The American Cancer Society (ACS) and ASCO have issued a Breast Cancer Survivorship Care guideline, published jointly in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. The guideline recommendations were formulated by a multidisciplinary expert work group and are based on...
An experimental nanoparticle therapy that combines low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and fish oil preferentially kills primary liver cancer cells without harming healthy cells, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report. The study was published by Wen et al in Gastroenterology. “This...
A retrospective analysis of human papillomavirus (HPV) antibodies in patients treated for oropharyngeal cancers linked to HPV infection suggests at least one of the antibodies could be useful in identifying those at risk for a recurrence of the cancer, said scientists at The Johns Hopkins...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On December 11, 2015, alectinib (Alecensa) was granted...
As reported by Wilkins et al in The Lancet Oncology, 2-year patient-reported outcomes in a UK phase III trial (CHHiP) substudy have shown a similar low incidence of bowel problems among patients with intermediate-risk localized prostate cancer receiving hypofractionated vs conventionally...
The following essay by William N. Harwin, 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. My wife...
A committee of national experts, led by a Cleveland Clinic researcher, has established first-of-its-kind guidelines to promote more accurate and individualized cancer predictions, guiding more precise treatment and leading to improved patient survival rates and outcomes. These guidelines were...
On January 19, 2016, Vice President Joe Biden discussed big data as one of the “major undertakings” designed to advance the pace of progress in the fight against cancer as part of his new “moonshot” initiative at the World Economic Forum in Davos Klosters, Switzerland. Mr. Biden presided over a...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On December 18, 2015, approval of the programmed cell death...
BookmarkTitle: The Anti-cancer Diet: Reduce Cancer Risk Through the Foods You EatAuthors: David Khayat, MDPublisher: W.W. Norton & CompanyPublication date: April 2015Price: $26.95; hardcover, 288 pages In 2002, David Khayat, MD, was in Turkey on holiday with friends when he received a call...
Bookmark Title: The Fear Cure: Cultivating Courage as Medicine for the Body, Mind, and Soul Author: Lissa Rankin, MD Publisher: Hay House, Inc Publication date: February 23, 2015 Price: $25.99; hardcover, 336 pages Fear is a healthy survival mechanism, a fight-or-flight response designed to put...
Bookmark Title: The Death of Cancer: After Fifty Years on the Front Lines of Medicine, a Pioneering Oncologist Reveals Why the War on Cancer Is Winnable—and How We Can Get There Authors: Vincent T. DeVita, Jr, MD, and Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publication date:...
According to the most recent estimates, 55% to 65% of women who inherit the BRCA1 mutation and about 45% of women who inherit the BRCA2 mutation will develop breast cancer by the time they are 70 years old. There is also a substantial increase in the probability of developing ovarian cancers in...
Although chemotherapy is often cited as the main culprit for diminishing cognitive function in patients with cancer, ushering the term “chemobrain” into the vernacular, research by Tim A. Ahles, PhD, and his colleagues is showing that multiple factors may contribute to the condition.1 Using breast...
Investigators at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) have found that significant bone loss occurs during the first month of chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), which is far earlier than previously assumed. Results of the study were published by Orgel et al in the...
Cancer will kill more than 8 million people worldwide this year, which is equivalent to the entire population of New York. Half of these will be people of working age (30–69 years old). It has been estimated that the cost implications on world economies caused by cancer and the other...
The past year has produced an embarrassment of riches regarding the value of aromatase inhibitors for women with ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast. The long-awaited NSABP B-35 study matured and was reported by Margolese and colleagues at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting this past summer, followed...
When it comes to cancer, one of the most frustrating moments for patients and doctors alike is discovering a promising treatment has suddenly stopped working. Generally, this occurs when cancer develops resistance and finds ways to bypass a treatment’s effects. Cancer drug resistance happens more...
In some patients, blood in the urine, or hematuria, may be the only warning sign of cancer in the urinary tract. A new report from the American College of Physicians’ (ACP) High Value Care Task Force published by Nielsen et al in Annals of Internal Medicine issues advice for physicians on how ...
Ductal carcinoma in situ is a relatively benign form of breast cancer (stage 0), yet up to 10% of women with ductal carcinoma in situ will have a recurrence within 10 years. At present, there is no way to identify which women will recur, so standard treatment is lumpectomy plus radiation therapy....
The 2015 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), hosted by the American Association for Cancer Research, the Cancer Therapy & Research Center at The University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, and Baylor College of Medicine, was held in December 2015. As has been true for...
Although patients with poor-risk metastatic testicular germ cell tumors continue to have less favorable outcomes, the bar has been raised by contemporary treatment. There is still room for improvement in managing metastatic testicular germ cell tumors, especially in poor-risk patients, but if...
In 1956, the American College of Surgeons encouraged the development of hospital-based registries, but for the most part, these efforts were clumsy, inaccessible card files of data. Today, advanced microcomputer technology has increased the ability to not only collect and cull cancer data but also...
A 70-year-old female patient underwent a cardiac procedure to repair her mitral valve, and at the same time, she also underwent a coronary artery bypass grafting. She had an uneventful course for the first four postoperative days. On the sixth postoperative day, she started complaining of abdominal ...
Oncology researchers have discovered that an abnormal fused gene that drives pediatric brain tumors poses a triple threat, operating simultaneously through three distinct biologic mechanisms—the first such example in cancer biology. The study was published by Bandopadhayay et al in Nature...
Women who eat more high-fiber foods during adolescence and young adulthood—especially fruits and vegetables—may have significantly lower breast cancer risk than those who eat less dietary fiber when young, according to a new large-scale study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan...
Vice President Joe Biden's “moonshot” initiative to defeat cancer earned support for a tax increase to fund cancer research among half of respondents (50%) in a new national public opinion survey commissioned by Research!America. Thirty-eight percent disagree and an additional 12% are...
Non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with common epidermal growth factor (EGFR) mutations and brain metastases showed improved progression-free survival and response from the EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor afatinib (Gilotrif) compared to standard platinum doublet chemotherapy....
Care for mothers with terminal cancer could be improved to help resolve their psychological distress and to help surviving family members cope, a study by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers have found. Based on the study findings published by Park et al in the journal BMJ...
Robert W. Carlson, MD, Chief Executive Officer, National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and John A. Gentile, Jr, Chairman, Harborside Press, LLC, discuss the early days of NCCN, controversies that surrounded the first meeting, oncologists’ embrace of the guidelines, and how the organization has...
Axel Grothey, MD, of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, discusses how the NCCN Guidelines can help oncologists make strategic choices of the various agents available to treat metastatic colorectal cancer, individualizing patient care.
Dung T. Le, MD, of Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University, and Axel Grothey, MD, of the Mayo Clinic, discuss how mismatch repair status predicts clinical benefit of immune checkpoint blockade with pembrolizumab (Abstract LBA100).
John L. Marshall, MD, of Georgetown University, discusses how the cost of care affects behavior and decision-making on the part of patients and oncologists.
Leonard Saltz, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses how the cost of care affects behavior and decision-making on the part of patients and oncologists.
Matthew J. Loscalzo, LCSW, of the City of Hope, discusses the ways in which a person’s gender influences how he or she reacts to and copes with a cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Allison J. Applebaum, PhD, and William S. Breitbart, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, explain how they brought this new treatment to help stressed caregivers of loved ones with cancer.
Christine D. Berg, MD, of Johns Hopkins Medicine, discusses how increased insurance coverage should dramatically increase lung cancer screening. If done correctly—which will be a challenge—screening will help improve the prognosis of patients with lung cancer (Abstract PLEN 01.01).
Howard M. Sandler, MD, of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, discusses how adding 24 months of daily antiandrogen therapy during and after radiotherapy was shown to significantly improve long-term overall survival following prostate cancer recurrence after a radical prostatectomy (Abstract LBA5).
Toni Choueiri, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, summarizes key points from a session he chaired on clear and non-clear cell renal cancer, including information on molecular genetics and its impact on treatment, how to treat patients with non-clear cell histology, and the best strategy for...
Patricia A. Ganz, MD, of the University of California at Los Angeles, discusses the limited sensitivity and specificity of surveillance testing for cancer recurrence and finding a better way to reassure patients about their continuing care.
Passion is a much-needed virtue in one who seeks to change the world for the better. When you combine intelligence, stamina, iron-willed determination, the grace of an ambassador, and simple human likability with passion, you get that rare person who can turn words and ideas into reality. Such a...
I love reading The ASCO Post, but I have a suggestion. For your reports on drug development, how about making it a policy to note the class or type of any new agent being discussed—ie, a brief description of the drug’s mechanism of action? For example, a recent issue included a nice article...
"A solid triple but not a home run” is how Karen H. Lu, MD, characterized a study in The Lancet reporting a reduction in deaths from ovarian cancer with the use of multimodal ovarian cancer screening.1 Dr. Lu’s remark was one of several, mostly but not universally, favorable and optimistic comments ...
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the “Art of Oncology” as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO). These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
The American Psychosocial Oncology Society (APOS) has endorsed the “Psychosocial Standards of Care for Children With Cancer and Their Families,” which were published in a December 2015 special supplement of Pediatric Blood & Cancer. The scientific, evidence-based psychosocial standards define...
Medical oncologist and researcher Ravi Salgia, MD, PhD, has joined City of Hope as Professor and Chair in the Department of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research. He will play a key leadership role in the expansion of clinical programs at City of Hope’s Duarte campus and in its clinics...
Bookmark Title: The New Generation Breast Cancer Book: How to Navigate Your Diagnosis and Treatment Options—and Remain Optimistic—in an Age of Information Overload Author: Elisa Port, MD Publisher: Ballantine Books Publication date: September 2015 Price: $20.00; paperback, 320 pages When a new...
Bookmark Title: Empty Hands, A Memoir: One Woman’s Journey to Save Children Orphaned by AIDS in South Africa Author: Sister Abegail Ntleko Publisher: North Atlantic Books Publication date: September 1, 2015 Price: $12.95; paperback, 176 pages With the development of the multidrug highly active...
A multi-institutional international investigation led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, has revealed new information about how molecules called long noncoding RNAs (lncRNA) interact with HIF-1, a signaling pathway that is overexpressed in many cancers....
Breast cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths among women in the United States. In 2015, according to the National Cancer Institute, 231,840 women were to be diagnosed with the disease and 40,290 were to die from it. The death rate is highest among women who are not screened regularly...