“Analyses after 2 additional years of follow-up consolidated our previous finding that [prostate-specific antigen (PSA)]-based screening significantly reduced mortality from prostate cancer but did not affect all-cause mortality,” investigators from the European Randomized Study of Screening for...
Although androgen-deprivation therapy is effective in inducing regression of androgen-dependent prostate cancer, relapse often occurs in an androgen-independent manner and is associated with poor prognosis. The mechanisms underlying castration resistance are not fully understood. Sung and...
When I found a large amount of blood on my toilet tissue just before Thanksgiving in 2010, I wasn’t too concerned. At just 45 years old, I was in excellent health, and other than the bloody stool I had no other symptoms signaling that something was seriously wrong. My primary care physician thought ...
Nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (NLPHL) accounts for approximately 5% of Hodgkin lymphoma cases. It is distinguished from classic Hodgkin lymphoma by a variety of clinical and pathologic features, including expression of B-cell associated antigens such as CD20. Given that the...
The FDA recently approved a silicone gel-filled breast implant manufactured by Sientra Inc for breast augmentation in women at least 22 years old and breast reconstruction in women of any age. As a condition of approval, Sientra is required to conduct postapproval studies that will assess long-term ...
The recent report on “Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults” by the Surgeon General not only documents the devastating consequences of tobacco use for our nation’s youth, but also represents a clarion call for bold action at every level of government to implement proven strategies to...
Efficacy and safety of traditional anticoagulants (eg, vitamin K antagonists) are well recognized, given their long-standing use in clinical practice. However, the novel anticoagulants have several potential advantages over the vitamin K antagonists. Even so, in light of their recent introduction...
Despite growing national focus on early detection, prevention, and new molecular-based treatments, lung cancer persistently remains the number 1 cause of cancer death for men and women in the United States. The ASCO Post spoke to lung cancer specialist Paul A. Bunn, Jr, MD, Executive Director,...
Cigarette smoking by youth and young adults has immediate adverse health consequences, including addiction, and accelerates the development of chronic diseases across the full life course. Prevention efforts must focus on both adolescents and young adults because among adults who become daily...
The fight against tobacco use among young people was accelerated recently by Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA, with the release of the Surgeon General’s Report, Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults. This report details the scope, health consequences, and influences that...
More than 80% of radiation oncologists discuss the impact of cancer treatments on fertility with their patients of childbearing age. This can lead to improved quality of life for young patients with cancer, according to a study in Practical Radiation Oncology.1 In the past, the clinical focus for...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) announced that it has issued new NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology for Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Oncology.1 Adolescent and young adult patients are defined in the guidelines as individuals 15 to 39 years of age at initial cancer...
Supplements touted as preventing prostate cancer may turn out to be dangerous, as is evident from updated results of the largest long-term prevention trial, called the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT). Final analysis of SELECT showed that, compared to placebo, vitamin E alone ...
Short-term androgen deprivation therapy does not appear to increase cardiovascular mortality in men with clinically localized prostate cancer, according to a post hoc analysis of a large Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG)-sponsored clinical trial.1 “Our study analyzes data from a large...
Combined-modality therapy provides a bladder-sparing alternative to radical cystectomy with comparable outcomes in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer, according to a pooled analysis of six Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) trials.1 The study included 468 patients and showed that...
The phenomenon called “chemobrain”—impaired cognitive functioning following chemotherapy—correlates with longitudinal changes in the brain’s white matter, according a recent study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.1 Structural changes in the white matter, measured by magnetic resonance diffusion...
The Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) mid-March Annual Meeting devoted several sessions to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Will it still be here after the Supreme Court decides its fate? If so, how much of it will survive, and how will it affect oncology practice? In...
The cumulative impact of changes in smoking behavior that started in the mid-1950s averted approximately 795,851 U.S. lung cancer deaths, 552,574 among men and 243,277 among women from 1975 to 2000, according to a report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The researchers also...
Changes in the cervical cancer screening guidelines, as recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), mainly concern longer intervals between screening tests and recommended ages when women should start and stop being screened. USPSTF Co-Vice Chair Michael L. LeFevre, MD, MSPH,...
In the News focuses on media reports that your patients may have questions about at their next visit. This continuing column will provide summaries of articles in the popular press that may prompt such questions, as well as comments from colleagues in the field. In March 2012, the U.S. Preventive...
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. Indication In January 2012, imatinib mesylate (Gleevec) was granted ...
The American Society of Clinical Oncology has joined the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Foundation and eight other medical specialty societies to take a collective stand in improving patient care and addressing rising health-care costs. As part of the ABIM Foundation’s Choosing Wisely®...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology have become the most widely used guidelines in oncology practice. The Guidelines cover 97% of all patients with cancer and are continually updated by expert panels. The 2012 Guidelines include some completely...
A mutational analysis of 18 genes in 398 patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) found at least one somatic alteration in 97.3% of the patients and identified genetic predictors of outcome that improved risk stratification among patients with AML, independent of age, white-cell count, induction...
Patients younger than 6 months at the start of systemic carboplatin treatment for retinoblastoma have a significant risk of developing hearing loss, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. A review of audiologic test results of 60 patients with retinoblastoma who received...
Women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) treated with breast-conserving surgery “continue to have diagnostic and invasive breast procedures in the conserved breast over an extended period,” according to a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. “The estimated 10-year...
Final analysis of the German Hodgkin Study Group (GHSG) HD14 trial concluded that intensified chemotherapy with two cycles of escalated BEACOPP (bleomycin, etoposide, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine [Matulane], and prednisone) followed by two cycles of ABVD (doxorubicin,...
Thromboembolic disease is common in patients with cancer and increases risk of mortality. Recent studies showed that the oral factor Xa inhibitor rivaroxaban (Xarelto) was as effective and safe as standard anticoagulant therapy in treating deep-vein thrombosis, with superior efficacy of rivaroxaban ...
Cisplatin-based adjuvant therapy is recommended for patients with resected stage II–IIIA non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). There have been no trials of adjuvant therapy in elderly patients with NSCLC, who constitute a large part of the NSCLC population. A number of analyses indicate that older...
Although age is the major risk factor for developing cancer, geriatric oncology is still a relatively new discipline within the oncology community. To gain insight into this evolving component of cancer care, The ASCO Post recently spoke with a leader in the field, Stuart M. Lichtman, MD, FACP,...
Radiotherapy is an alternative to surgery in muscle-invasive bladder cancer, particularly in less-fit patients. However, it is associated with high rates of incomplete response or recurrence, with salvage surgery often being required. Although synchronous chemoradiotherapy has improved local...
A recent press briefing moderated by Phil B. Fontanarosa, MD, MBA, Executive Editor, JAMA, presented new findings on comparative effectiveness research, and two of the studies discussed focused on cancer. Dr. Fontanarosa started by defining comparative effectiveness research, which gained...
A study by the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) reported that 5-year survival for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) among children treated through COG clinical trials increased from 83.7% during the period 1990-1994 to 90.4% in the period 2000-2005. The improvements in survival were observed among...
Studies assessing the effect of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing on prostate cancer mortality have produced conflicting results, and recommendations regarding PSA screening vary among authorities. The recently published 11-year follow-up of the European Randomized Study of Screening for...
Management of patients with cancer who have fever and a low neutrophil count is one of the most common scenarios oncologists face today. “Physicians have to be keenly aware of the infection risks, diagnostic methods, and microbial therapies required for managing febrile neutropenic patients because ...
It is said that time is perhaps the most treasured asset we have. If you are a practicing oncologist, everyone wants more and more of your time, and I’m not referring to patients. Rather, there is an increasing proliferation of folks who want to make sure we’re doing a good job, and they are...
While failure of remission-induction therapy is rare in children and adolescents with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), when it does occur it is highly adverse and heterogeneous, according to a study in The New England Journal of Medicine. “Patients who have T-cell leukemia appear to have a...
The use of dietary supplements by patients with cancer has risen significantly over the past 2 decades despite insufficient evidence of safety and effectiveness. Finding reliable sources of information about dietary supplements can be daunting. Patients typically rely on family, friends, and the...
New studies highlighting findings that will lead to improvements in the patient experience and identifying potential risks for development of cancers in the future were reported at a press briefing held during the 2012 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago. “In this era of sophisticated research advances, ...
In the News focuses on media reports that your patients may have questions about at their next visit. This continuing column will provide summaries of articles in the popular press that may prompt such questions, as well as comments from colleagues in the field. Older women treated for invasive...
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. Indication In January 2012, glucarpidase injection (Voraxaze) was...
If you have to miss the Annual Meeting this year, don’t worry. ASCO also offers Best of ASCO Meetings, which feature 2 days of presentations on the top scientific abstracts from the Annual Meeting, complemented by select education sessions. “The Best of ASCO Meeting provides an opportunity for...
The benefit from platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was demonstrated in four randomized trials (International Adjuvant Lung Cancer Trial [IALT], Canadian JBR.10 trial, Cancer and Leukemia Group B [CALGB] 9633 trial, and Adjuvant Navelbine International...
Outcomes for children with cancer have “improved over the course of the years incrementally, mostly not from the development of new drugs, because virtually all the drugs that we use now in leukemia were available in the 1970s. It is really through better understanding of the heterogeneity of the...
Three phase III, double-blind, multicenter, randomized studies showed that lenalidomide (Revlimid) maintenance therapy for patients with multiple myeloma significantly improved progression-free survival or time to progression, the primary endpoints of the studies published in The New England...
The value of the targeted agent crizotinib (Xalkori) may not be restricted to the 5% of patients with non–small cell lung cancer who have abnormalities in the ALK gene. In a phase I study conducted by the Children’s Oncology Group consortium, crizotinib halted tumor growth and, in some cases,...
The treatment of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma is one of the major success stories in medical oncology. Depending on clinical stage, clinical risk factors, and the treatment given, 60% to 90% of all patients can be cured of their malignancy long-term. Hodgkin lymphoma survivors represent one of...
David Khayat, MD, PhD, Chair of the Department of Medical Oncology at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, was inspired to become an oncologist by an episode that could have been ripped from the pages of one of his best-selling novels. At the age of 18, Dr. Khayat was the witness at his best...
Final data from the Children’s Cancer Group (CCG) trial evaluating low-dose involved-field radiation therapy (IFRT) for patients with Hodgkin lymphoma achieving a complete response after chemotherapy show that at a median follow-up of 7.7 years, IFRT produced a statistically significant improvement ...
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. Indication In April 2012, the kinase inhibitor everolimus...