The Oncology Care Model was instituted in 2016 by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation as a move away from the fee-for-service payment model and toward value-based care. It has sparked discussion ever since. How should quality be defined? Whose and what values should it reflect? How...
Formal discussant Silke Gillessen, MD, of the Division of Cancer Sciences, University of Manchester, United Kingdom, agreed that this study is practice-changing. “The study was well designed and addressed an unmet clinical need that is commonly seen in the clinic. Until now we had no randomized...
Third-line treatment with cabazitaxel extended progression-free survival and overall survival in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer in the CARD trial. These results provide the first evidence from a randomized phase III trial for a survival benefit with third-line therapy, and ...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Ken Kato, MD, and colleagues, the phase III ATTRACTION-3 trial conducted in predominantly Asian patients has shown a survival benefit with nivolumab vs paclitaxel or docetaxel in patients with advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma who were refractory to...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) initiative known as AACR Project Genomics Evidence Neoplasia Information Exchange (GENIE) is launching a 5-year, $36 million research collaboration with a coalition of nine biopharmaceutical companies. The goal of the project is to obtain clinical ...
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Chief of Breast Surgery, Kazuaki Takabe, MD, PhD, FACS, delivered the keynote address on immunotherapy for breast cancer at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society of Clinical Oncology (JSCO) in Fukuoka. During the meeting, Dr. Takabe also led a...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently awarded 12 new clinical trial research grants totaling more than $15 million over the next 4 years, many of them focusing on cancer. Also, the FDA awarded two new research grants for natural history studies in rare diseases, totaling more than...
American physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn coined the term “paradigm shift” to connote a fundamental change in the basic concepts and practices of a standard scientific discipline. They are few and far between. To convince the entrenched oncologic surgery community in the 1960s and 1970s that...
As first-line treatment for women with advanced ovarian cancer, the addition of veliparib during induction followed by veliparib maintenance therapy significantly reduced the risk of disease progression or death in the phase III VELIA/GOG-3005 trial reported at the European Society for Medical...
Men with higher levels of free (biologically active) testosterone and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in their blood are more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer, according to research presented by Travis et al at the 2019 National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Cancer Conference....
A computer-aided diagnosis system using deep-learning analysis to detect lung lesion locations and quantitatively characterize the lesions on computed tomography (CT) images offered a fast and convenient approach for assisting radiologists in the diagnosis of lung nodule pathologies. These findings ...
A study by Geoffrey R. Oxnard, MD, and colleagues using bisulfite sequencing of plasma cell-free DNA to identify methylomic signatures for multicancer detection and tissue-of-origin determination found the assay achieved accurate detection of multiple cancers across stages and tissue-of-origin...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) recognized the recipients of its 2019 Gold Medal awards and other high-profile honors at the 2019ASTRO Annual Meeting. Gold Medalists and Honorary Member Walter J. Curran, Jr, MD;Silvia C. Formenti, MD, FASTRO; and Thomas R. Mackie, PhD, were...
The treatment landscape for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma has changed drastically over the past several years with the introduction of many new therapeutic options for patients. The revolution began with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of nivolumab and ipilimumab...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Robert J. Motzer, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, and colleagues, extended follow-up of the phase III CheckMate 214 trial has shown maintained survival benefit of first-line nivolumab/ipilimumab vs sunitinib among patients with...
Unplanned hospitalizations may be common among patients with cancer, but they diminish quality of care while racking up high costs for patients and the health-care system alike. According to data presented at the 2019 ASCO Quality Care Symposium, however, a new predictive model may help providers...
Despite the spate of recent drug approvals in blood cancer, it’s been more than 13 years since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a treatment for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), a bone marrow disorder characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis. Nevertheless, data from a...
Inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinases 4 and 6 (CDK4/6) are associated with a robust benefit in patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, but now the monarcHER trial has confirmed their benefit in the HER2-positive population. The new findings were reported at the...
A new analysis has found that the results of up to one-fourth of completed lung cancer clinical trials are not published. This finding was published in a research letter by Al-Shbool et al in JAMA Network Open. “It is surprising to see that a quarter of trials that have been completed end up not...
Two new studies published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics focused on the use of proton radiation therapy to treat patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. The first study, by Sanford et al, found that proton radiation may extend overall survival compared to...
Founded in 1887, the Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) is located in Portland, Oregon, and is home to the cutting-edge Coussens Lab, which focuses on the role of immune cells and their mediators as critical regulators of cancer development. The lab’s eponymous Director, Lisa Coussens, PhD,...
Ravi Thadhani, MD, MPH, was named Chief Academic Officer at Partners HealthCare, starting November 11, 2019. Dr. Thadhani most recently served as Vice Dean of Research and Graduate Research Education at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Prior to that, he served as Associate Director of...
ACCC Honors Seven Cancer Programs With Innovator Awards The Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) honored the recipients of 2019 ACCC Innovator Awards at the ACCC 36th National Oncology Conference, October 30–November 1 in Orlando, Florida, where this year’s honorees shared innovative...
In a study reported in Cancer, Judith A. Malmgren, PhD, and colleagues found marked regional differences in improvements in breast cancer–specific survival among women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer between 1990 and 2011, with the best rates found in an institutional cohort. Study ...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Perl et al, the phase III ADMIRAL trial showed improved overall survival with the oral FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) inhibitor gilteritinib vs salvage chemotherapy in patients with relapsed or refractory FLT3-mutated acute myeloid leukemia...
“The main goal in ovarian cancer is to avoid relapse after first-line therapy because otherwise, the probability of cure is quite low,” said European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) discussant of the PAOLA-1 trial, Ana Oaknin, MD, PhD, of the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology, Barcelona....
In a trial reported in The Lancet, Sessler et al found no difference in breast cancer recurrence after surgery with regional anesthesia-analgesia using paravertebral block and propofol vs general anesthesia with the volatile anesthetic sevoflurane and opioid analgesia. They also found no difference ...
Treatment with atezolizumab plus chemotherapy extended progression-free survival by 1.9 months vs chemotherapy alone in patients with metastatic urothelial cancer, according to the early results of the IMvigor130 trial, which were presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)...
Women with early-stage breast cancer treated with lumpectomy followed by radiation therapy rated the cosmetic results for whole-breast and partial-breast irradiation to be equivalent, according to a new analysis of results from the phase III NRG Oncology/NSABP B39-RTOG 0413 clinical trial. Results...
As part of modernization plans approved in September 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) office responsible for reviewing applications for new and existing cancer therapies has reorganized and been renamed. The Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) Office of Hematology and...
The American College of Physicians has issued a new guidance statement on colorectal cancer screening, which recommends screening for average-risk adults who do not have symptoms and are between the ages of 50 and 75 years. The guidelines were published by Qaseem et al in Annals of Internal...
Nearly one in four oncologists report rarely or never discussing the costs of genomic testing with their patients, according to a new study led by American Cancer Society investigators. The study, published by Yabroff et al in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, found that oncologists...
A study published by Yonemura et al in The American Journal of Surgical Pathology has shown a correlation between the poorly differentiated cluster grade in primary colorectal cancer tumors and metastatic lesions in the liver. The researchers wrote, “[Grade of] poorly differentiated clusters in...
Treatment with olaparib delayed disease progression, and early survival data suggest a positive trend in favor of olaparib compared with newer hormonal agents in men with pretreated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and homologous recombinant repair genetic alterations—specifically...
Two presentations at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting offered more evidence that omitting radiation therapy leads to higher rates of recurrence for patients with early-stage Hodgkin lymphoma.1,2 Both studies involve work by the German Hodgkin Study Group among...
In a press release issued by the White House today, President Donald J. Trump announced his intention to nominate Stephen Hahn, MD, FASTRO, to be the Commissioner of Food and Drugs at the Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Hahn has been Chief Medical Executive at The University of Texas...
A small phase II study investigating the efficacy and safety of the investigational farnesyl transferase inhibitor tipifarnib in patients with recurrent and metastatic HRAS-mutant head and neck squamous cell carcinoma found the agent produced objective responses in the patient population. Based on...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by George W. Sledge, Jr, MD, and colleagues, an interim analysis of overall survival in the phase III MONARCH 2 trial has shown a significant advantage for abemaciclib plus fulvestrant vs fulvestrant alone in women with advanced hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative...
The incidence and mortality rates of pancreatic cancer have increased in 195 countries and territories over a 27-year period, according to a systematic analysis performed within the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017 and published in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology. The study is the...
In a French retrospective study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Herms et al found that long-term response is frequently maintained in patients discontinuing vismodegib after complete remission of locally advanced basal cell carcinoma, and that responses can be achieved with vismodegib ...
Oncologists are a special breed of physician who enter a patient’s life during one of the most distressing and often traumatic life experiences: a cancer diagnosis. That’s just the start of the journey, which can last many years and involve great successes and disappointments. This unique...
The 2019 Quality Care Symposium took place September 6–7, 2019, in San Diego. Abstracts presented at the symposium focused on efforts to improve the quality of care for patients with cancer. Highlights from this year’s meeting included research on the cost of care and patient participation in...
A diagnosis of cancer always comes as a surprise. Life does not prepare any of us for telling our friends and family that we have cancer, and this can be especially difficult for young adults and teenagers. Cancer interrupts their lives at a time when it is least expected. Life goals,...
The major treatment advances for melanoma can be attributed to anti–-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte–associated protein 4 (anti–CTLA-4; ipilimumab) and anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (anti–PD-1; nivolumab, pembrolizumab) immune checkpoint inhibitors and the combination of BRAF and MEK inhibitors...
On September 13, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a drug safety communication warning that palbociclib, ribociclib, and abemaciclib—used to treat some patients with advanced breast cancer—may cause rare but severe inflammation of the lungs. The agency approved new warnings about...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) recognized the recipients of its 2019 Gold Medal awards and other high-profile honors at the 2019ASTRO Annual Meeting in Chicago. Gold Medalists Walter J. Curran Jr, MD; Silvia C. Formenti, MD, FASTRO; and Thomas R. Mackie, PhD, were awarded the...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to trastuzumab deruxtecan for the treatment of HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer; granted Fast Track designation for bemcentinib for elderly patients with relapsed acute myeloid leukemia (AML); granted Breakthrough...
Nothing prepared me for a diagnosis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) in the fall of 2016. I had none of the typical symptoms of the cancer, such as night sweats, enlarged lymph nodes, or fatigue. In fact, my energy level was as high as ever, as I traveled around the country for business,...
Tony Hunter, PhD, a British-American biologist who is a Professor of Biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, has received a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Outstanding Investigator Award, which supports accomplished leaders in cancer research. He will receive more than $7,500,000...
A new study published by Zhao et al in JNCI Cancer Spectrum has linked health insurance literacy with medical financial hardship as well as nonmedical financial sacrifices among adult cancer survivors in the United States. The study’s authors say the study indicated that health insurance literacy...