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Showing 6701 - 6750A Look Ahead: How the FDA Is Adapting in the Era of Precision Medicine
Dubbed “Cancer Czar” by the media, Richard Pazdur, MD, Director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of Hematology and Oncology Products, said he has the “best job in oncology, with a unique vantage point in cancer drug development.” An oncologist for more than 30 years—including...
The Scientific Perils of Sequestration
We are just 7 months into the $1 trillion in automatic federal budget spending cuts known as sequestration, and the impact on scientists in all areas of research is already so great, some say its full effects may be irreversible. The ASCO Post recently interviewed ASCO President Clifford A. Hudis, ...
Advancing Psychosocial Oncology Care Over the Next Decade
A psychiatrist for more than 40 years, Jimmie C. Holland, MD, Attending Psychiatrist and Wayne E. Chapman Chair at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Professor of Psychiatry, Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York, is internationally recognized as the founder of the...
Steven T. Rosen, MD, Named Provost and Chief Scientific Officer of City of Hope
City of Hope has selected Steven T. Rosen, MD, the Director of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, as its first Provost and Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Rosen will set the scientific direction of City of Hope as it embarks on a...
Molecularly Targeted Therapy for Lung Cancer
INSIDE THE BLACK BOX is an occasional column offering insight into the FDA and its policies and procedures. This installment addresses a changing paradigm in the treatment of lung cancer, exemplified by concurrent approval of a companion diagnostic with each of several new targeted agents or new...
Cancer Patients Are at Increased Risk of Complications From the Flu and Should Receive Flu Shots, but Not the Nasal Spray
Widespread influenza activity continues to be reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with a recent increase in flu-related hospitalizations.1,2 Patients with cancer are at increased risk from flu complications and should receive the flu shot, but not the flu nasal spray...
Reports From the IPOS/AORTIC Travel Scholars
Eight individuals were awarded travel scholarships allowing them to attend the IPOS/AORTIC Program (International Psycho-Oncology Society/African Organization for Research and Training in Cancer) and share their experiences and efforts toward improving the psychosocial care of patients with cancer...
ASCO Member Helps to Strengthen Cancer Care Internationally Through Philanthropy and Volunteer Service
Ian F. Tannock, MD, PhD, DSc, FASCO, Professor of Medical Oncology at Princess Margaret Hospital and University of Toronto, has long been an advocate for ASCO as a truly global society and a leader in cancer care worldwide. It’s something he encouraged during his time on ASCO’s Board of Directors,...
Corrections to Note
In the January 15, 2014, issue of The ASCO Post, three errors occurred. These errors have since been corrected and revised versions of the articles may be viewed online at ASCOPost.com or via the QR code here. The errors were as follows below. Trastuzumab Dosing In the article “HER2-Positive...
Impact of Comprehensive Lifestyle Change on Telomere Length and Telomerase Activity in Men With Low-Risk Prostate Cancer
Ornish et al at the University of California in San Francisco and the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California, performed a 5-year study1 including 35 men on active surveillance (10 in a lifestyle-intervention group and 25 in a control group) with low-risk prostate cancer....
Cancer Pain: The Humbling Reality
As a medical oncologist and palliative care physician, I’ve had the privilege of caring for cancer patients and delivering primary palliative care and symptom control, as well as the chance to care for patients especially referred for complex pain and symptom problems (in secondary and even...
U.S. Government Accountability Office Issues Report on Drug Shortages
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently issued a report evaluating drug shortages and the associated public health threats, including prolonged duration of a disease, permanent injury, and death.1 This report follows a recommendation by GAO in 2011 that the U.S. Food and Drug...
‘Epidemic of Diagnosis’ of Thyroid Cancer Is Most Acute for Women
The epidemiology of the increased incidence of thyroid cancer, which has nearly tripled since 1975, “suggests that it is not an epidemic of disease but rather an epidemic of diagnosis,” Louise Davies, MD, MS, and H. Gilbert Welch, MD, MPH, concluded after analyzing trends in patients diagnosed with ...
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Committee Identifies Eight Palliative Care Priorities in Pediatric Oncology
About 2½ years ago, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis conducted a series of focus groups to better understand the palliative care priorities of bereaved parents. Their findings were never intended to be generalized, but rather to be used to formulate a strategic plan for an...
American Association for Cancer Research Welcomes New Board of Directors, Nominating Committee Members
The members of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) have elected five members to serve on the AACR Board of Directors for the 2014–2017 term and four members to serve on the Nominating Committee for the 2014–2016 term. They assumed their roles at the AACR Annual Meeting 2014, held in ...
The FDA’s Bad Ad Program
INSIDE THE BLACK BOX is an occasional column providing insight into the FDA and its policies and procedures. In this installment, Robert Dean, MBA, Director, and Michael Sauers, Deputy Director, of Division II in the FDA’s Office of Prescription Drug Promotion discuss the FDA’s Bad Ad program. The...
Shaw T. Chen, MD, PhD, Joins Polaris Pharmaceuticals
Shaw T. Chen, MD, PhD, has been appointed Executive Vice-President of Regulatory Affairs at Polaris Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Polaris Group. Dr. Chen had previously been with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for over 26 years in new drug development. Most recently he served as...
ASCO Speaks Out on Release of Medicare Physician Payment Data
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is deeply concerned about [the recent] release of Medicare physician payment data. ASCO is committed to the delivery of high-quality, high-value care for all people with cancer in the United States. This data release solely focuses attention on the...
Breaking Bad News Badly Can Add to Upset
When the prognosis is poor, breaking the bad news badly can exacerbate the distress experienced by cancer patients and their families. A lack of sensitivity to patient and family emotions and not being attuned to how individual patients would prefer to be informed about their prognoses can result...
ASCO Cofounder Jane Cooke Wright, MD, Defied Racial/Gender Barriers and Helped Usher in the Modern Age of Chemotherapy
When Jane Cooke Wright, MD, met with six other oncologists at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago on April 9, 1964, to discuss the creation of American Society of Clinical Oncology, the first medical society dedicated to bringing patient-oriented issues to clinical oncology, the Civil Rights Act...
Becky L. DeKay, MBA, Becomes President of ACCC
Becky L. DeKay, MBA, became President of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) at its 40th Annual National Meeting in April. She is Director of Oncology Services at the Feist-Weiller Cancer Center at Louisiana State University (LSU) Health Shreveport, in Louisiana. “I am honored to...
CancerCare Names Patricia J. Goldsmith Chief Executive Officer
CancerCare recently announced Patricia J. Goldsmith has been named the organization’s Chief Executive Officer. CancerCare is a national nonprofit organization providing free, professional support services to anyone affected by cancer. The announcement comes as the group celebrates 70 years of...
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins Announces Faculty Appointments, Grants
Noah M. Hahn, MD, has been selected as Associate Professor of Oncology and Urology at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Before joining Johns Hopkins, Dr. Hahn was the Director of the Genitourinary Medical Oncology Program at Indiana University. He is an...
ASCO Releases Adapted Guideline on Screening, Assessment, and Management of Fatigue in Adult Survivors of Cancer
A majority of cancer patients experience some level of fatigue during the course of their treatment, and approximately 30% contend with persistent fatigue for years after treatment. Fatigue is among the most common and distressing long-term effects of cancer treatment and significantly affects...
Guidelines for Chemotherapy-Induced Neuropathy: The Known Unknowns
It is a tribute to the advances in supportive care that peripheral neuropathy, along with fatigue, has become the most vexing management challenge in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. The successes of modern antiemetic regimens and white blood cell growth factor support have radically altered ...
Bringing Palliative Care Services to Local Community Clinical Practices and Health Facilities Throughout the World
In 2007, the Billings Clinic Cancer Center in Billings, Montana, became one of 15 community-based oncology centers nationwide to receive funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to expand programs for clinical trials, health-care disparities outreach, survivorship and palliative care,...
ASCO Endorses SSO/ASTRO Guideline on Margins for Breast-Conserving Surgery With Whole-Breast Irradiation in Stage I/II Breast Cancer
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,1 ASCO has endorsed the recently published Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) and American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) consensus guideline on margins for breast-conserving surgery with whole-breast irradiation in stage I and II invasive...
Expect Questions From Patients
With the extensive media coverage of a study indicating that injections with the luteinizing hormone–releasing hormone (LHRH) agonist goserelin (Zoladex) may offer a new option for preserving fertility among women treated for breast cancer, physicians can expect questions from interested patients....
New Option for Preserving Fertility in Women Being Treated With Chemotherapy for Early-Stage Breast Cancer
One of the most reported studies emanating from the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting involves the use of the luteinizing hormone–releasing hormone (LHRH) agonist goserelin (Zoladex) to reduce the risk of ovarian failure among women being treated with chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer, and to...
Federal Pain Research Database Launched
The Interagency Pain Research Portfolio (IPRP), a database that provides information about pain research and training activities supported by the federal government, has been launched by six federal agencies. “This database will provide the public and the research community with an important tool...
ASTRO Names Three Radiation Oncologists as Recipients of Society’s 2014 Gold Medal
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has announced the names of three recipients of the Society’s highest honor, the ASTRO Gold Medal. Mary K. Gospodarowicz, MD, FASTRO, Leonard L. Gunderson, MD, MS, FASTRO, and Nancy J. Tarbell, MD, FASTRO, will receive the ASTRO Gold Medal...
Moffitt Receives $1.6 Million Grant for Lung Cancer Screenings
Moffitt Cancer Center Thoracic Oncology Department Chair Scott Antonia, MD, PhD, received an Infrastructure Grant Florida’s James and Esther King Biomedical Research Program. The grant will help fund Moffitt’s comprehensive lung screening program. Earlier this year the U.S. Preventive Services Task ...
ASPHO Abstracts Cover Broad Range of Topics
More than 400 abstracts—a record—were submitted for the 27th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology in Chicago. Here is a small sampling of those studies, with comments from the abstract authors. Token Economy to Improve Compliance BMT Bucks form the basis of a...
Take-Home Messages From ASCO's Immediate Past President
The ASCO Post recently spoke with ASCO Immediate Past President Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, about his term as ASCO President. Dr. Hudis discussed his thoughts on ASCO today and shared his perspective on a number of important issues in oncology, including value in cancer care, big data, and more....
ASTRO Names Angelita Habr-Gama, MD, PhD, Honorary Member
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has named Angelita Habr-Gama, MD, PhD, as the 2014 Honorary Member, the Society’s highest honor. Dr. Habr-Gama is Professor of Surgery at the University of Sao Paulo School of Medicine and Staff Surgeon of Coloproctological Surgery at Hospital...
FDA Approval of Ceritinib for the Treatment of ALK-Positive Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
INSIDE THE BLACK BOX is an occasional column providing insight into the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and its policies and procedures. In this installment, FDA oncologists Sean Khozin, MD, MPH, and Dikran Kazandjian, MD, discuss anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive non–small cell...
Mark Del Beccaro, MD, Named Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer of Seattle Children’s Hospital
Seattle Children’s has announced that Mark Del Beccaro, MD, has been appointed as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer (CMO) effective October 1, 2014. Dr. Del Beccaro, who currently serves as Vice President of Medical Affairs, will replace David Fisher, MD, who is retiring. “Mark has...
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...
Delivering Cancer Care in Low-Income Countries
In eealthy industrialized nations like the United States, escalating costs of cancer care have put the term “cost-effective care” on the forefront of health-care policy discussions. However, the cost issues we wrestle with in our $3 trillion health-care system are vague abstractions for much of the ...
Drew Pinsky, MD, Elected to Prostate Cancer Foundation Board of Directors
The Prostate Cancer Foundation has announced that Drew Pinsky, MD, has been elected to the Foundation’s Board of Directors. Dr. Pinsky, a cancer survivor, is a Practicing Physician and a Member of the Staff of Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California. He is also Assistant Clinical...
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...
Timing and Meaning of Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders in the Palliative Care Setting
Although a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order does not mean “do not treat,” that is how it is often interpreted, according to a study examining the level of care oncology inpatients at a tertiary care hospital received.1 The study found that the interpretation of DNR orders among oncology nurses and...
Complications No Different Between Open and Robot-Assisted Radical Cystectomy When Open Urinary Diversion Performed
We read the letter to the editor in the July 24, 2014, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine entitled, “A Randomized Trial of Robot-Assisted Laparoscopic Radical Cystectomy,” with great interest.1 Provocative Results In the letter, reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Bochner and...
Rwanda Offers Women Free Cervical Cancer Screening, HPV Vaccination
Cervical cancer is one of the major killers among women in Rwanda, and with the support of Rwanda’s First Lady, Jeannette Kagame, the country is rolling out a free human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and cervical cancer screening program in collaboration with Marck, Qiagen (a Dutch...
Patient-Reported Outcomes in Hematology and Oncology Product Development
INSIDE THE BLACK BOX is an occasional column providing insight into the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and its policies and procedures. In this installment, Virginia Kwitkowski, MS, RN, ACNP-BC, and Elektra Papadopoulos, MD, MPH, discuss FDA’s current approach to the review of study...
Fox Chase Cancer Center Announces New Staff
Fox Chase Cancer Center has announced the appointment of two staff to the Center’s Department of Radiation Oncology and Surgical Oncology, respectively. Mark A. Hallman, MD, PhD, joins the Department of Radiation Oncology having served there recently as the Department’s Chief Resident. Sanjay S....
Ketan K. Badani, MD, Additional Staff, Appointed to Mount Sinai Health System
Ketan K. Badani, MD, Professor of Urology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, has been named Vice Chairman of Urology and Robotic Operations and Director of the Comprehensive Kidney Cancer Program for the Mount Sinai Health System. Dr. Badani will also serve as Director of Robotic ...
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...
Early Study Reports Modified Vitamin D Has Potential in Treatment for Pancreatic Cancer
Researchers at the Salk Institute have reported on a synthetic derivative of vitamin D able to collapse the barrier of cells shielding pancreatic tumors, making this challenging cancer more susceptible to therapeutic drugs. The discovery has led to human trials for pancreatic cancer, even in...
Ohio State Opens First Fully Integrated Cancer Emergency Department
For patients with cancer who already have compromised immune systems, what may seem like a minor medical issue—ie, fever, dehydration, viral infection—can rapidly escalate into an emergency situation requiring care from a medical team familiar with managing the side effects of cancer treatment....
