Here is a brief look at the study findings and clinical implications of several recent and important clinical trials in neoplastic hematology. Attention is focused on myelodysplastic syndromes, multiple myeloma, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Myelodysplastic Syndromes Clinical Trial:...
Cancer researcher Dafna Bar-Sagi, PhD, has made fundamental contributions to the understanding of the mechanisms that drive the disease. In recognition of her accomplishments, she has been named a recipient of the Outstanding Investigator Award, an honor presented by the National Cancer Institute...
In a phase I/II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Gettinger et al found that the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitor brigatinib, which showed preclinical activity against ALK mutants resistant to crizotinib (Xalkori) and other ALK inhibitors, was active in patients with ALK-rearranged...
After nearly 2 decades of unsuccessful attempts, researchers from the University of Chicago Medicine and the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have created the first mouse model for the most common form of infant leukemia. Their discovery, reported by Lin et al in Cancer Cell, could...
Combination immunotherapy is producing response rates ranging from 26% to 38% among patients with metastatic bladder cancer in the early stages of a three-arm clinical trial presented at the 2016 Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Annual Meeting in National Harbor, Maryland. “Until...
In the phase III PICASSO III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ryan et al found that adding palifosfamide to doxorubicin did not prolong progression-free survival among patients with metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma. Palifosfamide is the active metabolite of ifosfamide. In the...
In a study of population-based data reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hawkins et al found that adult cancer survivors receive medication for anxiety and depression at twice the rate of that in adults without cancer. The study involved data from the National Health Interview Survey for...
José R. Conejo-Garcia, MD, PhD, has joined Moffitt Cancer Center as Coleader of the Immunology Program and Chair of the Department of Immunology. The Immunology Program is focused on defining the regulation role of immune checkpoint molecules in tumor immune surveillance and in identifying new...
In the HIV-negative population, there is growing evidence suggesting that chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) are both associated with the development of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), although the mechanisms underlying this association remain unclear. The incidence rate of NHL ...
The first-ever Wolverine–Badger challenge between C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan (Wolverines) and the University of Wisconsin’s American Family Children’s Hospital (Badgers) helped raise more than $5.9 million for pediatric cancer research. An October 1 football game...
“Whether or not individual professionals support the clinical use of herbal cannabis, all clinicians will encounter patients who elect to use it and therefore need to be prepared to advise them on cannabis-related clinical issues despite limited evidence to guide care,” according to a recently...
With reports about new marijuana dispensaries sprouting up as more states approve the legal use of medical marijuana, and patients and family members questioning how to get it, medical marijuana is a “topic you can’t escape,” noted Judith A. Paice, PhD, RN.1 Dr. Paice is Director of the Cancer...
During the 1890s, aseptic principles were extended only to the operative area of the patient, not the surgeon, although some surgeons did advocate the use of special white or colored uniforms, and hand washing had already been established. In 1895, just 7 years after Arpad Gerster, MD, published...
Let’s Win is an online community for persons with pancreatic cancer (www.letswinpc.org), but it is far more than a typical support group. Let’s Win propels interested users toward cutting-edge research, based on its founders’ commitment that no patient with pancreatic cancer should settle on the...
In a new report published by Young et al in Cancer Medicine,1 a two-gene circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) blood test for postsurgical monitoring of colorectal cancer recurrence has been shown to detect twice the number of recurrence cases as carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) testing, a standard-of-care...
I still remember the day I met Kensie. It was Valentine’s Day. I had sneaked out of the hospital to get my wife a Valentine’s Day card, taking my place among scores of other husbands and boyfriends in front of the rapidly emptying rack of cards. As I started browsing, my beeper sounded. It was the ...
Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy is a common side effect of cancer treatment—the incidence is reported to be as high as 70% in the first month of chemotherapy1—and can cause significant disability in patients. The extent of the neurotoxicity incurred by patients varies depending on the...
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have recommended that 11- to 12-year-olds receive 2 doses of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine at least 6 months apart rather than the previously recommended 3 doses to protect against cancers caused by HPV infections. Teens and young adults who ...
Nonrhabdomyosarcoma soft-tissue sarcomas account for about 5% of all childhood malignancies and are also diagnosed in adolescents and young adults, as well as in older adults, and can require different approaches to treatment based on a patient’s age and stage of disease. These sarcomas comprise...
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Centre for Probe Development and Commercialization (CPDC) at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, will work together to create novel molecular probes for noninvasive imaging in cancer research, drug development, and patient care. The two leading...
ASCO is excited to launch two new online-only journals, JCO Precision Oncology (JCO PO) and JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics (JCO CCI). Both journals will be exploring the latest topics in oncology and filling a void for the oncology community. Manuscripts will go through the traditional peer-review ...
On October 17, applications opened for ASCO’s 2017 Quality Training Program. For 2017, the program, which began 3 years ago, is shifting its model of in-person sessions at ASCO headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, to regional settings. The program is designed to train oncology health-care...
Twelve distinguished ASCO members have been selected by the Nominating Committee as candidates for open leadership positions within the Society, including the office of President-Elect, three seats on the Board of Directors, and two seats on the Nominating Committee. Biographical information and...
On October 18, 2016, the anti–PD-L1 (programmed cell death ligand 1) antibody atezolizumab (Tecentriq) was approved for the treatment of metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) progressing during or following platinum-containing chemotherapy.1,2 Patients with epidermal growth factor receptor ...
Florida Atlantic University has named Phillip M. Boiselle, MD, as the new Dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. Dr. Boiselle, who currently serves as Associate Dean for Academic and Clinical Affairs and Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School, and is a member of the...
Swiss neuro-oncologist Roger Stupp, MD, has been appointed Associate Director for Strategic Initiatives at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. A leading authority on the treatment of primary and metastatic brain cancer, Dr. Stupp will join Northwestern...
As neoadjuvant or adjuvant therapy for stage III melanoma patients with palpable disease, the combination of ipilimumab (Yervoy) plus nivolumab (Opdivo) was shown to be a promising, though also toxic, combination in a phase Ib study reported at the 2016 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) ...
On October 24, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for the treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors express programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) as determined by an FDA-approved test. This is the first...
In a spirited debate, abounding with citations of clinical trials and other evidence, but not without humor and mutual respect, E. Shelley Hwang, MD, MPH, and Armando E. Giuliano, MD, reviewed the data and their clinical experience managing ductal carcinoma in situ and reached opposite...
Pancreatic cancer has been notably unresponsive to immunotherapeutic approaches, but a Stand Up 2 Cancer Dream Team believes their research can change that. Team co-leader Elizabeth Jaffee, MD, Deputy Director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, ...
The successes observed with various immune oncologic treatment approaches have largely bypassed pancreatic cancer, but this may be about to change, based on emerging insights into how and why these tumors evade attacks by T cells. At the 2nd International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference, two...
Standard treatment for advanced head and neck cancer—including chemotherapy and radiation—causes painful side effects that impair quality of life, as well as the ability to socialize and engage in daily life activities. A new study of patients with platinum-refractory recurrent, metastatic head...
About 10% of children with low-grade gliomas have the BRAF V600E mutation, and preliminary studies suggest that the BRAF inhibitor dabrafenib (Tafinlar) may play an important role in treating this group of patients. A phase I/II trial presented at the 2016 European Society for Medical Oncology...
In a phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Gomez et al found that local consolidative therapy (with or without maintenance therapy) improved progression-free survival in patients with stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had up to three metastatic disease lesions and no...
Fulvestrant (Faslodex) was superior to anastrozole as initial treatment of hormone receptor–positive, endocrine therapy–naive, advanced breast cancer, significantly reducing the risk of disease progression or death, according to the results of the phase III FALCON study presented at the 2016...
A number of lung cancer specialists were anxious to comment on the positive findings of KEYNOTE-024 and were equally perplexed about the negative results of CheckMate-026. All agreed that the overall survival benefit makes pembrolizumab (Keytruda) a game-changer for the first-line treatment of...
An international team of researchers from the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital–Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project has completed a detailed map of the genomic landscape for core-binding factor acute myeloid leukemia (CBF-AML). The work reveals differences in the...
The recall rate of screening mammography is reduced when radiologists compare with more than one prior mammogram, according to a recent study by Hayward et al in American Journal of Roentgenology. “Our findings suggest that radiologists who make comparisons with more than one prior...
The release of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) 14th Report on Carcinogens on November 3, 2016, included 7 newly reviewed substances, bringing the cumulative total to 248 listings. The chemical trichloroethylene (TCE), the metallic element cobalt, and cobalt compounds...
As expensive cancer biologics move off patent, biosimilar products are coming on board. These are highly similar versions of licensed biologics that demonstrate near-fingerprint identity to their reference products in terms of structure and potency. Biosimilars represent a major opportunity for...
Combining immunotherapy with a standard chemotherapy doublet appears to be an attractive option for the front-line treatment of advanced nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to the results of a phase II study presented at the 2016 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)...
Cabozantinib (Cabometyx) improved progression-free survival and response rates in patients with untreated metastatic renal cell carcinoma compared with the standard of care, sunitinib (Sutent), according to the results of a phase II multicenter randomized trial called CABOSUN reported at the 2016...
When I lost my only sister to breast cancer in 1986, patients like her had devastatingly few choices. Over the intervening decades, sustained commitment to biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and major technologic advances have led to transformative changes in cancer...
A study from the Duke Cancer Institute (DCI) has found a lack of statistical evidence to support the current practice of treating thyroid cancer patients under age 45 differently from those 45 and older. The study, published recently by Adam et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,...
On October 14, 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced its final policy on what physicians need to do to begin implementing the Quality Payment Program outlined in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). The Quality Payment Program is a...
The programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor atezolizumab (Tecentriq) significantly improved overall survival, compared to docetaxel, in previously treated, advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to preliminary results of the phase III OAK study. The findings are the first...
In a letter to the editor in The New England Journal of Medicine, Hari et al described a sustained response to the anti-CD38 antibody daratumumab (Darzalex) in a patient with relapsed, refractory nasal-type extranodal natural killer (NK) cell–T-cell lymphoma. In September 2014, a 56-year-old ...
Thanks to advances in medical imaging, the detection rate for synchronous multiple lung adenocarcinoma has been on the rise. Cases of synchronous multiple lung adenocarcinoma in Japanese women have been on the rise, despite having a national smoking rate of less than 10% in recent years. This...
Medical researchers at Indiana University (IU) Bloomington have found evidence for a link between prostate cancer, which affects millions of men aged 50 and older, and Ewing's sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that affects children and young adults. The results of the study, reported by Kedage et al...
Although smoking prevalence in the U.S. has declined by more than half since 1965, nearly 40 million adults still smoke cigarettes, resulting in about 167,133 cancer deaths in 2014, according to a study by the American Cancer Society. The study investigated cancer deaths among adults 35 and older...