The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN) has moved into new headquarters to Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. The new location will allow for greater hosting capacity for meetings, guests, and a growing staff. “International surveys repeatedly show that oncologists...
A health-care system is evaluated by various metrics: one is how it cares for its most vulnerable patients. The United States spends far more on health care than any nation in the world, yet access to high-quality oncology services remains elusive to certain minority populations—none more so than...
The text and photographs on this page are excerpted from a four-volume series of books titled Oncology: Tumors & Treatment, A Photographic History, by Stanley B. Burns, MD, FACS, and Elizabeth A. Burns. The photo below is from the volume titled “The Antiseptic Era: 1876–1900.” The photograph...
The ASCO Research Community Forum (RCF) 2018 Annual Meeting brought together 165 physician investigators and research staff from 34 states across the country—its largest meeting to date—to discuss contemporary challenges and develop creative solutions in conducting and managing clinical trials. The ...
According to Kaveh Shojania, MD, the keynote speaker at the 2018 ASCO Quality Care Symposium, dedicated quality improvement work can help repair a fragmented health-care delivery system, but it’s challenging, and there are multiple things that can go wrong during the process.1 “I’ve developed this ...
Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) recognized Senators Orrin Hatch (R–UT) and Michael Bennet (D–CO) for responding to a recently identified public health issue and proposing a solution to an issue impacting patients and their physicians. Senators Hatch and Bennet jointly introduced the Making...
The global burden of cancer is huge and growing. In 2018, there will be > 18 million new cancer cases and 9.6 million deaths.1,2 Although several recent articles have reviewed cancer in developing countries, few have focused on the Palestinian territories. There are several reasons for that,...
Thirteen years ago, Stephanie Koraleski, PhD, an oncology psychologist, and Kay Ryan, PhD, RN, a cardiac nurse and breast cancer survivor, in Omaha, brought together colleagues in the fields of clinical research, nursing, nutrition, mental health, physical therapy, pharmacy, and spirituality to...
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the Art of Oncology as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
Scientific journals are a cornerstone of medical knowledge, delivering information about the latest research discoveries to the medical professionals who will put them into practice. Once a manuscript is submitted, a journal editor guides it through peer review, extensive editing, and publication....
GUEST EDITOR Dr. Abraham is the Director of the Breast Oncology Program at Taussig Cancer Institute, and Professor of Medicine, Lerner College of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic. Find him on Twitter @jamecancerdoc. For this installment of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor, Jame Abraham, MD,...
A research team from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has discovered a way to use computed tomography (CT) imaging to assess kidney tumors that test positive for the biomarker CD117 and accurately determine—before surgery—whether the tumor is benign or malignant. Their findings...
Nearly 350 organizations—including medical societies and oncology treatments centers—are advocating for robust, sustained, and predictable annual funding increases for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) during the 6th annual Rally for Medical Research Hill Day, taking place...
ON SEPTEMBER 25–26, oncology care providers from across the United States will head to Capitol Hill to participate in the 3rd annual ASCO Advocacy Summit. Over 2 days, ASCO volunteer advocates will meet with members of Congress and their staff to educate them on critical issues affecting patients...
Research grants are vital to the success of academic research and researchers apply for these grants at all stages of their career. This makes writing stand-out grant applications an incredibly valuable skill for clinical investigators—and an intimidating task for first-time grant applicants....
“The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath.” —William Shakespeare THESE LINES from The Merchant of Venice suggest that mercy should be freely given. However, the metrics of quality is strained, pouring like a thunderous storm obscuring...
The American Medical Association and about 150 medical groups sent the following letter to Seema Verma, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), regarding the administration’s proposals included in the 2019 Medicare physician payment rule. The full text of...
United States Senator from Arizona John McCain passed away on August 25 of the brain cancer glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Numerous medical societies issued statements in light of his death, reprinted below. ASCO ASCO President Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, FACS, FASCO, issued the following...
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the Art of Oncology as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
Advanced practitioners (APs) are playing an increasing role in oncology as the demand for team-based care increases. With the growing number of APs joining oncology practices comes the increased need for training materials that are specifically tailored to this group. To meet this need, ASCO...
Space is limited for this year’s Research Community Forum Annual Meeting. Physician investigators and research staff are invited to attend this one-of-a-kind meeting taking place September 23–24 at ASCO headquarters in the DC metro area. The meeting offers a unique platform to physician researchers ...
To meet the growing demand for high-quality cancer care in China, Tahoe Hospital Management Co Ltd has reached a 5-year agreement with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) where health-care professionals from the Pennsylvania-based medical center will assist in the planning and...
It’s not just the leaps in development of precision medicines, the soaring costs, the new payment models, clinical trial designs, sources of data, and federal policies. It’s all of them plus the rapidity with which change is happening that makes this era of oncology exceptional. “I would say...
National guidelines advise doctors to discuss the benefits and harms of lung cancer screening with high-risk patients. A small study (n = 14) by researchers from the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center reported there is a gap between what guidelines...
Almost 1 year after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and...
THE ASSESSMENT of cognitive dysfunction in patients who have undergone chemotherapy is complex, and although a number of strategies are available, each has its limitations, according to Karin Olson, RN, PhD, Professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. At...
THE EMERGENCE of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has sparked a wave of optimism in hematologic malignancies, but as experience in using CAR T-cell therapy has grown, new challenges have surfaced. A pioneer in the field, David G. Maloney, MD, PhD, enlightened attendees on these issues ...
MANY IN the cancer research and National Institutes of Health (NIH) community are mourning the loss of long-time National Cancer Institute (NCI) senior leader Alan S. Rabson, MD, who died on July 4 at the age of 92. With a distinguished scientific career that spanned 6 decades and included...
THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has selected recipients of the 2018 William G. Coleman, Jr, PhD, Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Innovation Award. Now in its second year, this competitive...
Medicine is a family tradition for Hanna K. Sanoff, MD, MPH. “I was born and reared in a suburb just outside of Philadelphia and lived there my whole life until after college. I was one of those people who always knew they wanted to be a doctor. There were four generations of physicians on my...
Mailing colorectal cancer screening tests to patients insured by Medicaid increased screening rates for this population, reported researchers at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. In collaboration with the Mecklenburg County Health Department in...
TREVOR ROYCE, MS, MD, MPH, and Sheetal Kircher, MD, are the 2018–2019 ASCO Health Policy Fellows. Now entering its third year, the fellowship program offers oncologists the opportunity to gain the knowledge, skills, and experience necessary to shape regulatory and legislative policies that directly ...
In this edition of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, interviewed medical oncologist Lee S. Schwartzberg, MD, FACP, Executive Director at the West Cancer Center, Memphis. Dr. Schwartzberg’s major research interests are new therapeutic approaches to breast cancer,...
The following essay by Sushil Bhardwaj, MD, is adapted, with permission, 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...
The likelihood of severe complications after emergency colon cancer surgery is significantly higher over the weekend, according to a study published by Huijts et al in JNCCN – Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. The research was led by Perla Marang-van de Mheen, PhD, of the...
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, recently issued the following statement: Over the past decade, advances in our understanding of the basic biology of serious and life-threatening diseases has led to the development and FDA approval of targeted treatments for ...
Valentina Nardi, MD, is a staff pathologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, and her current clinical work includes implementing molecular assays for hematologic malignancies at the Center for Integrated Diagnostics. “I was born in Rome, but I did my high school and college education in Genoa. I ...
RICHARD D. SCHULICK, MD, MBA, a cancer surgeon and administrative leader, has been named Director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center, a consortium of three universities and three academic teaching hospitals. The University of Colorado Cancer Center is the hub of cancer research in the...
This year’s ASCO Research Community Forum (RCF) 2018 Annual Meeting will not be one to miss! Though still a few months away, I am thrilled to share the work that is already underway to bring the research community together for 2 days of learning and collaboration. During my term as Chair of the...
DAN THEODORESCU, MD, PhD, has been named Director of the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai, a position he will assume starting July 1, 2018. Dr. Theodorescu, a translational cancer researcher and expert in bladder cancer, will direct the oncology enterprise at...
Testing for minimal residual disease (MRD) has become an established part of the management of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), but in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the technology still warrants validation. To address issues and set new standards, the European LeukemiaNet Working Party recently ...
Dr. Hayes, ASCO President 2016–2017, is Professor of Internal Medicine; Stuart B. Padnos Professor in Breast Cancer; and Clinical Director of the Breast Oncology Program at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor. AS I COMPLETE my 3-year term as ASCO President, I am...
Nationally regarded radiation oncologist Karen M. Winkfield, MD, PhD, was born and reared in Wheatley Heights, a suburban hamlet on Long Island, New York, that shares borders with the prosperous community of Dix Hills and one of the Island’s lowest-income towns, Wyandanch. “I was fortunate to live ...
ASCO recently announced that Trevor Royce, MS, MD, MPH, and Sheetal Kircher, MD, have been selected for the ASCO Health Policy Fellowship Program. Now entering its third year, the fellowship program offers oncologists the opportunity to gain the knowledge-base, skills, and experience necessary to...
Arti Hurria, MD, FASCO, who is Director of City of Hope’s Center for Cancer and Aging, is a first generation of immigrant parents from India. “My parents left India and moved from England to Canarsie, Brooklyn, where I was born. When I was 8, my family moved to Southern California, partly due to...
Internationally renowned expert on the early detection, prevention, and treatment of younger women with breast cancer, Nagi S. El Saghir, MD, FACP, FASCO, was born on January 5, 1953, in Bint Jbeil, a village in southern Lebanon. His parents moved to Beirut in 1948, at the height of the...
The Tennessee Oncology Practice Society (TOPS) is among the oldest and one of many politically active ASCO State Affiliates. Founded in 1990, the organization has since been a voice for Tennessee’s diverse community of oncology professionals, advocating for patient access to the best available care ...
A Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute–supported randomized clinical trial of cancer survivors showed that 8 weeks of either acupuncture or cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) decreased the severity of insomnia among cancer survivors, though improvements were greatest among...
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the availability of evidence-based information on integrative and complementary therapies sometimes used by patients with cancer. In this installment, Lorenzo Cohen, PhD, and Alison Jefferies, BA, MEd, summarize research...
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) held its first scientific Annual Meeting on April 9, 1965, in the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. More than 70 members and invited guests attended the inaugural event, which featured three presentations on leukemia and multiple myeloma. The ...