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Showing 7851 - 7900ECCO 2017: Melanoma Death Rates Will Fall by 2050, but Number of Deaths Will Increase
By 2050, the death rates from malignant melanoma will have decreased from their current levels, but the numbers of people dying from the disease will have increased due to the aging of populations. However, if new treatments for the deadly skin cancer prove to be effective, the numbers of deaths...
ECCO 2017: Breath Test Might Help Detect Stomach and Esophageal Cancers
A test that measures the levels of five chemicals in the breath has shown promising results for the detection of cancers of the esophagus and stomach in a large patient trial presented by Markar et al at the 2017 European Cancer Congress (Abstract 6LBA). Together, stomach and esophageal...
ECCO 2017: Some Patients With Early-Stage Breast Cancer May Benefit More From Breast-Conserving Therapy Than Mastectomy
Breast-conserving therapy (breast-conserving surgery combined with radiation therapy) may be superior to mastectomy in certain patients with breast cancer, according to results from the largest study on this topic to date, presented at the 2017 European Cancer Congress (Abstract 4LBA). Although...
Trends in Cancer Mortality in the United States and U.S. Counties From 1980 to 2014
In a study reported in JAMA, Mokdad et al found that cancer mortality rates have dropped from 240.2 to 192.0/100,000 population between 1980 and 2014. Mortality rates varied widely among U.S. counties for various cancers. The report covers 29 cancers in 3,144 counties. Summarized here are findings...
ECCO 2017: Twice-Daily Radiation Therapy May Reduce Mortality in Head and Neck Cancer
Treating patients with head and neck cancer with hyperfractionated twice-daily radiation therapy combined with chemotherapy could potentially reduce mortality, according to new research presented by Petit et al at the 2017 European Cancer Congress (ECCO) (Abstract 823). The study, led by Claire...
SWOG Launches National Immunotherapy Clinical Trial for Rare Cancers
People with rare cancers now have the option of joining a national clinical trial testing leading-edge immunotherapies for a wide variety of tumor types. It’s the first federally funded immunotherapy trial devoted to rare cancers. Despite their name, rare cancers make up more than 20% of...
Addition of Palifosfamide to Doxorubicin in Metastatic Soft-Tissue Sarcoma
In the phase III PICASSO III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Christopher W. Ryan, MD, of Oregon Health & Science University, and colleagues found that adding palifosfamide to doxorubicin did not prolong progression-free survival among patients with metastatic soft-tissue...
Esophagoscopy by the High-Low Method
Endoscopic examination of the intestinal tract remains a prime diagnostic tool for positive identification of cancers. Endoscopic instruments also aid in the retrieval of tissue for biopsy, providing a more accurate diagnosis and help in the staging of tumors. This is a photograph of the pioneer...
I’m Learning to Live With Chronic Cancer
I was feeling a bit more tired than usual as the Christmas holidays approached in December 2012, but I chocked it up to the frenetic pace of the season and keeping up with caring for my two young children, ages 4 and 12. I had none of the other typical warning signs of chronic myeloid leukemia...
Breast Cancer Researchers at Baylor Receive Komen Grants to Support Study of Drug Efficacy, Treatment Resistance
Two breast cancer researchers in the Baylor College of Medicine’s Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center, part of the Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center, have been awarded grants from the Susan G. Komen Foundation to support their research in drug efficacy in treating triple-negative breast...
What Have We Got to Lose?
Tuesday morning was the regular time for the departmental meeting—an opportunity to discuss cases, troubleshoot, debrief, and expedite the necessary allied health referrals. As usual, patient cases were being discussed in alphabetical order of the attending oncologist. We were already three...
What Cancer?
If they are honest, most oncologists who’ve practiced medicine for more than 15 years will tell you they’ve learned much more from their patients than their patients have learned from them. The life lessons I’ve learned from treating this complicated, resilient, and often cruel disease are many....
Rucaparib in Previously Treated BRCA Mutation–Associated Ovarian Cancer
On December 19, 2016, rucaparib (Rubraca) was granted accelerated approval for the treatment of patients with deleterious BRCA mutation–associated (germline or somatic) advanced ovarian cancer who have received two or more prior chemotherapy regimens.1,2 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ...
Vitamin D and Cancer: A Uniform Dose Is Unlikely to Fit All Patients
Technically, vitamin D is a secosteroid hormone, not a vitamin. Increasing evidence indicates that vitamin D exerts effects beyond calcium homeostasis. Importantly, for example, higher serum vitamin D levels are associated with better cancer outcomes, including survival.1-3 The protective effects...
Canadian Study Looks at an Integrated Palliative Care Model
Although initiation of palliative care from the time of cancer diagnosis produces optimal outcomes for patients, this strategy is often not practiced. A recent Canadian study conducted in patients with advanced cancer and their caregivers examined the opinions of patients with advanced cancer and...
How ASCO’s New Health Policy Fellowship Program Is Helping Shape Future Cancer Care Policy
In October 2015, ASCO launched the Health Policy Fellowship program to help the next generation of oncologists with an interest in health policy to develop the skills and experience necessary to achieve their goals and shape cancer care policy in an increasingly complicated and diverse care...
New President of the Skin Cancer Foundation Emphasizes Public Education to Reduce Skin Cancer Incidence and Deaths
The statistics on the rising rates of skin cancer are alarming. According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, each year over 5.4 million cases of nonmelanoma skin cancer are treated in more than 3.3 million people, and an additional 76,380 people are diagnosed with the deadliest form of skin cancer,...
Ibrutinib: A Potential Option for Chronic Graft-vs-Host Disease?
Currently, there is no U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved therapy for chronic graft-vs-host disease—a life-threatening consequence of stem cell or bone marrow transplant—that has not responded to corticosteroids, but this may be about to change. Ibrutinib (Imbruvica) achieved...
Selected Abstracts From the 2016 ASH Annual Meeting
Here are several abstracts selected from the proceedings of this year’s American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, highlighting newer therapeutics in follicular lymphoma. For full details of these study abstracts, visit http://www.bloodjournal.org/content/128/22....
Addressing Discrimination and Bias in Medical Education
“As a medical student, I often felt marginalized from my medical community. I have been told that my name is ‘not American,’ fallen prey to being confused for support staff such as a janitor (even while wearing my white coat) and been asked questions like, ‘Where are you really from?’ or ‘How old...
Vanderbilt Study to Explore Lymphedema Self-Care for Head and Neck Cancer Survivors
Vanderbilt University School of Nursing Assistant Professor Jie Deng, PhD, RN, has been awarded a $789,000 research scholar grant by the American Cancer Society to develop and test a self-care program for head and neck cancer survivors diagnosed with secondary lymphedema/fibrosis....
ASCO’s State Affiliate Council: Helping Practices to Meet the Challenges Ahead
ASCO’s State Affiliate Council serves as an advisory group to ASCO’s Board of Directors on issues relating to its State/Regional Affiliates and their members, and serves as a vehicle for effective communications between the Board and domestic membership. The Council is made up of physician...
Predicting Outcomes in Older Patients With Cancer
In the French ELCAPA14 study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ferrat et al found that four frailty classifications performed well in predicting outcomes in a cohort of patients aged ≥ 70 years with various cancers. Study Details The study involved 763 in- or outpatients with...
Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, Elected ASCO President for 2018–2019 Term
Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, a long-time member and volunteer, has been elected to serve as President of ASCO for the term beginning in June 2018. She will take office as President-Elect during the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago in June 2017. Additionally, three new members were elected to the ASCO...
PARP Inhibitor Niraparib Yields ‘Unprecedented’ Results in Ovarian Cancer in Phase III Trial
The first phase III trial of an inhibitor of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) yielded unprecedented results in treating ovarian cancer. The trial was presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Copenhagen, Denmark, and electronically reported concurrently in The New England ...
Niraparib Maintenance Improves Progression-Free Survival in Platinum-Sensitive Recurrent Ovarian Cancer
In a phase III trial (ENGOT-OV16/NOVA) reported at the 2016 ESMO (European Society for Medical Oncology) Congress and in The New England Journal of Medicine by Mansoor R. Mirza, MD, of the Rigshospitalet–Copenhagen University Hospital, and colleagues, maintenance therapy with the PARP (poly...
UMass Memorial Medical Center Seeks to Join Dana-Farber Cancer Care Collaborative
UMass Memorial Medical Center and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have notified the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission that UMass Memorial Medical Center intends to become the first academic medical center to join the Dana-Farber Cancer Care Collaborative. The agreement, for adult medical oncology ...
Safety of Stopping Imatinib in CML With Undetectable Minimal Residual Disease for at Least 2 Years
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Gabriel Etienne, MD, PhD, of the Institut Bergonié, Bordeaux, and colleagues, long-term follow-up in the French Stop Imatinib (STIM1) study indicates that imatinib can be safely stopped in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) with...
Nivolumab in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck in CheckMate 141: Game Not Over
Most patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck present with locally advanced disease. With combined-modality approaches, the chance of cure ranges from < 50% to up to 80%, depending on the site, stage, and other risk factors, such as human papillomavirus (HPV) status. When...
Nivolumab Improves Overall Survival in Recurrent Platinum-Refractory Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck
In the phase III CheckMate 141 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Robert L. Ferris, MD, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Cancer Institute, and colleagues found that nivolumab (Opdivo) increased overall survival vs standard therapies in patients with...
Radiation Therapy for Glioblastoma: What Is New and What Is Missing in the ASCO-Endorsed ASTRO Guidelines
An ASCO Special Article in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Sulman et al,1 reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, issued ASCO’s endorsement of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) guidelines on radiation therapy for adult patients diagnosed with glioblastoma. It is a positive...
ASCO Endorses ASTRO Guideline on Radiation Therapy for Glioblastoma
As reported by Erik P. Sulman, MD, PhD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, ASCO has endorsed the 2016 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) evidence-based guideline on radiation therapy for glioblastoma.1 The endorsement was based on review ...
Optimizing Access to Fertility Preservation Options
Ensuring that people with cancer understand how cancer treatment could affect their fertility and what options are available for preserving fertility were widely recognized as top priorities by attendees of the 2016 Oncofertility Conference in Chicago. As detailed at the conference, means of...
Antiretroviral Agent Makes Strong Showing in Refractory Multiple Myeloma
An antiretroviral drug that is used for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) demonstrated strong activity when combined with bortezomib (Velcade) in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma in a small multicenter phase II study presented at the 2016 American Society of Hematology (ASH)...
Brentuximab Vedotin Plus Nivolumab Highly Active in Relapsed Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma
Response rates of 90% to 100% were achieved in early studies evaluating the combination of brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) and nivolumab (Opdivo) in relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma. The findings were presented at the 2016 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting &...
Expert Point of View: Philip McCarthy, MD
The ASCO Post asked Philip McCarthy, MD, Professor of Oncology and Internal Medicine at Roswell Park Cancer, Buffalo, and Director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Center there, to comment on these study findings. He first addressed the need to study earlier intervention for smoldering ...
High Response Rates to Triplet Therapy in Smoldering Myeloma
High-risk patients with smoldering multiple myeloma responded to a regimen of elotuzumab (Empliciti), lenalidomide (Revlimid), and dexamethasone, in a multicenter phase II study led by Irene Ghobrial, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston.1 “The high response rates among this patient...
Expert Point of View: Sara Hurvitz, MD; Mothaffar Rimawi, MD; and Carlos L. Arteaga, MD
Sara Hurvitz, MD, Director of the Breast Oncology Program at the University of California, Los Angeles, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, commented that in the United States, a bone mineral density test can help identify candidates for bone-modifying agents. “We look at women who are going on...
Breast Cancer Experts Question New Recommendations for 21-Gene Recurrence Score Assay
At the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, a group of breast cancer experts made a case for using the 21-gene Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score Assay in node-positive patients, despite ASCO’s latest recommendations to restrict it to node-negative estrogen receptor–positive patients. The...
Expert Point of View: Steven Vogl, MD
Presentation of the PERTAIN study data by lead author Grazia Arpino, MD, PhD, was met with high interest at the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Steven Vogl, MD, of the Bronx, New York, commented, “This is a very complicated study for me, but it seems that at least half your patients got...
Pertuzumab, Trastuzumab, Plus Aromatase Inhibitor Beneficial in Metastatic Breast Cancer
In the phase II PERTAIN study of locally advanced or metastatic hormone receptor–positive, HER2-positive breast cancer patients, the addition of pertuzumab (Perjeta) to a regimen of trastuzumab (Herceptin) and an aromatase inhibitor in the first-line setting significantly improved progression-free ...
Novel Antibody-Drug Conjugate Targets Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
The antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan (IMMU-132) produced high objective response rates, many of them quite durable, in a multicenter study of heavily pretreated patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, presented at the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 Trop-2 is ...
Novel Antibody May Reduce Debilitating Symptoms in Patients With Advanced Colorectal Cancer
In a phase III trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Hickish et al found that treatment with MABp1, an antibody that targets interleukin 1α and exhibits antitumor activity, was associated with improvement in the composite outcome of stabilizing/improving lean body mass and debilitating...
Osimertinib Significantly Improves Survival for Patients With Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
For patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) T790M–positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), osimertinib (Tagrisso) demonstrated clinically superior efficacy over pemetrexed (Alimta) plus a platinum agent, with a 70% reduction in the risk of disease progression, according to the...
What Precisely Is Precision Oncology—and Will It Work?
We know from chaos theory that even if you had a perfect model of the world, you’d need infinite precision in order to predict future events. —Nassim Nicholas Taleb The term “precision oncology” is used to describe diverse strategies in cancer medicine ranging from the use of targeted therapies...
Oncology Drug Approvals in 2016
In 2016, the Office of Hematology and Oncology Products of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a number of new molecular entities, indications, and tests. The most notable were drug approvals in disease areas such as non–small cell lung cancer, myeloma, head and neck cancer, and...
Precision Medicine Analysis of 203 Pediatric Brain Tumors May Advance Diagnosis and Treatment
Precision medicine has advanced to the point where it can now impact the care of a majority of children with brain tumors, a new study by investigators at Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center suggests. In the largest clinical study to date of genetic abnormalities in...
Lenalidomide Maintenance Extends Progression-Free Survival in CLL
Lenalidomide (Revlimid), a cornerstone of therapy for multiple myeloma in the modern era, is making headway as maintenance therapy in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Separate phase III studies presented at the 2016 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition showed...
Venetoclax Plus Rituximab Studied in Relapsed or Refractory Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
In a phase Ib study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Seymour et al found that the combination of the BCL2 inhibitor venetoclax (Venclexta) and the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody rituximab (Rituxan) was highly active in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia...
Tucatinib Shows Clinical Benefit in Phase I Trial in HER2-Positive Breast Cancer
Phase I clinical trial data published by Moulder-Thompson et al in Clinical Cancer Research reported that the investigational anticancer agent tucatinib (formerly ONT-380) showed 'notable activity' in the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer with . The 50 women treated had disease...
