Despite millennia of anatomic and biomedical search and discovery, there are parts and functions of the human body that remain a mystery. For years, medical students were taught that there are 78 organs in the human body. In February 2017, that number was revised, with the announcement of a new...
The role of caregiver in the cancer scenario is complicated by various emotions and circumstances beyond the control of the caregiver and the person with cancer. Caregiver stress occurs when there isn’t the time to do all that’s asked or expected of one. Caregiver stress evolves into burnout when...
Forbes magazine released the ninth annual “30 Under 30” list Class of 2020 in December 2019, featuring the newest group of 600 young entrepreneurs, scientists, and innovative individuals who were recognized for their extraordinary accomplishments at early ages. A total of 30 honorees were selected...
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the Art of Oncology as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
Seattle Genetics recently announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to tucatinib, in combination with trastuzumab and capecitabine, for the treatment of patients with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast...
For patients with progressing HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer previously treated with trastuzumab, pertuzumab, and ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1), no single regimen is an established standard of care. More than 50% of these patients will develop brain metastasis, and thus far, treatments...
On December 16, 2019, enzalutamide (Xtandi) was approved for the treatment of patients with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data The current approval was based on findings from the phase III double-blind ARCHES trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier...
Patients with metastatic esophageal cancer who declined chemotherapy but received palliative care had a numerically higher, but not statistically significant, difference in overall survival. These findings will be presented by Manguso et al at the 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium (Abstract...
According to study results to be presented by Valle et al at the 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium (Abstract 477), the addition of either ramucirumab or merestinib to the standard first-line therapy for biliary tract cancer—gemcitabine plus cisplatin—did not improve progression-free survival, ...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) has published new guidelines for treating children, adolescents, and young adults with pediatric aggressive mature B-cell lymphomas, including Burkitt lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. NCCN published the first pediatric NCCN Clinical...
A bacterium typically linked to periodontal disease, Fusobacterium nucleatum, could play an important role in the rising incidence of colorectal cancer in people younger than age 45. Another type of bacteria, Moraxella osloensis, has been found in colorectal cancer tumors at a nearly fourfold...
In this installment of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with Felix Y. Feng, MD, Professor of Radiation Oncology, Urology, and Medicine; George and Judy Marcus Distinguished Professor; Vice Chair of Translational Research in the Department of Radiation...
As many California residents continue to deal with the aftermath of past wildfires and the advent of new ones, CancerCare is now offering a patient assistance program for both emotional and financial support to patients with cancer affected by the California fires. As a leading national nonprofit...
Following a national search, Henry Ford Health System has selected its own Steven N. Kalkanis, MD, as Chief Executive Officer of the Henry Ford Medical Group. He succeeds William A. Conway, MD, who is stepping down after more than 4 decades with the health system. Dr. Kalkanis will provide...
The day after Christmas, I walked into the exercise studio and spent the next hour jogging, rowing, and doing exactly what that morning’s coach instructed the 20 or so participants of the class to do next. The hour passed quickly, and I had little or no time to think about anything other than the...
ASCO has elected Everett E. Vokes, MD, FASCO, a long-time member and volunteer, to serve as its President for the term beginning in June 2021. Dr. Vokes will take office as President-Elect during the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago in June 2020. Six members were also elected to open positions on...
Value-based care in oncology—a concept that emphasizes quality over quantity—has evolved over the past 2 decades to become a guiding principle of both public and private payers. The concept was part of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA) of 2008; informed elements of...
The American Cancer Society (ACS) has announced three new members to the Board of Directors, effective January 1, 2020. Joining the ACS board are Katie Eccles, Patrick Geraghty, and Oyebode Taiwo, MD, MPH. The ACS Board of Directors consists of 21 members, which include 5 officers (elected for a ...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Trevor Royce, MS, MD, MPH, and colleagues found that publicly available information on pricing for radiation treatment for prostate cancer was complex and inconsistent, and that pricing varied widely among National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer...
A retrospective analysis of 26,768 young adults with colorectal cancer aged 40 and under found that those who live in areas with lower income (a median income of less than $38,000) and less education (under 79% high school graduation rate), as well as those who live in urban areas, had worse...
Patient-reported outcomes from two large studies show that quality of life is maintained longer with newer drug combinations compared with standard-of-care treatments in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma and BRAF V600E–mutant metastatic colorectal cancer. The results, from...
Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO, Professor of Medicine, Director of Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, said the residual cancer burden index is being increasingly used in medical oncology. “The...
Residual cancer burden after neoadjuvant chemotherapy can accurately predict disease recurrence and survival across all breast cancer subtypes, according to the findings from a meta-analysis presented at the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium by W. Fraser Symmans, MD, Professor and Director...
Debra Patt, MD, MPH, MBA, Executive Vice President of Policy and Strategy for Texas Oncology and Clinical Professor at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin, commented that the 10-year results of NSABP B-42 show “a substantial improvement” in disease-free survival, with an...
“In the 10-year analysis of the NSABP B-42 trial, the effect of extended treatment with 5 years of letrozole on disease-free survival persisted and reached statistical significance. There was no significant improvement in overall survival with letrozole, but letrozole continued to provide a...
The combination of brentuximab vedotin and nivolumab is making headway as first-line therapy for older adults with Hodgkin lymphoma and as salvage therapy for adults with relapsed or refractory classic Hodgkin lymphoma, according to separate studies presented at the 2019 Annual Meeting &...
In an analysis of the EORTC 1325/KEYNOTE-054 trial of adjuvant pembrolizumab vs placebo in stage III melanoma reported in JAMA Oncology, Alexander M.M. Eggermont, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that patients treated with pembrolizumab who experienced immune-related adverse events had improved...
In an homage to the gracious patients who provided biospecimens and to the dedicated researchers who have tended and studied the derived cell lines, James L. Mulshine, MD, of the Center for Healthy Aging, Department of Internal Medicine, Rush University, and colleagues have described the impact of...
A weekly schedule of nab-paclitaxel as part of neoadjuvant chemotherapy significantly improved pathologic complete response compared with nab-paclitaxel given 2 weeks out of every 3 weeks (2/3) in patients with primary breast cancer, with a greater magnitude of benefit in patients with...
The likelihood of a patient responding to immune checkpoint blockade may depend on B cells in the tumor, located within specialized immune-cell clusters known as tertiary lymphoid structures, according to three studies all recently published in Nature. The studies showed that enrichment of B cells...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Fischer et al found different patterns of relapse and associated outcomes among men with relapse after treatment with adjuvant bleomycin/etoposide/cisplatin for clinical stage I nonseminoma. The study included data on 51 patients from 18...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Alexander Drilon, MD, and colleagues, an integrated analysis of three phase I/II trials has shown high activity of the TRK and ROS1 inhibitor entrectinib in ROS1 fusion-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This analysis supported the August 2019 U.S....
This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to treatments for ovarian, prostate, and lung cancer; granted Orphan Drug designation to therapies for chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia and multiple myeloma; and granted Breakthrough Device designation to platforms...
A new study has shown how resistance to fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) inhibitor treatment develops in patients with cholangiocarcinoma and suggests that adding another therapy at the time of disease progression might resensitize tumor cells to initial therapy. These findings were...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hourigan et al found that reduced-intensity conditioning for allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation was associated with poorer outcomes vs myeloablative conditioning in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who had genomic...
With the pediatric cancer survival rate exceeding 80%, “we can reasonably suspect that most of these children will survive more than 5 years from their diagnosis and then go on to puberty,” when they may have to deal with the consequences of cancer treatment, according to Rebecca Flyckt, MD,...
Researchers have discovered detailed new genetic information about the subtypes of pancreatic cancer. A better understanding of the disease groups may lead to new treatment options and improved clinical outcomes for this lethal disease, Chan-Seng-Yue et al reported in Nature Genetics. The study...
Neoadjuvant systemic therapy can shrink tumors in patients with breast cancer and, in some cases, allow patients to receive breast-conserving therapy who would otherwise require mastectomy. However, in the United States, about 55% of patients who become eligible for breast-conserving therapy after...
Commenting on the blinatumomab study, Howard J. Weinstein, MD, Chief of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children and Harvard Medical School in Boston, said: “These are very promising results for children, adolescents, and young adults who have had a first...
To complement The ASCO Post’s comprehensive coverage of the 2019 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are several abstracts selected from the meeting proceedings focusing on novel therapeutic regimens for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). For full details of...
Blinatumomab was superior to standard chemotherapy in children, adolescents, and young adults at the first relapse of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) as post-reinduction consolidation therapy prior to hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT), according to the results of a late-breaking...
Although advances in cancer treatments have led to huge increases in the number of survivors in the United States—more than 16.9 million in 2019—many of those survivors, particularly those aged 18 to 64, face substantial medical financial hardship due to their diagnosis and treatment, necessitating ...
A new study shows that a test physicians commonly use to guide chemotherapy for patients with breast cancer after surgery may also help them decide whether radiation therapy may be of benefit. Results published by Wendy A. Woodward, MD, PhD, and colleagues in JAMA Oncology suggest patients with an...
To complement The ASCO Post’s comprehensive coverage of the 2019 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are several abstracts selected from the meeting proceedings focusing on novel therapeutic regimens including the monoclonal antibody daratumumab in combination ...
New research indicates that there is a higher risk of early death among patients with oropharyngeal cancer not associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) vs those whose tumors are HPV-positive. The findings are published by Fullerton et al in Cancer. The incidence of oropharyngeal cancer is...
Lack of insurance coverage is a major cause of delayed breast cancer screening and treatment among minority women, which could lead to a decrease in a patient’s chance of survival. Nearly half of the disparity in later-stage diagnosis between non-Hispanic white women and black, Hispanic, and...
In a national cohort study conducted in the United Kingdom and reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nossiter et al found no clinically important differences in patient-reported functional outcomes among men receiving hypofractionated vs conventionally fractionated radiotherapy for...
In the phase III MEDALIST trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Fenaux et al found that luspatercept significantly reduced the severity of anemia vs placebo in red blood cell transfusion–dependent patients with very low- to intermediate-risk myelodysplastic syndromes with ring...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Alexander E. Perl, MD, of Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues, the phase III ADMIRAL trial showed improved overall survival with the oral FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) inhibitor gilteritinib vs salvage...
Patients with advanced melanoma who develop metastases in the leptomeninges usually have a poor prognosis—most patients only survive for 8 to 10 weeks after diagnosis. One reason for this poor prognosis is that very little is known about the molecular development of leptomeningeal melanoma...