Optimal reinduction therapy for patients with relapsed pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains undefined. Liposomal daunorubicin (DaunoXome), which offers the potential for reduced cardiotoxicity compared with traditional daunorubicin, is effective in this setting. Gertjan J.L. Kaspers, MD,...
It is clear from our study, and other studies examining mind-body interventions in patients with cancer, that it is important for patients to consider participating in some kind of program to manage their stress and improve their quality of life. This is particularly true for patients who are...
Qigong (“qi” or “chi” = energy flow, “gong” = skill or achievement) is an integrated mind-body exercise and meditative practice that involves rhythmic breathing coordinated with repetition of fluid movements and calm focus on the body. A study reported in Cancer by Zhen Chen, MD, and colleagues...
As we all now know, the start of the sequestration prescribed by the Budget Control Act of 2011 was delayed until March 1, 2013, by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. With Congress unable to strike a deal, the mandatory reductions in Federal spending were triggered on March 1. Those...
The 39th Annual National Meeting of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) was held in Washington, DC, in March. With a focus on business, economics, and policy, the program included the inauguration of a new ACCC President (see page 102), a keynote speech on the future of health care,...
In March 2011, the National Cancer Policy Forum of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), in conjunction with ASCO, held a workshop to discuss a collaborative approach to making the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded clinical trials system more viable and productive. That workshop included...
My odyssey with ovarian cancer started in May 2005, when I saw my gynecologist for an annual exam and mentioned an odd twinge I had been experiencing on my left side. A subsequent pelvic ultrasound followed by an MRI showed that my ovaries were enlarged, and my doctor warned me that the problem...
Clinical guidelines, like those of ASCO and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), clearly have represented the standard of care and, to a large extent, the basis for coverage policy, especially in the area of medical oncology. However, guidelines increasingly seem to be in the shadow of ...
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston recently recognized two leading advocates for women in medicine and research. Karen Antman, MD, Provost of the Boston University Medical Campus and Dean of its School of Medicine since 2005, was the recipient of the 2013 Margaret L....
Two Indiana University researchers have been awarded a multiyear, $3.2 million grant to develop and improve therapies for pancreatic cancer, the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Mark R. Kelley, PhD, Betty and Earl Herr Professor of Pediatric Oncology Research, and Melissa...
Appointed by the President and called “America’s Doctor,” the Surgeon General’s chief task is to protect and advance the health of the nation. Most of our Surgeon Generals have tiptoed around hot-button public health issues that might bruise political sensibilities and their own careers. C....
Receiving a cancer diagnosis can be a frightening and overwhelming experience, and the first thing many people do upon receiving the news is seek out information, hoping to be empowered through knowledge. At the Conquer Cancer Foundation, we are working to ensure that vital information—focusing on...
Want to learn how to best lobby your local state legislators on the issues that affect your practice in your state? Or finally meet the executive director of your state’s oncology society? Look for the State Oncology Societies Booth at ASCO’s Annual Meeting this year. The booth will be located in...
In the fast-paced world of oncology, where the science of patient care is constantly evolving, it is critical for practitioners—and, by extension, their Society—to consistently be one step ahead. For ASCO and the Conquer Cancer Foundation, that means maintaining a strong focus not only on the...
In August 2011, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania published their breakthrough findings of a pilot study showing sustained remissions of up to 1 year in a small number of patients with advanced chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who had been treated with genetically engineered...
The companion UK Special Interest Group in Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology (SIGGAR) trials compared computed tomographic (CT) colonography with barium enema and colonoscopy in patients with symptoms suggestive of colon cancer. As recently reported by the SIGGAR investigators in The...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) recently announced the addition of two new NCCN Member Institutions: UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center in La Jolla, California, and the University of Colorado Cancer Center in Aurora, Colorado. “We are extremely pleased that UC San Diego Moores...
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...
Last fall, a consortium of more than 300 researchers from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network published the results of their large-scale genetic analysis of squamous cell lung cancer in the journal Nature.1 The study, the first of its kind, compared the tumor cells from 178 untreated...
There are a few things about ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) on which everyone agrees: Incidence increased dramatically with the advent of mammography screening, not all cases detected will go on to cause symptoms in the patient’s lifetime, and there’s no proven way to tell which cases will...
Some 5% to 10% of patients with colorectal cancer harbor the BRAF mutation, placing them at risk for poor treatment response and worse outcomes. The ASCO Post interviewed S. Gail Eckhardt, MD, an expert in this area who is Professor and Head of the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of...
The 10th annual Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, held recently in San Francisco, was jointly sponsored by ASCO, the AGA (American Gastroenterological Association), ASTRO (American Society for Radiation Oncology), and the SSO (Society of Surgical Oncology). “We seek to present the newest...
Attendees at the 2013 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in Orlando, Florida, were brought up to date with the latest news on cancers of the prostate, testes, bladder, and kidney. Below are selected highlights from the meeting describing findings of noteworthy abstracts to extend our regular news...
Studies show virtually all cancer survivors will experience some form of sexual dysfunction following a cancer diagnosis and treatment. Yet few cancer survivors seek help for physical problems they may be experiencing, such as vaginal dryness, dyspareunia, chemically induced menopause, reduced...
A growing body of evidence provides biologic and clinical evidence that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents are protective against colorectal cancer. “It is fascinating for me as a medical oncologist and epidemiologist to see how the worlds of colorectal cancer treatment and epidemiology are...
The use of duloxetine (Cymbalta) for 5 weeks “was associated with a statistically and clinically significant improvement” in painful chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy when compared with placebo in a phase III randomized, double-blind crossover trial reported in the Journal of the American...
Neurosurgeon and brain cancer researcher Eric Holland, MD, PhD, will be joining Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington in summer 2013. Dr. Holland will be Senior Vice President and Director of the Human Biology Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center,...
Just 1 month after undergoing a mammogram that was deemed normal with some dense tissue in my left breast, my gynecologist felt a mass in that breast about the size of a cherry tomato during a routine well visit. After watching the lump for a month to see if it was cyclical, she sent me for another ...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) named the following as recipients of awards at the recent Annual Meeting. Joseph H. Burchenal Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Cancer Research Hagop Kantarjian, MD, Chair and Professor in The University of Texas MD Anderson...
In estimated 10,000 demonstrators filled the streets in front of Washington, DC’s historic Carnegie Library on April 8 to protest budget cuts at the National Institutes of Health. The Rally for Medical Research was held to “emphasize to our policymakers that medical research must become a national...
The Conquer Cancer Foundation Grants and Awards Program has grown tremendously in 30 years, from supporting just one researcher in the United States to thousands working around the world. These investigators are performing breakthrough research in all aspects of cancer and making discoveries that...
Perhaps the most important take-home point of our study is that physicians should consider counseling colorectal cancer survivors to adopt a more physically active lifestyle that is consistent with a patient’s abilities and overall medical condition. Physicians should be reminded that most patients ...
In a study recently reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Peter T. Campbell, PhD, and colleagues from the Epidemiology Research Program of the American Cancer Society, Atlanta, found that more recreational physical activity before and after a diagnosis of colorectal cancer was associated with...
The so-called TML (Treatment across Multiple Lines) study reported by Bennouna and colleagues investigated the efficacy of bevacizumab (Avastin) beyond progression from first- to second-line therapy in advanced colorectal cancer, a strategy that was supported by data from observational cohort...
As reported recently in Lancet Oncology by Jaafar Bennouna, MD, of Institut de Cancérologie de l’Ouest, Nantes, France, and colleagues, the phase III ML18147 trial showed a survival benefit with continued bevacizumab (Avastin) treatment after first progression in metastatic colorectal cancer.1 The...
ASCO has unveiled the prototype of a computer system that will allow oncologists, from their desks, to leverage “big data” to measure the quality of care that their practices provide. The prototype is a major step in the development of CancerLinQ, a system that will eventually allow millions of...
In her editorial about the RESONATE trial (page 1), Dr. O’Brien raises the issue of equipoise in this phase III clinical trial that compares the efficacy of ibrutinib and ofatumumab (Arzerra) in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who are not appropriate...
A biomarker analysis of the pivotal EMILIA trial suggests that women with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer with tumors that have high expression of HER2 derive the most robust benefit from treatment with the antibody-drug conjugate T-DM1 (also now known as ado-trastuzumab emtansine...
Tufts Medical Center has appointed Saul N. Weingart, MD, PhD, of Newton, Massachusetts as its next Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Weingart is currently serving as Vice President for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He is a nationally renowned leader in...
High to severe levels of psychological distress are common among parents of children with advanced cancer, according to a study conducted at three children’s hospitals—Boston Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Seattle Children’s Hospital. The cohort study was embedded in...
Survivors of childhood cancer have an increased risk of subsequent renal cancers compared to the general population, researchers reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The risk is particularly high among survivors of neuroblastoma and those who have had irradiation involving the...
Commenting on the study finding that most women with ovarian cancer are not being treated with the recommended standard of care, a New York Times editorial noted, “One of the surest ways to improve performance would be to analyze and make public how well individual doctors and hospitals do in...
Most women with ovarian cancer are not receiving adequate treatment, as specified in National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Guidelines,1 and as a result are being deprived of the survival benefits correlated with guideline-recommended treatment, according to a study presented at the Society...
Obese men were more likely to have precancerous lesions detected in their benign prostate biopsies compared with nonobese men and were at a greater risk for subsequently developing prostate cancer, according to data published recently in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.1 “Our study ...
Scott C. Goodwin, MD, FSIR, an interventional radiologist and Hasso Brothers Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, assumed office as the 2013–2014 President of the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) during the Society’s 38th...
Upregulation of BIM (BCL2L11), a proapoptotic member of the BCL2 protein family, is required for induction of apoptosis by EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors in EGFR-mutant forms of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A BIM deletion polymorphism occurs naturally in approximately 13% of East Asian...
Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition is known to mediate cancer cell invasion, metastasis, and drug resistance, but its impact on cancer immune surveillance is less well defined. In a study reported in Cancer Research, Akalay and colleagues found that epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and...
C-reactive protein is a biomarker of acute and chronic inflammation that is frequently elevated in patients with cancer. In a study reported in Clinical Cancer Research, Secchiero and colleagues found that increased levels of C-reactive protein were associated with downregulation of TRAIL, a...
About the Writers Charlotte Bath has been writing about cancer and related fields of medicine since serving as Public Information Director of the American Cancer Society, Long Island Division, from 1975 to 1979. She subsequently worked as a writer for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and...
After a friend was diagnosed with breast cancer, I became so worried it would happen to me, I decided to perform regular breast self-exams so I could familiarize myself with the normal feel of my breasts, and quickly spot any changes. My friend’s diagnosis scared me, and that fear probably saved my ...