On January 26, 2017—prior to the official opening of the 2nd Annual Cancer Survivorship Symposium—cancer survivors, caregivers, patient advocates, family physicians, oncology providers, and others gathered in San Diego, California, to make connections, discuss survivorship issues, and get expert...
As part of ASCO’s efforts to support cancer researchers and research sites, the ASCO Research Community Forum was created in 2010 to help physician investigators and research staff overcome common barriers to conducting research and enhance their research-site operations. The Forum is a go-to...
In a study using Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, H. Gilbert Welch, MD, of Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, and colleagues found that screening mammography has resulted in a substantial increase in...
All patients with cancer experience some level of distress associated with their cancer diagnosis and the effects of the disease and its treatment—regardless of the stage of disease. Not only does distress affect a patient’s mental and psychosocial well-being, but because distress is a...
In the upcoming decades, the number of older adults with cancer will drastically increase due to aging of Western societies.1 The risk of cancer strongly increases with age. Consequently, all future oncologists will be exposed to the challenges of caring for this heterogeneous population. Older...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today granted accelerated approval to avelumab (Bavencio) for the treatment of adults and pediatric patients 12 years and older with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma, including those who have not received prior chemotherapy. Avelumab is a programmed cell...
Fox Chase Cancer Center is pleased to announce the results of its American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant Pilot Project Competition for Junior Investigators. The competition was open to eligible junior faculty at Fox Chase and Temple University Hospital. The awardees are Yibin Yang, ...
Despite the controversy surrounding “Death With Dignity” laws, which allow physicians to prescribe life-ending drugs to terminally ill patients, they have a long history of majority support from Americans. According to a Gallup poll taken in 2015, nearly 7 in 10 Americans (68%) agreed that...
In April 2014, I was so sick with uncontrollable vomiting and diarrhea and severe abdominal and chest pain that I had to be hospitalized for 5 days. As I was in my late 20s and in otherwise good health, there was no easy explanation for my symptoms. After I was released from the hospital, my...
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the availability of evidence-based information on integrative and complementary therapies commonly used by patients with cancer. In this installment, authors Jun J. Mao, MD, MSCE, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, present a case study...
The treatment of multiple myeloma is becoming increasingly complicated. This is not only because of the complexity of the disease, but also because of the increasing number of effective combination treatments and continuous development of new drugs. This has resulted in an ever-increasing number ...
Building on their previous research focusing on intratumoral vaccination for the most common form of pancreatic cancer, investigators from Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School have shown that in a mouse model of early-stage resected pancreatic...
Since the mid-2000s, medication and illicit drug abuse in the United Sates has steadily increased, creating what has now been termed an “opioid epidemic.” In response, Congress and the Bush and Obama Administrations have launched intervention and regulatory proposals to help turn the troubling...
Christian Taverna, MD, a lymphoma specialist at the Hospital Münsterlingen in Switzerland, commented on this patient series for The ASCO Post. He noted that the Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research (SAKK) tried to address the question of the optimal duration of rituximab (Rituxan) maintenance...
Sheldon M. Feldman, MD, has been named Chief of the Division of Breast Surgery and Surgical Oncology and Director of Breast Cancer Services at Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care, the clinical arm of the National Cancer Institute–designated Albert Einstein Cancer Center. He will also join...
Shridar Ganesan, MD, PhD, of Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, discussed the study by Cristescu et al at the 2017 ASCO-SITC Clinical Immuno-Oncology Symposium. He noted that data from many sources have shown that point mutation burden correlates with response rate to checkpoint blockade....
“These data are consistent with other studies we have conducted in advanced lung cancer, in which we similarly found that one-third of patients believed that their metastatic lung cancer was curable. These patients ostensibly already had conversations with their oncologists about their prognosis...
“More than any other disease, head and neck cancer requires constant interplay between a number of different specialties,” Sandeep Samant, MD, Chief, Head and Neck Surgery, Northwestern Medicine, and Chair of the Multidisciplinary Head & Neck Symposium sponsored by the Robert H. Lurie...
The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) has endorsed a report released by the Core Team for Tobacco Control that outlines key action items that can be taken immediately to accelerate progress toward ending cigarette smoking in adults. Issuing their Executive Summary ...
“The majority of patients with oral cavity cancers will undergo an unnecessary operation,” Sandeep Samant, MD, stated at a session on managing N0 neck cancer at the 2016 Lurie Cancer Center Multidisciplinary Head & Neck Symposium in Chicago.1 That operation is elective neck dissection, and it ...
Ann H. Partridge MD, MPH, Director of Adult Cancer Survivorship Program at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, praised the “tremendous work” of Dr. Paskett and her colleagues but referred to the findings as “disappointing to say the least.”1 “Developing interventions to prevent or treat lymphedema...
There was no difference in the incidence of lymphedema at 18 months in breast cancer patients randomized to a physical therapy intervention with education materials compared with a control.1 Although poor adherence to the intervention may have been a factor, these results, described as “very...
Manish A. Shah, MD, Director of Gastrointestinal Oncology at NewYorkPresbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine, commented that “the benefit seen in patients who regularly exercise is equal to or better than the benefit seen with some chemotherapy drugs,” although he cautioned that exercise in this...
Patients with metastatic colon cancer who exercise may live longer, according to an analysis of the CALGB/SWOG 80405 trial presented at the 2017 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.1 According to the authors, this is the first study to demonstrate an association between physical activity and...
“CALGB 80803 really helps move the field forward,” said press briefing moderator and ASCO spokesperson Nancy Baxter, MD, PhD, a surgeon from St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. “PET [positron-emission tomography] scans may prove to be a valuable tool to help oncologists fine-tune...
In patients with resectable esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer, positron-emission tomography (PET) imaging was used to assess response to induction chemotherapy. PET nonresponders were identified after the first few cycles and were switched to an alternate regimen. This strategy greatly ...
Milind Javle, MD, Professor of Gastrointestinal Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, discussed the findings from the CheckMate 040 trial presented at the 2017 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. There is a strong rationale for investigating immunotherapy in liver ...
Patients receiving the antiviral letermovir (MK-8228, AIC246), as compared to placebo, were almost twice as likely to avoid infection with cytomegalovirus or fail for other reasons in a randomized phase III international trial presented at the 2017 BMT Tandem Meetings, the joint meeting of the...
A key challenge in advancing immunotherapies is to understand mechanisms of response and resistance. Emerging research in this area—including evidence that early on-treatment biopsies can predict response—was discussed at the 2017 ASCO-SITC (Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer) Clinical...
Patients with advanced colorectal cancer mounted a robust response to an experimental vaccine and low-dose cyclophosphamide, and strong responses were associated with improvements in survival in a phase I/II clinical trial of modified vaccinia virus Ankara–5T4 (TroVax).1 Martin Scurr, PhD, of...
The year 2016 was a memorable one for oncology. In January, President Barack Obama announced the launch of the National Cancer Moonshot initiative, spearheaded by Vice President Joe Biden, which aims to accelerate cancer research. And in December, through bipartisan Congressional support, the 21st ...
The prospective Delayed Intervention and Surveillance for Small Renal Masses (DISSRM) registry shows that over the intermediate term, active surveillance appears to be as safe as primary intervention for carefully selected, older, sicker patients with small renal masses.1 As the data mature,...
Ann W. Silk, MD, of Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, presented the day’s highlights and commented that the study by Hellmann et al shows the utility, and, in fact, the necessity, of developing a new means of estimating outcomes for patients treated with immunotherapies....
Patients in their 80s and 90s who have early-stage lung cancer but cannot undergo an operation can be treated safely and effectively with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), according to research presented by Cassidy et al at the 2017 Multidisciplinary Thoracic Cancers Symposium (Abstract...
New research led by a radiation oncologist at Roswell Park Cancer Institute indicates that less may be more when it comes to some forms of radiation therapy for cancer. In a presentation highlighted in a plenary session (Abstract 4) at the 2017 Multidisciplinary Thoracic Cancers Symposium in San...
Zhongxing Liao, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the continued improvement in planning, delivery, and patient selection for proton therapy, which can both reduce radiation exposure and increase tumor dose.
Jennifer Ho, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer, discusses study results on the use of intensity-modulated proton therapy, which can provide durable local control with minimal toxicity in patients who can have extended survivals; the data also suggest that higher doses may improve...
A new study offers hope for patients with recurrent lung cancer, who historically have been considered ineligible for curative treatment. In the largest analysis to date of reirradiation using intensity-modulated proton therapy for lung and other thoracic tumors, more than three-fourths of patients ...
The genetic mutations underlying treatment resistance in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are more complex and dynamic than previously thought. Analysis of 355 biopsied tumors from patients who acquired resistance to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors, the most common form...
Results from a prospective clinical trial showed that a blood test looking at specific biomarkers was able to detect recurrences of lung cancer an average of 6 months before conventional imaging methods found evidence of recurrence. In the largest prospective clinical trial to date of circulating...
A new study demonstrates that the use of less radiation therapy for patients with breast cancer who have undergone lumpectomy does not negatively impact patient outcomes, and could result in significant reductions in health-care costs. These findings, which examine patient eligibility for...
A genetically engineered mouse model developed by Blattner et al investigating the role of the gene Speckle Type BTB/POZ Protein, or SPOP, as a driver of prostate cancer has found that the mutation drives prostate neoplasia through coordinate deregulation of both P13K/mTOR and androgen receptor...
Regular exercise appears to help mitigate the increased cardiovascular risk faced by women treated for breast cancer, according to a study scheduled for presentation at the American College of Cardiology's 66th Annual Scientific Session (ACC.17). The study found that women with breast cancer who...
Cedars-Sinai investigators have identified a stem cell–regulating gene that affects tumor growth in patients with brain cancer and can strongly influence survival rates of patients. The findings, published by Edwards et al in Nature Scientific Reports, could move physicians closer to their...
The importance of a strong federal investment in cancer research was front and center at ASCO’s congressional briefing this past month, where the Society presented Clinical Cancer Advances 2017: ASCO’s Annual Report on Progress Against Cancer. In addition to announcing the top cancer advance of the ...
ASCO’s Clinical Practice Committee (CPC) and State Affiliate Council (SAC) have a history of supporting the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO (CCF) Young Investigator Award (YIA) program. Individual members of the Clinical Practice Committee and State Affiliate Council, as well as ASCO State...
Stock your practice with ASCO resources for your patients during March, Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Visit ASCO’s patient information website, Cancer.Net, for a comprehensive guide to colorectal cancer as well as a shorter, one-page colorectal cancer fact sheet. You will also find specialized ...
On January 19, ibrutinib (Imbruvica) was granted accelerated approved for treatment of patients with marginal zone lymphoma who require systemic therapy and have received at least one prior anti-CD20–based therapy.1 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on overall response rate in a...
Diffuse infiltrating low-grade gliomas include oligodendrogliomas and astrocytomas and account for about 5% of all primary brain tumors. Treatment strategies for these low-grade gliomas in adults have recently changed, as detailed in a recent review in the Journal of Oncology Practice.1 The...
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (RSAS) has decided to award the inaugural Sjöberg Prize 2017 to James P. Allison, PhD, Professor and Vivian L. Smith Distinguished Chair in Immunology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Tony Hunter, PhD, American Cancer Society...