GUEST EDITOR Addressing the evolving needs of cancer survivors at various stages of their illness and care, Palliative Care in Oncology is guest edited by Jamie H. Von Roenn, MD. Dr. Von Roenn is ASCO’s Vice President of Education, Science, and Professional Development. Because cultural origins...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) unveiled a strategic plan to eliminate the agency’s existing Orphan Drug designation request backlog and ensure continued timely response to all new requests for designation with firm deadlines. The agency’s Orphan Drug Modernization...
On June 26, at the Alexandria Center for Life Science, Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden launched the Biden Cancer Initiative, their new venture to continue the fight to make progress in cancer prevention, detection, treatment, and care. Initiative Overview The Biden Cancer Initiative...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Antonia R. Sepulveda, MD, PhD, of Columbia University, and colleagues, a joint guideline on the use of molecular biomarkers for evaluation of colorectal cancer has been developed by an expert panel from the American Society for Clinical Pathology...
“No man is an island entire of itself; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” —John Donne (1624) This statement is almost certainly true—and sadly in a negative way not just for the UK but for...
When patients with metastatic cancer used a Web-based tool to self-report symptoms proactively during treatment, they lived 5 months longer than did patients assigned to usual care. In addition, they had improved quality of life and fewer emergency room visits and hospitalizations compared with...
THE NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE (NCI) has awarded $24 million to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Fred Hutch) to continue operating the NCI’s primary public access point for cancer information in both English and Spanish. With the new contract, the Contact Center will emphasize clinical trial ...
Being transparent about the cost of cancer treatments with patients has been increasingly recommended to help minimize financial harm and improve care, but what's preventing or derailing those conversations is less understood. New findings from Penn Medicine that identified several barriers and key ...
Among patients with cancer, as many as 53% of emergency department visits that do not require admission could be avoided with better symptom management and greater availability of outpatient care tailored to their needs, according to a new study from Fred Hutchinson Cancer...
In a study of three radiation therapies for early-stage breast cancer, one treatment option stands out as offering the most value based on factors including health outcomes, cost-effectiveness, and quality of life. The treatment—hypofractionated whole-breast irradiation—also requires...
Robert L. Comis, MD, FASCO, Co-Chair of the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group, succumbed to a sudden illness at his home and died on May 10, 2017, at the age of 71. A giant in national and international clinical research since 1977, Dr. Comis is known as a champion of patient access to cancer...
Waun Ki Hong, MD, FACP, one of the nation’s leading experts in head and neck and lung cancers, was born in South Korea and grew up in a tiny village outside the nation’s capital of Seoul. Number six of seven siblings, Dr. Hong described his early life in the cozy village as blissful, until the...
George P. Canellos, MD, President of ASCO from 1993 to 1994, was born in Boston on November 1, 1934. “I came from a business family and never wanted to do business at all. As long back as I can remember, I always found medicine attractive—not only because you could help people, but you could also...
The nationally recognized hematologist-oncologist Mojtaba Akhtari, MD, was born and reared in Tehran, Iran. “In my early years, I had a couple of cousins who were medical students. When I visited them in their homes, I was fascinated with the images in their medical text books. I would flip the...
Bruce E. Johnson, MD, FASCO, 2017–2018 ASCO President, was born in St. Peter, Minnesota, and grew up on a rural dairy farm. “Neither of my parents had college degrees, but working on a dairy farm with them gave me a solid work ethic. I was working outside on the farm before I was 10 years old. In...
Is there enough evidence to support the incorporation of weight management and physical activity interventions into an oncology practice? And if so, what is the best way to do it? The answer to the first question was a resounding yes from oncologists, patient advocates, dietitians, public health...
Ensuring that all patients with cancer have access to the potential benefits of precision medicine regardless of where they are treated has been a primary goal of Bruce E. Johnson, MD, FASCO, since the concept was first introduced following completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003. Dr....
ASCO has issued recommendations addressing the needs of sexual and gender minority populations as they relate to cancer. The recommendations, published in a policy statement in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,1 are designed to focus attention on the challenges facing the sexual and gender...
Lung cancer persistently remains the leading cause of cancer death among men and women in the United States. Only about 15% of lung cancers are diagnosed at the localized stage, when clinical intervention could markedly improve patient outcomes. For decades, lung cancer specialists and advocacy...
Robert L. Comis, MD, FASCO, Co-Chair of the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group, succumbed to a sudden illness at his home and died on May 10, 2017, at the age of 71. A giant in national and international clinical research since 1977, Dr. Comis is known as a champion of patient access to cancer...
June 27, 2017, marks the 1-year anniversary since Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, FASCO, began his tenure as Chief Executive Officer of ASCO. With the launch of the national Cancer Moonshot and the changes in the White House and Congress, it has been a year of tremendous activity drawing on all of...
EACH YEAR, the ASCO President chooses a theme for his or her term, which is not a trivial pursuit. Trying to think up something novel and catchy, yet not schmaltzy, is quite a challenge. However, in my year as Chair of the Scientific Program Committee for the 2010 ASCO Annual Meeting, then during...
Many patients with cancer who receive vinca alkaloids such as vincristine have a treatment regimen including other chemotherapy drugs that are administered intrathecally. If vincristine is mistakenly administered into the spinal fluid, it is uniformly fatal, causing ascending paralysis, neurologic...
ASCO has released findings from a collaboration with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) that explored centralizing the development of coverage analyses for multisite cancer clinical trials. In an ASCO special article published by Szczepanek et al in the Journal of Oncology Practice,...
Registration is now open for the ASCO Research Community Forum 2017 Annual Meeting. Join fellow physician investigators and research staff from across the country for this unique meeting focused on sharing best practices for effectively conducting and managing clinical research and developing...
On April 5, ASCO announced that Instituto de Oncologia do Vale (IOV) was the first practice in Brazil to receive Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI®) certification through the QOPI Certification Program, LLC (QCP). IOV is the second international practice to achieve this milestone in...
This CE/CME/CEU-accredited supplement is jointly provided by To earn credit/contact hours, you must read all the articles in this supplement and then go to: https://education.annenberg.net/cdk46inhibition Release date: May 10, 2017 Expiration date: May 10, 2018Annenberg Center for Health...
End-of-life care in any patient with cancer is challenging for the patient, family, and physician. Issues faced at the end of life include pain, depression, loss of dignity, and hopelessness. In the geriatric patient, additional complexities are present in the form of comorbid conditions,...
An accomplished urologic oncologist and longtime senior leader at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, James Mohler, MD, received the 2017 Rodger Winn Award at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) 22nd Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida. Dr. Mohler is Associate Director and Senior Vice...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) inducted its newly elected class of Fellows of the AACR Academy at its Annual Meeting, held April 1–5, 2017, in Washington, DC. 2017 Class of Fellows Sir Adrian P. Bird, PhD, Buchanan Professor of Genetics, Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, ...
CancerLinQ LLC, a wholly owned nonprofit subsidiary of ASCO, and the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) have recently formed the CancerLinQ® Ambassadors Program. This new collaboration is a national practice engagement initiative that will provide on-the-ground support and guidance to CancerLinQ...
Elizabeth M. Jaffee, MD, was elected by the members of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) as its President-Elect for 2017–2018. She officially became President-Elect at the AACR Annual Meeting 2017, held in Washington, April 1–5, and will assume the presidency in April 2018 at the ...
Implementation science encompasses the study of methods to accelerate integration of evidence into practice and policy to improve health-care outcomes. At the 2017 ASCO Quality Care Symposium, Sandra A. Mitchell, PhD, CRNP, of the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the National...
The Conquerors Circle is the Conquer Cancer Foundation’s first-ever donor appreciation society. Donors who contribute $1,000 annually are members of the Conquerors Circle. In appreciation for their generous and loyal support of the Conquer Cancer Foundation, Conquerors Circle members receive...
As part of ASCO’s efforts to support cancer researchers and research sites, the ASCO Research Community Forum was created in 2010 to help physician investigators and research staff overcome common barriers to conducting research and enhance their research-site operations. The Forum is a go-to...
Since the mid-2000s, medication and illicit drug abuse in the United Sates has steadily increased, creating what has now been termed an “opioid epidemic.” In response, Congress and the Bush and Obama Administrations have launched intervention and regulatory proposals to help turn the troubling...
The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) has endorsed a report released by the Core Team for Tobacco Control that outlines key action items that can be taken immediately to accelerate progress toward ending cigarette smoking in adults. Issuing their Executive Summary ...
The year 2016 was a memorable one for oncology. In January, President Barack Obama announced the launch of the National Cancer Moonshot initiative, spearheaded by Vice President Joe Biden, which aims to accelerate cancer research. And in December, through bipartisan Congressional support, the 21st ...
Richard ‘Rick’ Boulay, MDChief of Gynecologic Oncology Institution: Lehigh Valley Health Network Member since: 2016 Three years ago, Richard ‘Rick’ Boulay, MD, Chief of Gynecologic Oncology at Lehigh Valley Health Network, walked onto the stage at TEDx Lehigh River and confronted his audience...
The majority of children with cancer are treated with complicated chemotherapy regimens that include multiple drugs, demanding monitoring schedules and complex dosing based on body surface area that often require changes in dose. Given this high risk for error in treating children with these highly ...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Basch et al found that use of patient-reported outcome questionnaires to report symptomatic adverse events was feasible in the setting of multicenter cancer treatment trials. Study Details In the study, 361 consecutive patients enrolled in 1 of 9 U.S....
Lisa Lange, ANP-BC, AOCN, of the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, has been promoted to Vice President of the Clinical Trials Office. Ms. Lange brings 26 years of experience as a nurse and nurse practitioner, specializing in clinical oncology care and research. She has been with Karmanos for...
There’s no getting around it: the practice of oncology can be inherently stressful. First, there’s the workload: compared to other medical specialists, oncologists see a larger number of patients and spend more time with them in face-to-face interactions. It’s not unusual for oncologists to work 60 ...
William Breitbart, MD, has been honored with the 2017 American Cancer Society Trish Greene Quality of Life Award, a prestigious national honor that recognizes an outstanding individual who dedicates a significant portion of his or her career to research that improves the quality of life for cancer ...
This CE/CME/CU-accredited supplement is jointly provided by: To earn credit/contact hours, you must read all the articles in this supplement and then go to https://education.annenberg.net/IASLC Release date: February 25, 2017 Expiration date: February 25, 2018Annenberg Center for Health...
Understanding, anticipating, and managing the toxicities associated with immunotherapies for lung cancer are key to steps to safely using and achieving the most benefit from these new agents, according to Beth Eaby-Sandy, MSN, CRNP, OCN, a nurse practitioner at the University of Pennsylvania’s...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Antonia Sepulveda, MD, PhD, of Columbia University, and colleagues, a joint guideline on the use of molecular biomarkers for evaluation of colorectal cancer has been developed by an expert panel from the American Society for Clinical Pathology...
Justin F. Klamerus, MD, MMM, has been appointed President of the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Hospital, the clinical operation of Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit. The appointment was effective as of January 2017. Dr. Klamerus will report directly to Gerold Bepler, MD, PhD, President and Chief...
In October 2016, the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO (CCF) hosted its Second Scientific and Career Development Retreat at ASCO headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. Attendees included Career Development Award (CDA) and Young Investigator Award (YIA) recipients awarded between 2010 and 2016; ASCO ...
Cancer takes away millions of lives every year, and in low- and middle-income countries, the high cancer mortality rate can often be attributed to scarce means and a shortage of trained professionals. Hoping to contribute my best in the fight against this disease, I chose to become an oncologist in ...