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Showing 651 - 700Pemetrexed Maintenance in PARAMOUNT: Continuation Proves to Be a Strong Option for Advanced NSCLC, Although Not a Mandate
The PARAMOUNT trial1 represents an important landmark study of continuation maintenance therapy with pemetrexed (Alimta). While maintenance therapy gained a toehold in routine management of advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) several years ago, the first trials that demonstrated a...
Access to and Appropriate Use of Oncology Drugs Called Into Question by ASCO Studies
Studies presented at this year’s ASCO Annual Meeting suggest that despite the wealth of amazing oncolytics on the market, drug shortages persist, drug substitutions are common, off-label use of drugs occurs frequently, and patients find their costs burdensome. Drug Shortage Persists The shortage of ...
Long-Term Androgen Deprivation in Patients With Intermediate-Risk Prostate Cancer Does Not Improve Overall Survival
Men with advanced prostate cancer typically receive hormonal therapy to reduce the level of androgens in their bodies. Although hormone therapy alone will not cure prostate cancer, lowering androgen levels can reduce the size of prostate tumors or stall their growth. A secondary analysis of the...
Jean B. Owen, PhD, Named 2013 ASTRO Honorary Member at Annual Meeting
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) selected health-care researcher Jean B. Owen, PhD, as the 2013 Honorary Member, the highest honor ASTRO bestows on distinguished cancer researchers, scientists, and leaders in disciplines other than radiation oncology, radiobiology, and radiation...
ASCO Releases Statement on the Impact of the Government Shutdown on Cancer Care
All nonessential government services were suspended at midnight on October 1, 2013, after Congress failed to reach a budget compromise to keep the government funded before the start of the new fiscal year beginning on October 1, 2013. ASCO issued a statement in response to the government shutdown...
Intralesional Cytokine Therapy in Cutaneous Melanoma: A Call for Clinical Trials
Cutaneous melanomas are mostly an immunogenic group of tumors, but they are also heterogeneous. Therefore, therapeutic specificity and autogenetic approaches are essential to secure beneficial results. The objective of sentinel lymph node biopsy, at the time of diagnosis, is to identify patients...
Claudia I. Henschke, PhD, MD, Took a Circuitous Route to Her Groundbreaking Work in Lung Cancer Screening
“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” —Leonardo da Vinci Lung cancer CT screening may have had no greater advocate than Claudia I. Henschke, PhD, MD. In the face of...
Having Breast Cancer Has Actually Been a Positive Experience
I know it sounds strange, but being diagnosed with cancer was one of the best things to have happened to me. I don’t mean to diminish the traumatic experience of hearing the words, “You have breast cancer.” That was over 11 years ago, and I’m still reeling from the diagnosis and its aftereffects....
The Power of Human Attachment
For those patients with cancer who may be single, widowed, separated, or divorced, those for whom a natural social support system may be weak, the role of the cancer support group should not be overlooked. In leading a previous trial of supportive-expressive group therapy as a key pathway to foster ...
SIDEBAR: Expect Questions About Support Systems for Unmarried Patients
The study finding that unmarried patients with cancer “are at significantly higher risk of presentation with metastatic cancer, undertreatment, and death resulting from their cancer,” generated a lot of comments from colleagues, family members, and patients, the study’s lead author Ayal A. Aizer,...
Neoadjuvant Treatment of Early Breast Cancer
INSIDE THE BLACK BOX is an occasional column providing insight into the FDA and its policies and procedures. In this first installment, FDA Clinical Reviewers Laleh Amiri-Kordestani, MD, and Suparna Wedam, MD, discuss FDA’s recent approval of pertuzumab (Perjeta) for the neoadjuvant treatment of...
Important News Briefs: New Data Reported in Breast, Renal Cell, Head and Neck, and Lung Cancer
The 2013 European Cancer Congress (ECC), held September 27 to October 1 in Amsterdam, was jointly sponsored by the European Society of Medical Oncology, the European Cancer Organization, and the European Society of Radiation Oncology. With the Congress theme being “Reinforcing Multidisciplinarity,” ...
Benefits and Controversies in Survivorship Care Plans
Since the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM’s) 2005 report, From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Translation,1 survivorship plans have received growing attention. In short, a survivorship care plan is the record of a patient’s cancer history and recommendations for follow-up care. At ASCO’s...
Expert Point of View: Eric Van Cutsem, MD, PhD
Eric Van Cutsem, MD, PhD, Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Leuven in Belgium, the formal discussant of the late-breaking abstract, noted there is strong rationale for studying TP53 status in relation to rectal cancer outcomes, but he felt the findings of EXPERT-C could not yet be ...
Cancer Has Given Me a Greater Appreciation for Life
I’ve been blessed with good health for most of my life, and I was careful to keep it that way. I don’t smoke, I eat a healthy diet, and I maintain a healthy weight. I also was fortunate to be born with pretty good genes and have no family history of cancer. In fact, except for an occasional...
Patient-Reported Outcomes, a Central Component to Value and Rapid-Learning Systems
With the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010, value became the operative word in assessing the success of health care, from outcomes to cost. To drive more value, the Affordable Care Act seeks to implement initiatives such as comparative effectiveness research that...
African Americans Report Receiving Few Positive Recommendations by Physicians About Joining Clinical Trial
A study among African American patients with cancer who had declined to participate in a therapeutic clinical trial found that few patients reported receiving a positive recommendation from their physician to participate in the trial. “Patients gave multiple refusal reasons,” researchers led by...
Making Progress in Survivorship Care Planning
The recommendation that a survivorship care plan be provided to patients and their primary care providers was first presented in the 2006 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition. The IOM committee proposed that this document include two parts—a ...
Cancer Is in My Soul
The threat of getting cancer began for me before I was born. In 1950, when my mother was pregnant with me, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and refused treatment until after she gave birth, so I have always felt that cancer was woven into my soul. For the first year of my life, I was raised by...
Cautious Comments on the TARGIT-A Trial
Numerous randomized trials have demonstrated that whole-breast irradiation plays an important role after breast-conserving surgery for invasive breast cancer. A recent meta-analysis of these trials indicated that whole-breast irradiation decreased the risk of total breast cancer relapse events and...
Surprising Findings for Lenalidomide Maintenance in Updated IFM 2005-02 Analysis
A new analysis of the multiple myeloma Intergroupe Francophone du Myelome (IFM) 2005-02 trial showed that lenalidomide (Revlimid) maintenance prolongs progression-free survival after stem cell transplantation, but does not improve overall survival.1 This is possibly attributed to the shorter...
Expert Point of View: Debu Tripathy, MD
Debu Tripathy, MD, Professor of Medicine, Co-Leader of the Women’s Cancer Program, and the Priscilla and Art Ulene Chair in Women’s Cancer at the University of Southern California Norris Cancer Center, Los Angeles, commented on the APT study for The ASCO Post. “In treating early-stage...
Anastrozole Halves Risk of First Breast Cancer in High-Risk Postmenopausal Women
Five years of treatment with anastrozole reduced the risk of breast cancer by 53% in postmenopausal women at high risk for developing the disease, according to an analysis of the International Breast Cancer Intervention Study (IBIS)-II trial. Anastrozole reduced the risk of estrogen...
Addition of Carboplatin to Standard Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Supported by SABCS Studies
The achievement of a pathologic complete response in patients with triple-negative breast cancer was boosted by the addition of carboplatin to a standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimen, and by the addition of veliparib, an investigational oral PARP inhibitor, plus carboplatin to a standard...
Nothing Prepared Me for Cancer
Fourteen years ago, when I was just 29, I was feeling weak and fatigued and had severe pain in my abdomen. I’d had these symptoms for about a year, but none of the several doctors I saw or any of the tests they performed could find the source of my problems. I even had one nurse practitioner tell...
Focus on the Michigan Society of Hematology and Oncology
Founded nearly 3 decades ago in response to unfavorable changes in Medicare reimbursement regulations and growing coverage issues with Michigan’s private payers that threatened oncologists’ ability to provide quality cancer care to patients, the Michigan Society of Hematology and Oncology (MSHO)...
FDA Programs to Expedite Drug and Biologic Product Development
With the advent of Breakthrough Therapy designation, there are now four FDA programs to expedite the development of promising new agents: Fast Track, Breakthrough Therapy, Priority Review, and Accelerated Approval (Table 1). These programs complement one another and serve a common goal: to speed...
NIH Makes Palliative Care More Attainable for Pediatric Patients and Their Families
A campaign “Palliative Care: Conversations Matter” recently launched by the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) aims to increase the use of palliative care for children with serious illness. Palliative care can reduce a child’s pain, help manage other distressing symptoms, and provide...
Jamie H. Von Roenn, MD, and ASCO: A Perfect Fit
Dr. Von Roenn’s history with ASCO spans nearly 3 decades. She has served on ASCO’s Board of Directors, the ASCO Palliative Care Task Force, the Scientific Program, Cancer Education, and Cancer Communications Committees, among others. In 2011, Dr. Von Roenn received the ASCO-ACS Award at the Annual...
Expert Point of View: Debu Tripathy, MD
Debu Tripathy, MD, Professor of Medicine, Co-Leader of the Women’s Cancer Program, and the Priscilla and Art Ulene Chair in Women’s Cancer at the University of Southern California Norris Cancer Center, Los Angeles, commented on the APT study for The ASCO Post. “In treating early-stage HER2-positive ...
Telemedicine: Efficiency in Cancer Screening and Outreach
As defined by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration teleheath is “the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health, and health administration.” It has ...
The Evolution of U.S. Cooperative Group Trials: Publicly Funded Cancer Research at a Crossroads
Over the past 5 decades, National Cancer Institute (NCI) Clinical Trials Cooperative Groups have played an enormous role in the fight against cancer, tackling a broad social agenda, including cancer prevention, quality-of-life issues for patients with cancer, and comparison of benefits among...
Amended 2013 Conflicts of Interest Policy Expands Requirements for Financial Disclosures
The Society’s 2013 Policy for Relationships with Companies is scheduled to go into effect on April 22, with one large change to its original requirements. The policy will still require the full disclosure of all financial relationships by all authors; however, since announcing the new policy in...
Cancer Research Funding Still Tight—and Getting Tighter
Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), CEO of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), welcomed about 150 congressional staffers to a March briefing in Washington, DC, with a plea for increased federal funding. “Extraordinary progress is being made in cancer research today, as evidenced by the...
‘Double-Hit’ Lymphomas a Challenge for the Oncologist
"Double-hit” lymphomas remain challenging tumors, and the best means of treatment remains somewhat elusive, according to studies presented at the 2013 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting in New Orleans, and experts who commented on these findings. “We still don’t have a standard of...
SSO-ASTRO Margin Guideline: Why Now and What Does It Mean?
Although breast-conserving therapy has been a standard practice for more than 20 years, controversy still exists over what constitutes the appropriate margin of normal breast tissue around a tumor that minimizes local recurrence while maintaining a good cosmetic outcome. Surveys of surgeons1 and...
Learning to Live in the Moment
I’ve been health conscious all my life. I have never smoked, I eat a healthy diet, and I have maintained a near-daily exercise routine since I was 20. I’m also steadfast about keeping yearly medical checkups and screenings. So when I felt a sharp, lightning-bolt of pain that went from the top of my ...
Journal of Clinical Oncology
During my Presidency, we decided to increase ASCO’s size to give clinical investigators a better position in the medical world. To that end, I decided that the Society needed its own journal. At that time, we sent our papers to Blood or Cancer Research, where, in my estimation, they received poor...
Science vs Practice
My year as President was a busy one. Aside from continuing my research and directing the activities of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project, I was drowned by the vast amount of information that was sent to me by ASCO headquarters. At the onset of my Presidency, I discovered...
One Community
My Presidential theme was One Community. I think that theme continues to express much of our goal in oncology, which is to make sure that all members of the cancer care team work together—oncologists, nurses, scientists, nutritionists, psychologists, social workers, administrators, and others. I...
Schwartz Center Rounds® Programs Foster Clinical Teamwork and Enhance Patient Care
In the fall of 1994, 40-year-old Kenneth B. Schwartz, a health-care lawyer, was diagnosed with lung cancer. Radiation and chemotherapy failed to stop progression of the disease, and 10 months later he died. During his treatment, Mr. Schwartz wrote about the ordeal of coming to grips with the...
Improving Quality of Life in Cancer Survivors
The number of cancer survivors has been steadily increasing in recent years. According to the Ministry of Health National Cancer Registry, in 2010 there were 254,000 cancer survivors in Israel (3.3% of the population) compared with 15,700 (0.4% of the population, P < .005) in 1975.1 Forty years...
Discussions About the Cost of Cancer Care Are Still Uncommon
Patients with cancer are extremely interested in discussing the cost of treatment, especially their share of the cost, but some oncologists are still hesitant to enter into these conversations, according to a study reported at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) 2014 Conference.1 “We...
Conquer Cancer Foundation and Strike 3 Foundation Work Together to Conquer Pediatric Cancers
Envision a world where a diagnosis of pediatric cancer is met with the same reaction as a diagnosis of the common cold. In this idyllic world, the word “cancer” no longer carries with it the same traumatic response or stigma that it does today. This hopeful vision is what drives Craig Breslow in...
Demanding More From Clinical Trials
“The function of the formal controlled clinical trial is to separate the relative handful of discoveries that prove to be true advances in therapy from a legion of false leads and unverifiable clinical impressions, and to delineate in a scientific way the extent of and the limitations that attend...
ASCO Releases Adapted Guideline on Screening, Assessment, and Care of Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in Adults With Cancer
Detection of depression is suboptimal, and its severity is underestimated in the general population, but it is known psychiatric disorders are more common in patients with cancer than in those with any other chronic illness. Although studies in cancer patients have yielded varying figures, it is...
NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology: 2014 Updates
At the 19th Annual Conference of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), held recently in Hollywood, Florida, NCCN Panel members presented updates for several tumor types, briefly summarized here. For a more complete description of all updates, visit www.nccn.org. Breast Cancer Guidelines ...
Nationally Renowned Surgeon and Researcher, John E. Niederhuber, MD, Relishes the Challenges That Lie Ahead
John E. Niederhuber, MD, was born and grew up in Steubenville, Ohio, a steel mill town located along the Ohio River. Dr. Niederhuber had a childhood interest in engineering and chemistry, but it was the town’s general practitioner who made a lasting impact on his career path. “He was an old-style...
ASCO Past President and Breast Cancer Researcher Works to Unite the Oncology Community in the Fight Against Cancer
World-renowned breast cancer researcher, Nancy E. Davidson, MD, was born in Denver, Colorado, the daughter of two geologists. “My mother was a geologist beginning in the 1940s, a time when women really didn’t pursue that kind of career. So, I was reared in a very scientifically oriented...
International Leader in Multiple Myeloma Was Inspired by an Early Mentor’s Lessons in Wisdom and Compassion
Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, grew up in Auburn, a small historic town in central Massachusetts that was settled by the English in 1714. His desire to become a doctor bloomed early. “My decision to possibly pursue a career in medicine was first inspired by my mother, who was a registered nurse, and by...
