer survival and reduced...
First-Line Ribociclib Prolongs Progression-Free Survival in Hormone Receptor–Positive, HER2-Negative Advanced Breast Cancer
In a phase III trial reported at the recent European Society for Medical Oncology Congress and in The New England Journal of Medicine by Hortobagyi et al, first-line treatment with ribociclib, a selective inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases 4 and 6 (CDK4/6), resulted in significantly longer...
ESMO 2016: Longer Disease-Free Survival in Phase III Trial of Sunitinib as Adjuvant Treatment for Kidney Cancer
A phase III trial of sunitinib (Sutent) has met its primary endpoint of disease-free survival for adjuvant treatment of high-risk renal cell carcinoma after nephrectomy, reported Ravaud et al at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2016 Congress in Copenhagen (Abstract LBA11_PR)....
ESMO 2016: Niraparib Significantly Improves Outcomes in Platinum-Sensitive Recurrent Ovarian Cancer
The PARP inhibitor niraparib significantly improves the outcome of platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer, according to full data from the ENGOT-OV16/NOVA trial presented by Mirza et al at the 2016 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Copenhagen (Abstract LBA3_PR), and...
ESMO 2016: Ipilimumab as Adjuvant Therapy Improves Overall Survival in High-Risk Stage III Melanoma
Ipilimumab (Yervoy) as adjuvant therapy significantly improves overall survival in patients with high-risk stage III melanoma, according to the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) 18071 phase III trial results presented by Eggermont et al at the European Society for...
Heinz-Josef Lenz, MD, on Colon Cancer: Sidedness and Treatment Update
Heinz-Josef Lenz, MD, of the University of Southern California Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the importance of tumor location, and its implications for treatment, in right-sided and left-sided metastatic colon cancer.
African American Cancer Survivors More Likely to Experience Lasting Debt Related to Cancer and Its Treatment
African American cancer survivors are more likely than whites to experience lasting debt or forgo necessary medical care as they struggle with the financial burden of cancer, while whites are somewhat more likely to use existing assets to pay for their cancer care, according to a study (C13)...
Expect Questions About the FDA Discouraging Use of Ovarian Cancer Screening Tests
The release of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Safety Communication “alerting women about the risks associated with the use of tests being marketed as ovarian cancer screening tests”1 and recommending against using these tests comes not as a result of startling new studies, but from an...
The FDA Urges Physicians and Patients to Forgo Ovarian Cancer Screening Tests
In a Safety Communication directed at women and physicians, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) alerted women “about the risks associated with the use of tests being marketed as ovarian cancer screening tests” and recommended “against using currently offered tests to screen for ovarian...
Friendship
Mr. C is almost 90 now, but every summer the boxes of squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, and other vegetables from his truck farm still arrive like clockwork at our door. The cancer that required treatment 17 years ago has never recurred. He’s now struggling with a new problem, recovering from a broken...
ASCO Recommends ‘Quick Wins’ for National Cancer Moonshot
Last month, ASCO recommended to Vice President Joe Biden several immediate and practical actions the Cancer Moonshot Initiative could take during the remainder of his term in the White House—steps that could make a lasting impact in the effort to discover new cancer treatments. ASCO’s...
ASCO Supports Recent Tobacco Legislation
On August 8, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) rule giving the agency the authority to regulate e-cigarettes, cigars, hookahs, and pipe tobacco took effect. In May, ASCO applauded the FDA for exercising its congressionally mandated authority to regulate e-cigarettes as a crucial step in ...
ASCO International Course Helps Ethiopia Realize Its Goal of Improving Cancer Care
Ethiopia, similar to other African countries, has a significant shortage of physicians. Currently, there are 0.3 physicians for every 100,000 people, a rate that is substantially lower than the 2 physicians per 100,000 people found in the rest of Africa. This year, the First Lady of Ethiopia,...
Eric Fearon, MD, PhD, Named Director of University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center
Eric Fearon, MD, PhD, has been named Director of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Fearon, the Emanuel N. Maisel Professor of Oncology at the University of Michigan, is a nationally recognized investigator in cancer genetics. His research has led to a greater...
Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation to Donate Data to NCI’s Genomic Data Commons
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) recently announced a collaboration with the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation to incorporate the Foundation’s wealth of genomic and clinical data about the disease into the NCI Genomic Data Commons. NCI’s Genomic Data Commons is a publicly available database...
Susan M. O’Brien, MD, Embraces the Challenge of Balancing Patient Care With Clinical Trial Investigation
Susan M. O’Brien, MD, one of the nation’s foremost leukemia experts, told The ASCO Post that she wanted to become a doctor since her earliest memories. “The idea of being able to help sick people always appealed to me,” said Dr. O’Brien, who was born in Manhattan but spent her formative years in...
Development and Validation of a Quality Assurance Score for Robot-Assisted Radical Cystectomy
What are the factors that add up to the best outcomes for patients who have surgery to treat cancer? Looking for a better way to measure quality of care and share best practices in surgical oncology, a team from Roswell Park Cancer Institute developed a quality assessment tool and validated it in a ...
ASCO Clinical Practice Guideline on Management of Chronic Pain in Survivors of Adult Cancers
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Judith A. Paice, PhD, RN, of Northwestern University, and colleagues, ASCO has released a clinical practice guideline on management of chronic pain in survivors of adult cancers.1 The guideline was based on literature review by an expert panel,...
Friends of Cancer Research Honors Oncology Leaders at 20th Anniversary and Announces Partnership
Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) celebrated its 20th anniversary September 21 at a special event in Washington, DC. The event honored Janet Woodcock, MD; Eric Lander, PhD; and Sean Parker. Dr. Woodcock, Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) at the U.S. Food and Drug...
Using Watson to Analyze Genomic Data to Personalize Treatment for Patients With Cancer
Three years ago, IBM’s Watson supercomputer was best known for defeating two former champions on the TV game show Jeopardy! Today, it is grabbing headlines for becoming an important assistant in cancer care. Able to read and understand millions of pages of text within seconds, Watson caught the...
University of Michigan Cancer Center Names Four New Leaders
The University of Michigan (U-M) Comprehensive Cancer Center has appointed four new leaders to oversee the direction and operation of its research enterprise. Pavan Reddy, MD, Deputy Director Alnawaz Rehemtulla, PhD, Associate Director for Shared Resources Anne Schott, MD, Associate Director for...
Daratumumab Plus Bortezomib/Dexamethasone: Changing the Treatment Paradigm in Relapsed or Refractory Myeloma
The CD38 antigen was first recognized on normal and abnormal plasma cells over 3 decades ago. Indeed, this antigen was originally classified as T10, as it was the tenth antigen described on T cells. Its distribution of expression included activated B and T cells, natural killer cells, leukocytes,...
Susan G. Komen Announces $27 Million Initiative to Reduce Breast Cancer Deaths in African American Community
The Susan G. Komen breast cancer organization gathered philanthropic, civic, medical, and business leaders in Washington, DC, September 14 to formally launch a $27 million, 10-city initiative to reduce breast cancer death rates among African American women. “African American women are almost 40%...
Jacques Galipeau, MD, FRCP(C), Brings Personalized Stem Cell Treatment to UW Carbone
An international leader in harnessing a patient’s own stem cells to fight cancer and autoimmune diseases joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin (UW) Carbone Cancer Center on September 1. Jacques Galipeau, MD, FRCP(C), came from the Winship Cancer Center at Emory University, where he...
Why Care About the Caregivers?
Caregivers of patients with cancer provide invaluable health-care services, but they are an underserved and undervalued group, with many unmet needs. Early palliative care may provide important benefits to these often tireless individuals, according to J. Nicholas Dionne-Odom, PhD, RN, ACHPN, of...
Immunotherapy Brings Unique Challenges for Clinicians
The advent of immunotherapies has created a number of interesting challenges for oncology providers. At the 2016 Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium, specialists in the field tackled these issues. “There is a lot of newness to how we approach patient care with immunotherapies on board,” said...
Why Curing Cancer Will Take Decades
This past summer, Eric S. Lander, PhD, President of the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, raised a few eyebrows at the Aspen Ideas Festival when he...
FDA Grants Breakthrough Therapy Designation for First-Line Treatment of ALK-Positive NSCLC
On October 4, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted alectinib (Alecesna), an anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitor, a second Breakthrough Therapy designation. This latest designation was granted for the treatment of adult patients with advanced ALK-positive non–small...
ASCO Presents First-Ever Congressional Leadership Award to Rep. Michael Burgess, MD
ASCO presented Representative Michael Burgess, MD (TX-26) with its first-ever ASCO Congressional Leadership Award on September 21 to recognize his steadfast work to support policies related to cancer research and treatment. This new, annual award honors a member of Congress who is a consistent...
Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance Launches ‘Help Keep Me in the Picture’ Campaign
To raise awareness and support for those with metastatic breast cancer, the Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance launched its “Help Keep Me in the Picture” campaign. The campaign includes a social media initiative and a new microsite—KeepMeInThePicture.com—which shares stories from patients,...
Prehabilitation and Rehabilitation May Improve Work-Related Outcomes in Cancer Survivors
In August 2016, the Healthcare Delivery Research Program of the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the National Cancer Institute convened a group of experts in a variety of fields to identify a research agenda for optimizing employment outcomes among cancer survivors. A core...
Baylor and Texas Children’s Hospital Partner to Bring Fellowship Training in Oncology and Hematology to East Africa
Medical students and practicing pediatricians in Uganda and other East African countries lack access to specialty pediatric training and education in oncology and hematology in their region, despite the need for doctors to provide care for patients with cancer and blood disorders. A new program of...
Risk of Metastasis With Active Monitoring in PSA-Detected Localized Prostate Cancer: The ProtectT Trial
The ProtecT study findings1 are provocative. Despite having a control arm of active monitoring with serial prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing, as compared with watchful waiting in the prior randomized trials (ie, SPCG-42 and PIVOT3), and also enrolling men with more favorable-risk disease...
ASTRO 2016: Stereotactic Radiosurgery Decreases Rate of Postoperative Local Recurrence for Brain Metastases
Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for cancer patients who receive the treatment for brain metastases decreases the likelihood of local recurrence, but shows no positive difference in terms of overall survival or distant brain metastases rates when compared to observation alone following surgical...
