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Showing 8401 - 8450Oncofetal Protein SALL4 Is a Marker of Aggressive Hepatocellular Carcinoma and a Potential Therapeutic Target
Hepatocellular carcinomas with characteristics of embryonic stem cell and progenitor cell gene expression are associated with particularly poor prognosis. SALL4 is an oncofetal protein that is expressed in the human fetal liver and normally silenced in the adult liver, but re-expressed in a...
Diane E. Meier, MD: From Early Lessons in Critical Thinking to 'Palliative Care Everywhere'
Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. —Helen Keller, Optimism, 1903 Shortly past 8:00 AM on July 1977, Diane E. Meier, MD, FACP, began the first day of her medical internship. Within minutes she would experience another first: the death of a patient...
Evolving Issues in Low-dose CT Lung Cancer Screening
Over a decade has passed since the start of the National Lung Cancer Screening Trial and more than 2 years since the first report indicating that this randomized study had demonstrated a significant reduction in lung cancer mortality with low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening.1 That favorable ...
Low-dose CT Screening for Lung Cancer: Details of First Round of Screening in National Lung Screening Trial
The National Lung Screening Trial found that 3 years of annual screening with low-dose helical computed tomography (CT) reduced lung cancer mortality compared with chest radiography in older persons who were heavy smokers.1 The Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial also...
Where Are We With ALK Inhibition in Lung Cancer?
The prospective phase III PROFILE 1007 study compared the ALK inhibitor crizotinib (Xalkori) to chemotherapy in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with ALK gene–rearranged tumors refractory to previous chemotherapy. The study showed a clear superiority for crizotinib in terms ...
Ibrutinib Produces High Response Rate in Patients with Refractory Mantle Cell Lymphoma
Ibrutinib is a first-in-class oral covalent inhibitor of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase, a mediator of the B cell-receptor signaling pathway implicated in the pathogenesis of B-cell cancers. As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Michael L. Wang, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson...
B-cell Receptor Signaling Inhibitors Moving Forward in Lymphoma
Though still in early-phase studies, novel B-cell receptor signaling inhibitors look very promising for the treatment of lymphoma, according to reports from the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting. Idelalisib in Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma In non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), idelalisib looked impressive as both a single...
Acquired Resistance to Crizotinib from ROS1 G2032R Mutation
The ALK inhibitor crizotinib (Xalkori) has also shown activity in lung cancers with ROS1 translocations. As recently reported by Mark M. Awad, MD, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and colleagues in The New England Journal of Medicine, a mutation conferring resistance to crizotinib...
SIDEBAR: ‘Major Milestone in War on Cancer’
The recommendation by the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) for the use of low-dose, computed tomography (CT) to detect early lung cancer in high-risk individuals is a major milestone in the war on cancer. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death across the world. Despite...
GeparSixto Study Finds Benefit for Neoadjuvant Carboplatin in Triple-negative Breast Cancer
In patients with triple-negative breast cancer, the addition of carboplatin significantly improved the rate of pathologic complete response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in a study by the German Breast Group (GBG)/Gynecologic Oncology Working Group–Breast (AGO-B) reported at the 2013 ASCO Annual...
Oncologists Speak Out Against the High Cost of Cancer Drugs
That the United States spends twice as much on health care than other industrialized countries—about $2.8 trillion in 2012—without reaping appreciably better outcomes1 is not news. The topic has been dissected on the front pages of leading newspapers for years and was the subject of the entire...
Printed and Web-Based Decision Aids Improved Informed Decision-Making but Didn’t Alter Screening
Amid conflicting recommendations for prostate cancer screening and mixed messages communicated to the public about screening effectiveness, decision aids can assist men in making informed choices. A comparison of two different types of decision aids, one print-based and one Web-based, found that...
'Best-Ever' Published Prognostic Factor for Early-Stage Type 1 Endometrial Cancer
Immunohistochemical demonstration of the L1 cell adhesion molecule (L1CAM; CD171) “has been shown to be the best-ever published prognostic factor” in Federation Internationale de Gynecologie et d’Obstetrique (FIGO) stage I, type I endometrial cancers “and shows clear superiority over the standardly ...
Long-Term Current Use of Calcium Channel Blockers Is Associated With Higher Risk of Breast Cancer
Long-term use of a calcium channel blocker to treat hypertension is associated with higher breast cancer risk, according to a report published online by JAMA Internal Medicine. Researchers evaluated associations between various classes of hypertensives, the most commonly prescribed class of...
Nodal Metastases More Likely if Tumors Have Breast Cancer Stem and Progenitor Cells With PI3K/Akt Signaling Defects
Patients with breast tumors in which breast cancer stem and progenitor cells have a genetic abnormality of the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway are more likely to have lymph node metastases, according to a study in JAMA Surgery. “These oncogenic defects may be missed by gross molecular testing of the...
Role of Erlotinib in EGFR Wild-Type Lung Cancer
I welcomed Matthew Stenger’s Journal Spotlight on the TAILOR trial in the August 15 issue of The ASCO Post (“Docetaxel Superior to Erlotinib in Second-Line Treatment of Advanced Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer With Wild-Type EGFR”). The trial was recently published online in Lancet Oncology,1 and...
Active Surveillance of Very Low-Risk Prostate Cancer Might Not Be Suitable Option for African American Men
African American men with prostate cancer that meets current criteria for very low-risk disease might actually be harboring larger and more aggressive tumors that make active surveillance a less viable option, according to the results of a study published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology1 ...
Role of Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition in Ovarian Cancer
In a study of ovarian cancer cells taken from patients, scientists from Georgia Institute of Technology have confirmed that metastasizing cancer cells have a different molecular structure from primary tumor cells and display genetic signatures consistent with epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition....
Family Members of Children With Cancer Are Also at Risk for the Disease
Parents and siblings of children with cancer have between a two- and four-times increased risk of developing cancer than first-degree relatives with no childhood cancer patients, according to a study published in the International Journal of Cancer.1 The study, led by Joshua Schiffman, MD, Medical...
Combining Community Practice and Health Policy Advocacy
Barbara L. McAneny, MD, is a board-certified medical oncologist/hematologist with a robust community practice in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Dr. McAneny, who has held many leadership roles in oncology associations, became a delegate to the American Medical Association (AMA) from ASCO in 2002, was...
ASH Announces 2013 Honorific Award Recipients
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) announced the seven scientists who have received 2013 Honorific Awards for their significant contributions to the understanding and treatment of hematologic diseases. The Honorific Awards are the Society’s most prestigious awards. This year’s awards will be...
Conquer Cancer Foundation Donor and ASCO Member Denis Hammond, MD: Spreading the Word to Help Conquer Cancer
Oncology care professionals answer hundreds of questions from patients and their families every day. Over the course of months and years doctors and nurses address everything from medical questions about drug regimens and side effects, to personal questions about how cancer may affect work or...
Ginseng in the Spotlight
I read the study by Barton and colleagues in Journal of the National Cancer Institute with great interest. Ginseng seems potentially to be one treatment for cancer-related fatigue, a poorly understood but debilitating symptom that patients experience during and after treatment.1 I am impressed that ...
ASCO Examines the Future of Cancer Care Over the Next 2 Decades
While the many scientific advances over the past 50 years have led to improved outcomes for millions of patients with cancer—increasing the number of survivors from just 3 million in the 1970s to nearly 14 million today—the next 20 years promise to bring even greater opportunities to improve the...
Dr. Julie Vose Finds the Best of Both Worlds—Patient Care and Cutting-Edge Research—in Academic Medicine
Julie M. Vose, MD, MBA, is the Neumann M. and Mildred E. Harris Professor and Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. She grew up in Mitchell, South Dakota, a small town nestled on the banks of the James River. Mitchell is home to the Corn Palace,...
Study Suggests Low-Grade Prostate Cancers May Not Progress Over Time
Data analyzed from a large cohort study of men diagnosed with prostate cancer found that prostate cancer aggressiveness may be established when the tumor is formed and not changed over time. The researchers of the study, Kathryn L. Penney, ScD, Instructor in the Department of Medicine at Harvard...
Fertility Rates in Childhood Cancer Survivors Suggest Strategies for Follow-up Care
Childhood cancer survivors with clinical infertility have a good chance of achieving pregnancy, according to new findings from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS). Study Background As a group, women who survive childhood cancer are known to have lower fertility rates. This study, however,...
Bevacizumab/Pemetrexed Maintenance Increases Progression-Free Survival vs Bevacizumab Alone in Advanced Nonsquamous NSCLC
Maintenance therapy is associated with improved survival in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but few studies have compared active agents in this setting. In a phase III trial (AVAPERL trial) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Fabrice Barlesi, MD, PhD, of Aix Marseille...
Pattern in Lung Cancer Pathology May Predict Recurrence After Surgery
A new study by thoracic surgeons and pathologists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center shows that a specific pattern found in the tumor pathology of some lung cancer patients is a strong predictor of recurrence. Knowing that this feature exists in a tumor’s pathology could be an important...
Pemetrexed Maintenance in PARAMOUNT: Continuation Proves to Be a Strong Option for Advanced NSCLC, Although Not a Mandate
The PARAMOUNT trial1 represents an important landmark study of continuation maintenance therapy with pemetrexed (Alimta). While maintenance therapy gained a toehold in routine management of advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) several years ago, the first trials that demonstrated a...
Significant Improvement in Overall Survival Seen With Pemetrexed Maintenance After Pemetrexed/Cisplatin Induction in Patients With Advanced Nonsquamous NSCLC
In the phase III PARAMOUNT trial, pemetrexed (Alimta) continuation maintenance therapy significantly reduced the risk of disease progression by 38% compared with placebo after pemetrexed/cisplatin induction in patients with advanced nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Final overall...
Obinutuzumab Shows Activity in Relapsed/Refractory Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma or Mantle Cell Lymphoma and Indolent Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
Obinutuzumab is a type II, glycoengineered, humanized anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody. In the phase II GAUGUIN studies reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Franck Andre Morschhauser, MD, PhD, of Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire de Lille and Gilles A. Salles, MD, PhD, of Hospices...
Merkel Cell Carcinoma: Hints of Immune Mediation May Enhance Treatment Options
Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare but aggressive skin cancer with poor outcomes and suboptimal therapeutic options. With a 46% mortality rate, it is three times more lethal than melanoma, and its reported incidence is rising. “Merkel cell carcinoma is a nasty cancer and we have zero FDA-approved...
Olaparib Shows Robust Progression-Free Survival Benefit in Patients With BRCA Mutations
Maintenance therapy with olaparib extended progression-free survival and the time to disease progression after a second subsequent therapy in patients with platinum-sensitive relapsed serous ovarian cancer and a BRCA mutation, according to an updated analysis of Study 19 presented at the 2013 ASCO...
Researchers Identify Gene Variations in Lung Cancer Patients That May Help Predict an Individual's Treatment Response
Researchers at the Moffitt Cancer Center have identified four inherited genetic variants in patients with non–small cell lung cancer that can help predict survival and treatment response. Their findings, published in Carcinogenesis,1 could help lead to more personalized treatment options and...
Cord Blood Transplantation Benefits Some Children With Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia
A retrospective analysis of 110 patients with juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia found that single-unit, unrelated donor umbilical cord blood transplantation resulted in a 5-year disease-free survival rate of 44%. “Our data document that a significant proportion of children with this disease,...
Panobinostat Combined With Bortezomib and Dexamethasone Can Recapture Responses in Heavily Pretreated Patients
The combination of the investigational histone deacetylase inhibitor panobinostat (Faridak) with bortezomib (Velcade) and dexamethasone was able to recapture responses in 34.5% of heavily pretreated, bortezomib-refractory patients with multiple myeloma in the phase II PANORAMA 2 trial. The 55...
Many Patients With Head and Neck Cancer Report Being Depressed, but Few Use Mental Health Services
Despite a relatively high rate of depression among patients with head and neck cancer following radiation therapy, mental health services were severely underutilized in this group, concluded researchers who analyzed questionnaire results from 211 patients. The patients had been previously treated...
More Prudent Interpretation of Thyroid Ultrasound Could Reduce Unnecessary Biopsies
Thyroid ultrasound imaging could be used to identify patients who have a low risk of thyroid cancer for whom biopsy could be deferred, according to a retrospective case-control study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine. Reviewing 11,618 thyroid ultrasound imaging examinations from 8,806 patients...
Indoor Tanning Common Among Young White Females Despite Skin Cancer Risk
Indoor tanning, defined as using a tanning booth, sun bed, or sunlamp, is common among non-Hispanic white female high school students and young adults, despite risks of melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancer, according to a study published online by JAMA Internal Medicine. Using data from the 2011...
Preventing Tobacco Use in Children
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently released its final recommendation statement on primary care interventions to prevent tobacco use in children and adolescents.1 The Task Force recommends that primary care clinicians provide interventions, including education or brief counseling, to...
California Stem Cell Agency Awards More than $40 Million in New Research Grants, including Funds for Prostate Cancer Research
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine recently announced approval by the agency’s governing Board, the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, of $40 million in funding for researchers at 10 institutions as part of its Early Translational IV Research awards. Among the institutions...
Tackling Overdiagnosis and Overtreatment, by Words and by Deeds
The complexity of the pathologic condition called cancer,” according to a Viewpoint article in the Journal of the American Medical Association,1 “complicates the goal of early diagnosis.” Failure to recognize that cancers are heterogeneous, and that not all progress to metastases and death, can...
Prominent Surgeon and Teacher LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr, MD, Promotes Hard Work and Education to Overcome Boundaries
Reminiscing about his 65 years in medicine, LaSalle Doheny Leffall, Jr, MD, FACS, cites three events in his early childhood that would ultimately lead him to his position today as the Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery at Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, DC. First, he was...
The Oncologist as Author: On Guiding Patients Through Cancer
When Tumor Is the Rumor and Cancer Is the Answer is the guidebook to cancer that Kevin P. Ryan, MD, FACP, COL, USAF (ret) wished his patients had during his 30 years of practicing oncology. The book, recently published by AuthorHouse, is an authoritative, inspiring, and even philosophical guide for ...
The Trials and Tribulations of a Revolutionary Cancer Drug
A modest brass plaque above a booth in the Eagle Pub in Cambridge, notes, “On this spot, on February 28, 1953, Francis Crick and James Watson declared the discovery of DNA with these words: ‘We have discoverewd the secret of life.’” Announcing a major scientific advance over a pint of ale is a far...
Cancer: Survivors in Focus Photo Exhibit Honors Cancer Survivors
In June, the David J. Sencer Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, opened a new photo exhibit featuring the faces of people living through and beyond a cancer diagnosis. The exhibit: Cancer: Survivors in Focus, tells the stories of cancer survivors while...
Celebrating 2 Decades as a Cancer Survivor
This past June, I celebrated 20 years of being a cancer survivor by throwing myself a party. It was an interesting experience because I learned that many of the 100 guests I invited were also cancer survivors or were family members of cancer survivors, and so we celebrated their lives as well. Our...
The Direction of Immunotherapy Over the Next Decade
The use of immunotherapy to target malignant cells in a variety of cancers—especially the PD-1 inhibitors lambrolizumab and nivolumab in the treatment of metastatic melanoma and the anti–PD-L1 agent MPDL3280A in the treatment of melanoma and lung, kidney, colorectal, and gastric cancers—made...
Potential Prognostic Significance Shown for Interaction of Follicular Lymphoma Cells with Immune Microenvironment
It has been shown that CD4 and CD8 tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in follicular lymphoma have impaired function and suppressed recruitment of critical signaling proteins to the immunologic synapse, and a number of studies have indicated the prognostic importance of the immune microenvironment in...
