ASCO has called on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to reconsider revisions to payment policies that could be administratively burdensome to oncology practices and result in reimbursement that inadequately supports optimal cancer patient care. In a comment letter to CMS on...
According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), about 70,000 adolescents and young adults—defined by the NCI as those in the 15- to 39-year-old range—are diagnosed with cancer each year in the United States, about six times the number of cases diagnosed in children aged 0 to 14.1 And, although...
Sandra L. Wong, MD, MS, the William W. Coon Professor of Surgical Oncology and Associate Chair of Clinical Affairs at the University of Michigan Health System, has been named Chair of Surgery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and Senior Vice President of the...
City of Hope in Duarte, California, recently announced the following new appointments. Susanne G. Warner, MD Dr. Warner has been appointed Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Surgery. She received her medical degree from Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, where...
The Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees named Bobbie Gostout, MD, Vice President of the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Gostout will be the physician leader for Mayo’s community practice in the Midwest, including Mayo Clinic Health System in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and Mayo Clinic’s Minnesota-based community...
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the “Art of Oncology” as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO). These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
The Los Angeles County Medical Association (LACMA) awarded the Hospital Physician Leadership Award to Alexandra M. Levine, MD, MACP, Chief Medical Officer of City of Hope. Dr. Levine received the award in recognition of her exemplary contributions to the medical profession, including her leadership ...
In 1990, when Bruce (B.J.) Miller, MD, was an undergraduate at Princeton University, the practice of medicine was far from his mind. Then a student in Chinese and Asian studies and later an art history major, Dr. Miller would come to pursue a career specializing in palliative medicine after an...
Mohamed Bentires-Alj, PharmD, PhD, was recognized with the 8th Annual American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research, funded by Susan G. Komen. He received the award at the 2015 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The AACR Outstanding...
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the “Art of Oncology” as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO). These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
John Andrew “Drew” Ridge, MD, PhD, FACS, Chief of Head and Neck Surgery and Louis Della Penna Family Chair in Head and Neck Oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center–Temple Health, has been elected President of the Medical Staff at the Center. In his new role, Dr. Ridge will work with President and CEO...
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has opened the St. Jude Red Frog Events Proton Therapy Center, the first proton therapy center in the world dedicated solely to children with cancer. Patients are now being treated at the center using precisely delivered, high-energy protons to kill or shrink...
City of Hope recently announced the following new staff additions. Bart O. Roep, PhD Internationally recognized immunologist Bart O. Roep, PhD, has joined City of Hope as Chair of the Department of Diabetes Immunology within the Diabetes & Metabolism Research Institute. An expert in the...
A new guidance statement from ASCO and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) could potentially lead to more standardized primary palliative care delivery across oncology settings, according to Kathleen E. Bickel, MD, MPhil, who presented the study findings at the 2015...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) has released a list of five hematology-related tests and procedures to question based on recommendations from other medical societies taking part in the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Foundation’s Choosing Wisely® campaign. This list...
Women with a certain type of lung nodule visible on lung cancer screening computed topography (CT) exams face a higher risk of lung cancer than men with similar nodules, according to a new study (SSA04-02) presented by Boiselle et al November 29 at the Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of...
Backed by a growing body of research, investigators at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute are calling for all hospitals to establish bereavement programs for families of deceased patients. In a report published by Morris and Block in the Journal of Palliative Medicine, researchers say such...
Millions of people are unable to receive necessary treatment worldwide because of a chronic underinvestment in radiotherapy resources, according to a major new Commission on access to radiotherapy, published in by Atun et al in The Lancet Oncology, and presented at the 2015 European Cancer Congress ...
A first-of-its-kind study published by Bradley Palmer et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that music therapy lessened anxiety for women undergoing surgical breast biopsies for cancer diagnosis and treatment. The 2-year study, conducted at University Hospitals (UH) Seidman Cancer Center, ...
In a review of nearly 2,000 surveys with people whose loved ones died of cancer, researchers led by Johns Hopkins School of Medicine experts said they found a 40% increase over a 12-year period in the number of patients with cancer who participated in one form of advance care...
Harold Varmus, MD, who has led the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for nearly 5 years, has announced that he will step down from his post, effective March 31, 2015. Dr. Varmus will be joining Weill Cornell Medical College's faculty as the Lewis Thomas...
Preliminary results from the phase II STAND trial have demonstrated a robust immune response with sipuleucel-T (Provenge) that continues 2 years after completing treatment in men with biochemically recurrent prostate cancer. The findings, along with data from an ongoing phase IV registry related to ...
A new, multidisciplinary approach to managing patients undergoing a colorectal operation results in shorter hospital stays, fewer complications, and lower medical costs, according a study published by Thiele et al in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Currently, patients undergoing...
Ten months after California legislators enacted a controversial law mandating that radiologists notify women if they have dense breast tissue, University of California (UC), Davis researchers have found that half of primary care physicians are still unfamiliar with the law, and many don't feel...
Daniel F. Hayes, MD, FASCO, has been elected President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) for the term beginning in June 2016. He will take office as President-Elect during the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago in June 2015. “I'm honored to be elected incoming President of...
First evaluation of a pioneering “co-rounding” partnership between medical oncologists and palliative care specialists at Duke University Medical Center shows improvements in both health system–related and patient-related outcomes. The first year of the new partnership—set...
Robert S. Miller, MD, FACP, FASCO, Assistant Professor of Oncology and Oncology Medical Information Officer at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, has been named Medical Director of the Institute for Quality (iQ) of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). ...
Women who recently used birth control pills containing high-dose estrogen and a few other formulations had an increased risk for breast cancer, whereas women using some other formulations did not, according to data published in Cancer Research. “Our results suggest that use of contemporary...
A new model projects 5-year outcomes of implementing the recent U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations for annual low-dose computed tomography (CT) lung cancer screening in a high-risk Medicare population. The model estimates that gradual implementation of the screening...
A majority of cancer patients experience some level of fatigue during their course of 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 patient...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Buchholz et al, 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...
Maintaining a 2 decade–long trend, the cancer death rate in the United States continues to decline, according to the Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, published online this week in Cancer. The report, which covers the years 2001 to 2010, shows drops in death rates for a...
“With the unprecedented scientific opportunities now promising significant progress against cancer and other life-threatening diseases, it is a tragedy that we are even considering cuts to our nation's investment in biomedical research. Yet, such cuts are already happening because of the...
A study from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) has found that patients with head and neck cancer receiving radiation as part of their treatment were less likely to suffer unwanted side effects such as worsening of diet, need for a feeding tube, or narrowing of the throat passage if...
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital investigators have identified a protein that certain high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells need to survive and have used that knowledge to fashion a more effective method of killing tumor cells. The findings appear in the August 29 edition of ...
Jamie H. Von Roenn, MD, Professor of Medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, has been named as the Senior Director of the Education, Science and Professional Development Department of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). A long-time ASCO member and...
Patients with primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma who received infusions of chemotherapy, but who did not have radiation therapy to the mediastinum, had excellent outcomes, according to clinical trial results. Until now, most standard treatment approaches for patients with this type of...
The American Society of Clinical Oncology announced yesterday that it has completed a prototype of CancerLinQ™, the Society’s groundbreaking health information technology (HIT) initiative to achieve higher quality, higher value cancer care with better outcomes for patients. The...
A national survey of health professionals showed that drug shortages are taking a heavy toll on cancer patients, forcing treatment changes and delays that for some patients meant worse outcomes, more therapy-related complications, and higher costs. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital...
Samuel M. Silver, MD, PhD, of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, has been elected Chairman of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Board of Directors. Dr. Silver was previously Vice Chairman of the Board and succeeds Thomas A. D'Amico, MD, of the Duke Cancer...
Patients who consume high-fat dairy products following breast cancer diagnosis increase their chances of dying from the disease years later, according to a study by Kaiser Permanente researchers. The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is the first to examine the...
The Community Oncology Alliance (COA) has announced the results of a national survey of oncology providers about the impact of the sequestration cuts to Medicare payments for cancer drugs and services effective April 1, 2013. The survey revealed that the planned sequestration cuts to cancer...
Self-identified smokers directly connected to a tobacco cessation quit line are 13 times more likely to enroll in a treatment program as compared to smokers who are handed a quit line referral card and encouraged to call on their own, according to a new study published online in JAMA Internal...
The FDA has approved the first generic version of liposomal doxorubicin (Doxil), which is currently on the FDA’s drug shortage list. For products on the shortage list, the FDA’s Office of Generic Drugs is using a priority review system to expedite the review of generic applications to...