In the phase III CALGB 40601 trial, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Lisa A. Carey, MD, of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues, pathologic complete response rate was not significantly increased by adding neoadjuvant trastuzumab (Herceptin) plus lapatinib...
At a Capitol Hill briefing today, ASCO announced immunotherapy as the top cancer advance of the year. Recent breakthroughs in immunotherapy—along with almost 60 other important cancer research advances—are described in ASCO's just-released report, Clinical Cancer Advances 2016: ASCO's...
Ductal carcinoma in situ is a relatively benign form of breast cancer (stage 0), yet up to 10% of women with ductal carcinoma in situ will have a recurrence within 10 years. At present, there is no way to identify which women will recur, so standard treatment is lumpectomy plus radiation therapy....
Sparano JA, Gray RJ, Makower DF, et al: Prospective validation of a 21-gene expression assay in breast cancer. N Engl J Med 373:2005-2014, 2015. Chagpar AB, Killelea BK, Tsangaris TN, et al: A randomized, controlled trial of cavity shave margins in breast cancer. N Engl J Med 373:503-510, 2015....
The 2015 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), hosted by the American Association for Cancer Research, the Cancer Therapy & Research Center at The University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, and Baylor College of Medicine, was held in December 2015. As has been true for...
Suleiman Massarweh, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, and Director of Breast Clinical Trials at Stanford Cancer Institute, commented on the ADAPT trial for The ASCO Post. “The complete pathologic response rate in estrogen...
Neoadjuvant treatment with a chemotherapy-free, anti-HER2 regimen yielded high rates of pathologic complete response in patients with HER2-positive, hormone receptor-positive early breast cancer in the phase II WSG-ADAPT HER2+/HR+ (ADAPT) trial presented at the 2015 San Antonio Breast Cancer...
Patients with multiple myeloma now have access to an all-oral regimen, with the recent approval of the oral proteasome inhibitor ixazomib (Ninlaro) in previously treated patients. New pairings for the drug in relapsed/refractory and newly diagnosed patients are being studied, with investigators...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced the appointment of an Acting Deputy Office Director and an Associate Director of Clinical Science in its Office of Hematology and Oncology Products (OHOP). Acting Deputy Office Director Amy E. McKee, MD, was recently announced as the...
Options for second-line therapy of advanced/metastatic renal cell carcinoma are expanding. Updates from the CheckMate 025 and METEOR trials presented at the 2016 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium solidify the value of both nivolumab (Opdivo, an immune checkpoint inhibitor) and cabozantinib...
Despite improvements in survival for adolescents and young adults diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, the gains have not been shared uniformly across this patient population. A large population-based study by Keegan et al investigating the impact of race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, influence of...
Women who eat more high-fiber foods during adolescence and young adulthood—especially fruits and vegetables—may have significantly lower breast cancer risk than those who eat less dietary fiber when young, according to a new large-scale study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan...
Ann H. Partridge, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, on abstract S3-09, “Patient-reported endocrine symptoms, sexual functioning and quality of life in the IBCSG SOFT trial: Adjuvant treatment with tamoxifen alone vs tamoxifen plus ovarian function suppression in premenopausal women with...
Charles E. Geyer, Jr, MD, FACP, of Massey Cancer Center, discusses abstract S3-08, “Randomized comparison of adjuvant tamoxifen plus ovarian function suppression vs tamoxifen in premenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive early breast cancer: Analysis of the SOFT trial,” presented by...
Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses findings from abstract S3-08, “Randomized comparison of adjuvant tamoxifen plus ovarian function suppression vs tamoxifen in premenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive early breast cancer: Analysis of the SOFT ...
Edith A. Perez, MD, of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, discusses abstract S1-06, “Stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes: In the Alliance N9831 trial S-TILs are associated with chemotherapy benefit but not associated with trastuzumab benefit.”
Prudence Francis, MD, of Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, and Hope Rugo, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco, discuss data from abstract S3-08, "Randomized comparison of adjuvant tamoxifen plus ovarian function suppression vs tamoxifen in premenopausal women with hormone...
Gunter von Minckwitz, MD, of the University of Frankfurt, offers his thoughts on abstract S3-04, "The phase III ICE study: Adjuvant ibandronate with or without capecitabine in elderly patients with moderate or high risk early breast cancer."
William J. Gradishar, MD, of Northwestern University, and Edith A. Perez of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, discuss immunotherapy and the highlights of the BOLERO-1 and SOFT trials.
Robert W. Carlson, MD, Chief Executive Officer, National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and John A. Gentile, Jr, Chairman, Harborside Press, LLC, discuss the early days of NCCN, controversies that surrounded the first meeting, oncologists’ embrace of the guidelines, and how the organization has...
Hans Gerdes, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses a new approach to the management of early-stage esophageal cancers with endoscopic resections.
Amy Cyr, MD, of the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, discusses advances made in the treatment of early-stage breast cancer: less radiation and a shorter course, the rising use of molecular profiling, and less invasive surgery and reduced...
James L. Mulshine, MD, of Rush University Medical Center, and David E. Gerber, MD, of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, discuss the ALCHEMIST trial, an NCI initiative to address the role of molecular testing and targeted therapies for earlier-stage lung disease (Abstract TPS7583).
James L. Mulshine, MD, of Rush University Medical Center, and Carolyn Jean Presley, MD, of Yale Cancer Center/Yale School of Medicine, discuss the burden on patients and the Medicare system as new lung cancer CT guidelines are put into effect and treatment of early-stage NSCLC increases (Abstract...
Eric Roeland, MD, FAAHPM, of the University of California, San Diego Moores Cancer Center, and Areej El-Jawahri, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discuss two important studies on early palliative care and the use of anamorelin in advanced NSCLC with cachexia.
Clifford A. Hudis, MD, and Andrew D. Seidman, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discuss the use of the decision support system Watson for Oncology and results of the iCanCare study on second opinions (Abstracts 566 and 6508).
Anil D’Cruz, MD, of Tata Memorial Hospital, discusses results from his study that seem to resolve a 50-year-long debate on performing elective neck dissection at the time of primary surgery––a potentially practice-changing finding (Abstract LBA3).
Jame Abraham, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic discusses analyses of two trials for locally advanced, inflammatory, or early HER2-positive breast cancer using docetaxel, trastuzumab, pertuzumab, and neratinib (Abstracts 505 and 508).
Allison J. Applebaum, PhD, and William S. Breitbart, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discuss the early days of this new treatment for despair and distress in cancer patients.
Irene Higginson, MD, of Cicely Saunders International, discusses the goals of psychosocial palliative care for patients around the world with advanced cancer.
Jennifer King, PhD, of the Lung Cancer Alliance, gives her perspective on major themes of this year’s meeting: the stigma of lung cancer, the changing face of who is affected, early detection, and advances in immunotherapy.
Nagashree Seetharamu, MD, of the North Shore LIJ Health System, discusses serum AGA-signatures that may provide a minimally invasive test for early detection of lung cancer risk (Abstract P3.04-085).
James R. Jett, MD, of National Jewish Health, discusses his study of the early CDT-Lung biomarker. His hypothesis: When used in combination with low-dose CT in screening of a high-risk population, this biomarker would increase the detection of early-stage lung cancer (Abstract MINI 12.11).
James L. Mulshine, MD, of Rush University Medical Center, discusses the profound challenges of implementing national CT screening to ensure delivery of high-quality, best-practice early lung cancer detection in the target population of tobacco-exposed individuals (Abstract MS 15.01).
Catherine C. Park, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco, summarizes results from three clinical trials of radiation therapy for various cancers: metastatic melanoma, oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, and breast cancer (Abstracts 215, 3, and LBA7).
The recently updated U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendation once again confirmed the value of screening mammography, concluding that the benefit of mammography outweighs the harms of screening in all age groups from age 40 through age 74. It emphasizes that both women and...
A longitudinal case-controlled analysis of the probability of attaining normality after achieving 60: A perspective from the social sciences based on expert ethnographic insights.” So begins a long and charmingly erudite birthday card to internationally regarded biostatistician Norman Breslow, PhD, ...
The authors of an ovarian cancer screening study published in The Lancet1 and many of the experts commenting on the study in the media agree that the results of multimodal screening are encouraging and could reduce mortality from ovarian cancer, but further follow-up is needed. Considering that the ...
An article in The New York Times1 about an ovarian cancer screening study published in The Lancet2 is headlined, “Early Detection of Ovarian Cancer May Become Possible,” and leads with the promise of reduced mortality with multimodal screening for ovarian cancer. An article in MedPage Today3 about...
"A solid triple but not a home run” is how Karen H. Lu, MD, characterized a study in The Lancet reporting a reduction in deaths from ovarian cancer with the use of multimodal ovarian cancer screening.1 Dr. Lu’s remark was one of several, mostly but not universally, favorable and optimistic comments ...
Medical oncologist and researcher Ravi Salgia, MD, PhD, has joined City of Hope as Professor and Chair in the Department of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research. He will play a key leadership role in the expansion of clinical programs at City of Hope’s Duarte campus and in its clinics...
Bookmark Title: The New Generation Breast Cancer Book: How to Navigate Your Diagnosis and Treatment Options—and Remain Optimistic—in an Age of Information Overload Author: Elisa Port, MD Publisher: Ballantine Books Publication date: September 2015 Price: $20.00; paperback, 320 pages When a new...
Bookmark Title: Empty Hands, A Memoir: One Woman’s Journey to Save Children Orphaned by AIDS in South Africa Author: Sister Abegail Ntleko Publisher: North Atlantic Books Publication date: September 1, 2015 Price: $12.95; paperback, 176 pages With the development of the multidrug highly active...
The ASCO Post is pleased to introduce this special focus on the worldwide cancer burden, beginning in this issue with a close look at the cancer incidence and mortality rates in the United States. The aim of this special feature is to highlight the global cancer burden for various countries of the...
An increase in the stage of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) due to cancer-positive lymph node discovery was more common following open chest surgery for lung lobe removal of early-stage lung cancer compared to the closed-chest procedure known as video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS). The...
Acupuncture has been practiced for thousands of years in Eastern Asian cultures as a component of traditional Chinese medicine.1 In the United States, acupuncture became known to the public as a complementary and alternative medicine technique in the 1970s, but it took many years before it was...
A multi-institutional international investigation led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, has revealed new information about how molecules called long noncoding RNAs (lncRNA) interact with HIF-1, a signaling pathway that is overexpressed in many cancers....
Treatment of mantle cell lymphoma continues to evolve, both in the front-line and relapsed settings. Key advances include better use of established agents, such as the incorporation of high-dose cytarabine into initial induction regimens and application of rituximab (Rituxan)...
In aphase III trial reported in The Lancet and at the recent American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition, Martin Dreyling, MD, of the European Mantle Cell Lymphoma Network, and colleagues found that ibrutinib (Imbruvica) was associated with improved progression-free survival vs...
Breast cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths among women in the United States. In 2015, according to the National Cancer Institute, 231,840 women were to be diagnosed with the disease and 40,290 were to die from it. The death rate is highest among women who are not screened regularly...