In the largest trial conducted for average-risk medulloblastoma, survival rates following reduced radiation therapy boost volumes were comparable to standard treatment volumes for the primary tumor site, but lower doses of craniospinal axis irradiation were associated with higher event rates and...
For patients who have cancer that has metastasized to the brain, stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) results in statistically comparable survival rates, reduced cognitive decline, and better quality of life, compared to whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT), according to research presented at the 58th Annual ...
In the largest study of its kind to date, researchers have identified and validated three distinct molecular subtypes of prostate cancer that correlate with distant metastasis-free survival and can assist in future research to determine how patients will respond to treatment, according to research...
As reported by Recht et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, a joint ASCO, American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), and Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) panel has developed a focused guideline update of the ASCO guideline on postmastectomy radiotherapy. A recent Cancer Care Ontario...
Although approximately 50% of cancer patients in developing countries need radiation therapy to treat their disease, up to half of these patients do not have access to it, according to research presented by Rosenblatt et al at the 58th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology...
Survival rates for elderly patients who received stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for early stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) rose from roughly 40% to 60% over the past decade, concurrent with the increasing adoption of SBRT, according to research presented by Dalwadi et al...
For over 2,500 years, bloodletting was the backbone of medical therapy. To date, it is the longest-running therapeutic tradition known. First practiced in ancient Egypt, its use spread throughout Western civilization. The therapy was still performed in Southern rural America until the 1910s. One...
Even though I was just 3 years old when my symptoms first appeared, the memory is still fresh in my mind to this day, 71 years later. I had just come home from a friend’s birthday party and was sitting on the front patio steps immobilized by severe stomach pain. My parents said I was feeling ill...
Earlier this month, members of the National Cancer Moonshot Initiative’s Blue Ribbon Panel submitted an ambitious list of 10 recommendations on the scientific approaches that are most likely to accelerate progress against cancer to the President’s National Cancer Advisory Board. The panel’s...
The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group–American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ECOG-ACRIN) Cancer Research Group has received federal approval to add a quality-of-life research study, Communication and Education in Tumor Profiling (EAQ152), or COMET, to the NCI-MATCH (EAY131) trial, which is ...
The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation has announced the winners of the 2016 Lasker Awards for medical science: William G. Kaelin, MD; Peter J. Ratcliffe, MD, FRCP, FMedSci, FRS; and Gregg L. Semenza, MD, PhD for basic medical research; Ralf F.W. Bartenschlager, PhD; Charles M. Rice, PhD;...
On August 13, 2013, more than 100 cancer researchers and physicians from around the world met in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, to discuss 2 challenging problem areas in cancer. One group was focused on the carcinogenic potential of low-dose exposure to chemical mixtures in the environment, and the...
Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) has announced that its Executive Director, Jeff Allen, PhD, will assume the role of President and CEO of the organization. Friends’ founder, Ellen Sigal, PhD, will continue with the organization as Board Chair. Dr. Allen will become the day-to-day lead of...
This summer, ASCO continued its active involvement in Vice President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative. ASCO joined the Vice President at the formal launch of the moonshot earlier this year, and since then, has discussed research and policy proposals to advance discovery in cancer treatment...
A new study1 showing that just 1 in 20 terminally ill patients with cancer has sufficient understanding about the prognosis or purpose of treatment is highlighting the need for improvements in both the way oncologists communicate prognosis with their patients and in the development of educational...
Music therapy, an established adjuvant to standard cancer care, is offered in a growing number of cancer centers throughout the United States and internationally. Defined by the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) as “the evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individual...
What do up to 60% of cancer survivors have in common? Answer: some type of long-term sexual dysfunction. How many cancer survivors seek professional help for sexual problems? Answer: less than 20%. Even when they do seek help, they may not be successful in finding professionals with expertise in...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and its Chief Executive Officer, Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), were honored with the PHL Life Sciences Ultimate Solution Award for their significant contributions to and impact on the field of cancer research. The award is presented annually by PHL ...
With the expansion of our understanding of signaling pathways in normal cells and how they are co-opted or corrupted in malignancy, the number of potential antitumor agents to be tested has exploded, exposing the limitations of traditional antineoplastic drug development and challenging us to...
A new study from Drexel University College of Medicine suggests all organ transplant recipients, regardless of race, should receive routine, total-body screenings for skin cancer. Out of 259 nonwhite transplant recipients who were evaluated in the study, 19 skin cancer lesions were identified in...
Julie E. Bauman, MD, MPH, a head and neck cancer specialist and physician-scientist, has been named Professor of Medicine and the new Chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Arizona (UA) College of Medicine–Tucson, as well as Associate Director of Translational...
Earlier this month, ASCO, in collaboration with the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and the Society for Surgical Oncology (SSO), jointly issued an update to a clinical practice guideline for physicians treating women with breast cancer who have undergone a mastectomy. The update...
The Basser Center for BRCA at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center has announced the recipient of the 2016 Basser Global Prize is cancer geneticist Steven Narod, MD, FRCPC, PhD (hon), FRSC, Director of the Familial Breast Cancer Research Unit and a senior scientist at the Women’s College Hospital in...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for Priority Review the supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for pembrolizumab (Keytruda), an anti–PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1) therapy, for the first-line treatment of patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer...
As reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recently updated its guidelines for colorectal cancer screening1 from 2008 and has now included seven acceptable strategies, including direct-visualization modalities (ie, endoscopy and computed tomography...
As reported in JAMA, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has issued new recommendations for colorectal cancer screening.1 In brief, the USPSTF recommends colorectal cancer screening starting at age 50 years and continuing until age 75 years (grade A recommendation = “The USPSTF...
“This (adverse cardiac effects of chemotherapy) is a difficult problem to address because the side effects of chemotherapy in terms of its impact on the heart show up many years, sometimes decades, later. So that makes it harder to study and treat. It’s a real problem,” commented session...
The anabolic hormone testosterone may lessen the early adverse cardiovascular effects of chemotherapy and chemoradiation for advanced or recurrent cancer, according to a randomized controlled trial reported at the 9th International Conference on Head and Neck Cancer.1 Among the patients studied,...
For the majority of patients who are diagnosed with advanced-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), platinum-based doublets have been the standard of care for over 30 years. Recently, the immune checkpoint inhibitors nivolumab (Opdivo) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) demonstrated superior survival ...
Although targeted drugs like imatinib (Gleevec) have revolutionized the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), patients generally must take them for the rest of their lives and may cease benefiting from them over time. New research conducted by scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute...
Federally funded research continues to spur progress against cancer; however, accelerating the pace of progress will require robust, sustained, and predictable annual funding increases for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the Food and Drug...
A first-of-its-kind joint report from the American Cancer Society and Alliance for Childhood Cancer has compiled the latest information related to pediatric cancer, including statistics and trends; a current list of drugs used to treat pediatric cancers; ongoing pediatric cancer clinical trials;...
Radiation oncologists are frequently involved in providing palliative and supportive care for patients with advanced cancers through delivery of palliative radiation. Whether they are confident in their ability to assess and initiate treatments for pain, nonpain, and psychosocial distress is...
Scott A. Irwin, MD, PhD, of Cedars-Sinai’s Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, discusses delirium—its definition, prevalence, consequences, assessment, and management.
Fox Chase Cancer Center recently announced two new appointments in its Department of Medicine. Christopher J. Manley, MD Christopher J. Manley, MD, has joined Fox Chase Cancer Center as the Director of Interventional Pulmonology in the Department of Medicine. “Dr. Manley’s expertise in pulmonary...
Immunotherapy has received “a lot of attention, mainly because of the media coverage,” Anas Younes, MD, medical oncologist and Chief of the Lymphoma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, said in an interview with The ASCO Post. “Many patients inquire, not about a specific...
While a majority of states are still missing important opportunities to pass and implement legislative solutions proven to prevent and fight cancer, progress is being made to move the nation closer to ending cancer as we know it, according to a report recently released by the American Cancer...
I was 2 months into my first-year fellowship at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, DC, when I learned the best oncology lesson of my career. I owned a copy of DeVita, Hellman, and Rosenberg’s Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology and had read Cancer Treatment...
George Q. Daley, MD, PhD, a leader in stem cell science and cancer biology whose work spans the fields of basic science and clinical medicine, will become the next Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He will begin his duties on January 1, 2017. Dr. Daley is currently...
Prophylactic mastectomy that preserves a woman’s nipple is oncologically safe in patients with deleterious BRCA mutations, according to the largest study yet to evaluate this approach in this high-risk population. “In more than 500 risk-reducing nipple-sparing mastectomies in 348 deleterious...
According to William C. McGaghie, PhD, Professor of Medical Education and Professor of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, the principles of today’s clinical medical education are rooted in a 19th century model that is no longer useful in a...
Advances in the field of immuno-oncology are revolutionizing cancer care. Ongoing progress with immune checkpoint agents, immune system boosts, cancer vaccines, and monoclonal antibodies continues to yield new and exciting results. However, with the benefits of rapid expansion comes the challenge...
In 2011, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published its landmark report “The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding,” which recognized the scarcity of research in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals and the...
Ronald McDonald House New York has announced that Ruth C. Browne, SD, MPP, MPH, has been selected as President and Chief Executive Officer of the organization. Dr. Browne joins Ronald McDonald House New York from the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, where she served as CEO since 2004. She...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for Priority Review the supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for pembrolizumab (Keytruda), an anti–PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1) therapy, for the first-line treatment of patients with advanced non–small...
ASCO commended the Cancer Moonshot Initiative Blue Ribbon Panel for its ambitious recommendations to accelerate progress against cancer. “We applaud the Blue Ribbon Panel for its work and the National Cancer Institute's (NCI's) National Cancer Advisory Board for convening the panel,”...
Weight Watchers International, Inc, has launched Project LIFT—Live Inspired, Fight Together—a new movement, in collaboration with the American Cancer Society, to inspire and guide breast cancer survivors with free resources focused on tackling the unexpected weight gain that can follow breast...
On August 5, 2016, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was granted accelerated approval for treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and disease progression on or after platinum-containing chemotherapy.1,2 As a condition of the accelerated approval, Merck is...
Physicians from Carolinas HealthCare System’s Neurosciences Institute and Levine Cancer Institute are among the authors of a recent study published by Brown et al in JAMA.1 The study showed how among patients with one to three brain metastases, the use of stereotactic radiosurgery alone, compared...
Matti Aapro, MD, has been selected as the recipient of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer’s (MASCC) 2016 Distinguished Service Award. The Award recognizes meritorious achievement and outstanding contributions to the Society and its mission. Candidates are nominated by their ...