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Showing 5801 - 5850Program Offers Unique Intervention for Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia
If Anand P. Jillella, MD, has his way, no future patient with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) will experience a delay in treatment or lack for an expert consult—and few, if any, will die of this condition. Mortality from APL is much higher than most oncologists think, especially during the first ...
Palbociclib Expanded Access Program Open to Eligible Breast Cancer Patients
Pfizer Inc announced that the company has initiated a multicenter, open-label expanded access program in the United States for the investigational oral CDK 4/6 inhibitor, palbociclib. Through the program, palbociclib is being made available for use in combination with letrozole for postmenopausal...
The Role of Integrated Palliative Care in Radiation Oncology
Three years ago, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, launched a Supportive and Palliative Radiation Oncology (SPRO) program to integrate generalist palliative oncology services, including the physical, psychosocial, and spiritual aspects of care, into radiation...
Expert Point of View: Wyndham H. Wilson, MD, PhD
Since the presentation on mediastinal lymphoma at the Pan Pacific Lymphoma Conference, Wyndham H. Wilson, MD, PhD, Chief of the Hematological Malignancies Therapeutics Section, Metabolism Branch, Cancer Research Center, of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, offered The ASCO Post...
Understanding the Impact of Results From CALGB/ SWOG 80405 and Other New Data in Colorectal Cancer
The Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB)/Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) 80405 trial, presented during the Plenary Session at this year’s ASCO Annual Meeting, demonstrated that cetuximab (Erbitux) and bevacizumab (Avastin) confer similar benefits as first-line treatment with chemotherapy for KRAS...
Emerging Approaches in Acute Myeloid Leukemia
With the emergence of molecular diagnostics and new therapeutics, the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is entering a new era. Hugo F. Fernandez, MD, Associate Chief of Blood and Marrow Transplantation at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, spoke with The ASCO Post about how he...
Quest for Targeted Therapeutic ‘Cocktails’ Hits Roadblocks
The use of cutting-edge technology and bioinformatics to inform clinical decision-making in oncology is still a ways off, according to Mark Pegram, MD, the Susy Yuan-Huey Hung Professor of Oncology and Director of the Stanford Breast Oncology Program, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California. At...
Treating Multiple Myeloma in 2014
The field of multiple myeloma is rapidly changing, and the shifts that are occurring impact the management of these patients, from initial diagnosis through multiple relapses. At the 9th Annual New Orleans Summer Cancer Meeting, Sergio A. Giralt, MD, Chief of the Adult Bone Marrow Transplant...
Targeting KRAS Mutations in Lung Cancer: No Longer Impossible
The KRAS mutation has long been considered “undruggable,” but new approaches in drug development may change this. The end result could be effective new treatment options for KRAS-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to David R. Gandara, MD, who described the emerging findings at...
International Group Updates Recommendations on Managing Lymphoma
An international multidisciplinary group of experts has updated their recommendations for staging and treatment response assessment in patients with Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas. Bruce D. Cheson, MD, Professor of Medicine, Deputy Chief of Hematology-Oncology, and Head of Hematology at the...
Expert Point of View: Richard L. Schilsky, MD
Information on the drivers of cancer care is important in helping to deliver higher-quality and potentially less costly cancer treatments, noted Richard L. Schilsky, MD, ASCO’s Chief Medical Officer, in a commentary accompanying the study by Dotan et al.1 Moreover, practice change can be a complex ...
My Priorities for the Year Ahead
I am honored and privileged to lead ASCO during its 51st year, a year that promises to bring both challenges and opportunities to our members and our patients. As the theme for my Presidential term, I’ve chosen Illumination and Innovation: Transforming Data Into Learning, because we are positioned...
Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy an Effective Option for Early-Stage Lung Cancer Patients
Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) is safe and effective in early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as it confers local control in 90% or more patients with T1 disease, according to Roy Decker, MD, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Therapeutic Radiology at Yale Cancer...
How Evolutionary Game Theory Is Offering Clues to Disrupt Cancer Cell Metabolism
Kenneth J. Pienta, MD, and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore are using the principles of evolutionary game theory to learn how cancer cells cooperate within a tumor to gather energy and metastasize. Game theory, the mathematic study of strategic decision-making that is commonly...
Expect Questions From Patients
Conscientious doctors are unlikely to say yes to a patient’s request for full genome sequencing,” Theodora Ross, MD, PhD, wrote in The New York Times.1 Dr. Ross, Director of the Cancer Genetics Program at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, was writing about the current...
News of Mutations in PALB2 Gene Raising Risk of Breast Cancer Offers Opportunity to Explain Limits of Genetic Testing
The response among patients to news reports about mutations in a gene known as PALB2 raising the risk of breast cancer “has been predictable,” Theodora Ross, MD, PhD, wrote in The New York Times.1 As an example, Dr. Ross, Director of the Cancer Genetics Program at The University of Texas...
I Work for You
The following essay by James O. Armitage, MD, is excerpted from The Big Casino: America’s Best Cancer Doctors Share Their Most Powerful Stories, which was co-edited by Stan Winokur, MD, and Vincent Coppola and published in May 2014. The book is available on Amazon.com and at thebigcasino.org. The ...
Cancer Frontier: Bringing the New Sciences to an Old School
Cancer seems to have an endless supply of people who want to write about it. Why not? It’s an intriguing subject of life and death and struggle and hope, one that touches virtually every person of a certain age. However, the bookshelves are filled with cancer survivorship books, so to stand out, an ...
Potential of Liquid Biopsies in Detecting Cancer and Establishing Prognosis
Tests in development to detect circulating tumor cells that escape from solid tumors and travel through the blood, spreading cancer to new sites, may serve as an alternative to conventional tissue biopsy for early cancer diagnosis and gene-expression analysis over the next decade. According to...
Gene Therapy Betters Chemotherapy Tolerance, Effectiveness in Small Glioblastoma Study
Using gene therapy and a combination of chemotherapy drugs, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have been able to enhance the tolerance and effectiveness of medications used in treating glioblastoma while also protecting healthy cells from their toxic effects. The report,...
Moffitt Appoints Louis B. Harrison, MD, New Chair, Radiation Oncology
Louis B. Harrison, MD, has joined Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa as Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology, and Senior Member. Moffitt’s Radiation Oncology program includes faculty of cancer specialists who provide comprehensive cancer care for tumors at all anatomical locations, as well as...
Immunotherapy Research of James P. Allison, PhD, Has Led to a Paradigm Shift in the Treatment of Cancer
James P. Allison, PhD, has been bucking the status quo since he was a teenager growing up in the small agricultural town of Alice, Texas, in the 1950s and 1960s. He first butted heads with authority figures when he was in high school and learned that his biology class had omitted the teaching of...
National Cancer Institute Launches the National Clinical Trials Network to Expedite Scientific Advances
In March, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) transformed its Cooperative Group Program into the National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN). Spurred by recommendations in the Institute of Medicine (IOM) 2010 report, A National Cancer Clinical Trials System for the 21st Century: Reinvigorating the NCI...
NIH Launches Human Safety Study of Ebola Vaccine Candidate
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has launched initial human testing of an investigational vaccine to prevent Ebola virus disease, according to a news release issued by NIH. The early-stage trial has begun initial human...
New Cancer.Net Fact Sheets Now Available for Your Practice
Be sure to check out Cancer.Net’s latest ASCO Answers fact sheet titles on hereditary breast and ovarian cancer and metastatic breast cancer. These one-page (front and back) introductions to a variety of topics include an overview, illustrations, terms to know, and questions to ask the doctor. Find ...
Lung Cancer Webinar Highlights Brain Metastases and Thoracic Radiotherapy
Postoperative radiation therapy, given after adjuvant chemotherapy, significantly increased overall survival in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) compared to chemotherapy alone, according to a study reported at ASCO’s 2014 Annual Meeting.1 That study, an analysis of records in the National Cancer...
Optimal Chemoradiotherapy Dosing and Recurrence After Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy Explored in Lung Cancer Webinar
Cetuximab (Erbitux) added no survival benefit to chemoradiation in stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to results reported in a Plenary Session of the 2013 World Conference on Lung Cancer in Sydney, Australia.1 It was the second surprise result from the Radiation Therapy...
Angiogenesis in Ovarian Cancer: Are We Missing the Clinical Target?
Production of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is increased during normal ovulation, and can account for much of the reversible toxicity associated with ovarian hyperstimulation.1,2 We also have compelling data from multiple clinical trials to validate the importance of tumor-associated...
PSA—It Just Keeps Getting Better, So Why Should It Stand Alone?
The updated results of the European Randomised Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC)—reported in The Lancet by Fritz H. Schröder, MD, of Erasmus University Medical Center, and colleagues1 and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post—show a continued decline, as predicted,2 in the number...
‘Paradigm-Shifting’ Results in Treatment of Hematologic Disorders
The three leukemia/lymphoma studies selected from the many 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting abstracts for presentation at the recent Best of ASCO meeting in Chicago “are really paradigm-shifting,” noted Lucy A. Godley, MD, PhD, of the University of Chicago. These studies, she said, “give great promise for...
When Should Chemotherapy Be Used in Metastatic Prostate Cancer?
Questions abound when it comes to the optimal timing and sequencing of chemotherapy in metastatic prostate cancer, according to Dr. Yu. For example, arguments could be made both for using it earlier, while disease is still hormone-sensitive, or later, after hormonal resistance emerges. “For...
In Managing Ovarian Cancer, Precision Medicine Is a Work in Progress
Precision medicine in the management of ovarian cancer “is a work in progress, to be sure,” Steven B. Newman, MD, noted in wrapping up the session on gynecologic cancer at the recent Best of ASCO meeting in Chicago. “A list of different histologic types of ovarian cancer and potential targets are...
Disparities Persist in Early-Stage Breast Cancer Treatment, MD Anderson Study Finds
Despite its acceptance as standard of care for early-stage breast cancer almost 25 years ago, barriers still exist that preclude patients from receiving breast-conserving therapy, with some patients still opting for a mastectomy, according to research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer ...
Hsp90 Inhibitors May Soon Transition Into Clinic
Inhibitors of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) look promising for the treatment of advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and have the advantage of not needing a specific mutation to target, said Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD, Professor and Chief of Medical Oncology at the Winship Cancer Institute of...
9/11 and Cancer: What Do We Know?
On September 11, 2001, the devastating terrorist attack that destroyed the World Trade Center left in its wake a unique toxic site in both mass and quantity of hazardous materials. It took 9 months to remove approximately 2 million tons of wreckage from Ground Zero, during which thousands of...
AACR 2014 Cancer Progress Report Call to Action: Prioritize Federal Funding for Biomedical Research
Last month, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) released its 2014 Cancer Progress Report: Transforming Lives Through Research, which highlights the quickening pace of drug development and approval, especially in molecularly targeted agents, that are leading to increased numbers of...
Expert Consensus Recommends Echocardiograph as Cornerstone to Protecting Cancer Patients’ Heart Health
Patients with cancer and survivors of cancer are living longer than ever before as a result of significant advances made over the past decade. Importantly, however, cardiovascular complications of their cancer treatment may present a life-threatening issue after their cancer treatment has ended....
LIVESTRONG Narrows Finalists in ‘Big C’ Competition: Winner to Be Announced This Month
Newly launched in 2014 by LIVESTRONG, “The Big C” is a one-of-a-kind global competition to generate innovations that improve the daily quality of life for the 32.5 million people around the world living with cancer now. The competition was open to entrepreneurs, trailblazers, technology whizzes,...
Moderate Form of Male Pattern Baldness Associated With Increased Risk of Aggressive Prostate Cancer
Men with moderate pattern baldness on the front and the crown of the head at age 45 had a 40% increased risk, compared to men with no baldness at that age, of developing prostate cancer later in life, according to a study led by researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and published in...
Social Media Is Helping Me Cope With Cancer
Despite a diagnosis in August 2013 of stage III high-grade spindle cell sarcoma and subsequent disease recurrence, I’m mindful of how fortunate I am that my cancer was found before widespread metastases could take hold, making treatment futile. It was just happenstance, 2 months before, on a long...
Fear
The following essay by Michael Feinstein, MD, is excerpted from The Big Casino: America’s Best Cancer Doctors Share Their Most Powerful Stories, which was co-edited by Stan Winokur, MD, and Vincent Coppola and published in May 2014. The book is available on Amazon.com and thebigcasino.org....
Helping Patients Talk to Their Children About Cancer
Although the focus of an oncologist’s attention is understandably attuned to the needs of the patient, when a patient is a parent, quality oncology care should also include attention to the patient’s role as a parent and to the needs of the patient’s children, according to Paula K. Rauch, MD,...
Now in Its 71st Year, CancerCare Looks to Expand Services to Patients and Caregivers
Eleven days before Patricia J. Goldsmith, joined CancerCare as its CEO last May, she received the unexpected news that she had early-stage colorectal cancer. While the diagnosis was shocking, Ms. Goldsmith said it gave her a unique perspective on what it means to have this serious disease and a...
Breaking the Silence About Breast Cancer in the Arab World
In 1974, First Lady Betty Ford spoke publicly about her breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. Remarkably, at the time of her action, public discussion of breast cancer in the United States was seen as off limits. Four decades later, cultural barriers to women’s health still exist, particularly in...
On Being A Mentee and the Value of the Conquer Cancer Foundation’s Career Development Award
At the ASCO Annual Meeting in June, the Conquer Cancer Foundation presented the 2014 recipients of prestigious grants and awards, including the Young Investigator Award, Career Development Award, and the Advanced Clinical Research Award in Breast Cancer. In announcing the awards, Charles W. Penley, ...
The Value of Lifelong Mentorship in Career Development
While the development of mentorship relationships is critical in launching and nurturing the academic careers of young investigators, it is also an essential component for continued success throughout their careers, according to Jennifer R. Brown, MD, PhD. Dr. Brown, Director of the CLL Center at...
IARC Calls on Countries With High Stomach Cancer Burden to Act to Prevent the Disease
A new report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an agency of the World Health Organization, urges health authorities of countries with high stomach cancer burden to include stomach cancer in their national cancer control programs and allocate more resources to control the...
Treating Sarcomas in 2014
In 2014, about 15,000 people in the United States will be diagnosed with some form of sarcoma, and of those, approximately 5,000 adults and children are expected to die of the disease. Sarcomas are a heterogeneous group of mesenchymal malignancies that have historically been difficult to diagnose...
Improving Treatment of Depression in Patients With Cancer: The SMaRT Oncology-2 Trial
Clinical depression is highly prevalent, associated with significant morbidity, often underrecognized, and inadequately treated in cancer patients. Professor Michael Sharpe and Jane Walker, PhD, and their colleagues’ seminal work on enhancing treatment of depression in cancer patients using a...
Failure of Cilengitide in Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma With Methylated MGMT Promoter
Temozolomide in combination with radiation for newly diagnosed glioblastoma was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2005—almost 10 years ago—but we have unfortunately made little progress in improving survival for this incurable brain tumor. Despite recent completion of three...
