For the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer, there is renewed interest in investigating the role of platinum chemotherapy, according to Melinda L. Telli, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, Palo Alto. At the Best of ASCO meeting in Los Angeles, Dr. Telli reviewed the...
The last issue of The ASCO Post reports encouraging results with platinum-based treatment of triple-negative breast cancer (September 15, 2013). We predicted these findings 4 years ago in a presentation at the 2009 Breast Symposium.1 We compared the activity of a series of agents (platinum, taxane, ...
A strong positive association with shiftwork and elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level was found in an analysis of three National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) studies. “Our data support the notion that sleep or circadian disruption is associated with elevated PSA,...
Nearly 200 scientists and stakeholders in the research community attended Research!America’s National Health Research Forum on September 12, at the Newseum’s Knight Conference Center in Washington, DC. Research!America’s President and CEO, Mary Woolley, opened the program. “The theme for this...
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital recently announced that William E. Evans, MD, Director and CEO, has decided to retire from his executive post in July of 2014. Dr. Evans has been with the organization for more than 40 years and has served as CEO for the past 10 years. Indelible Mark on History ...
As a young girl, Nancy Davenport-Ennis remembers hearing her parents tell stories about families struggling to pay their health-care expenses following a diagnosis of a serious illness like cancer. But it wasn’t until 3 decades later when she was coping with her own diagnosis of breast cancer and...
“Surely again, to heal men’s wounds by music’s spell.” —Euripides, Medea (480-406 BC) Commonly defined as organized sound, music has a unique power to stir human emotions, moods, and impressions. The salutary effect of music on the sick has been reported since antiquity. Aristotle and Plato wrote...
NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center has appointed Felice Schnoll-Sussman, MD, Director of its Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health. Dr. Schnoll-Sussman, has served as the Center’s Director of Research since 2007 and Acting Director since 2012. As Director, Dr....
The Wisconsin Association of Hematology & Oncology (WAHO) is among the youngest of ASCO’s State Affiliates. Formerly known as the Wisconsin Association of Medical Oncologists, WAHO was officially formed just 2 years ago and is already having an impact on oncologists and patients with cancer...
The next 10 years are expected to usher in unprecedented advances in oncology, including molecularly driven diagnostic and therapeutic developments, whole genome sequencing that results in true precision-based medicine, survivorship care plans that address long-term quality of life concerns, and...
Looking back, my son Max’s fall as he was running after another little boy while playing baseball was such a blessing. Although he landed on his right arm, the fall didn’t seem severe enough to cause him to cry out in such excruciating pain. But after several hours of icing the bruise failed to...
Protecting the stem cells that reside in and around the hippocampus substantially reduces the rate of cognitive decline in patients during whole-brain radiotherapy without a significant risk of recurrence in that area of the brain, a new study shows. Results of the phase II clinical trial of...
The Republic of Botswana is slightly smaller than the state of Texas and with a population of just over 2 million people it is one of the world’s most sparsely populated countries. Botswana was among Africa’s poorest countries at the time it gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1966....
In a study recently published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post, we found a relationship between alcohol intake between menarche and first pregnancy and risk for breast cancer. Placing this study in context can help us interpret the data...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) selected health-care researcher Jean B. Owen, PhD, as the 2013 Honorary Member, the highest honor ASTRO bestows on distinguished cancer researchers, scientists, and leaders in disciplines other than radiation oncology, radiobiology, and radiation...
Pazopanib (Votrient) and sunitinib (Sutent) have been shown to provide progression-free survival benefit compared with placebo or interferon in phase III trials in metastatic renal cell carcinoma. In a noninferiority trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Robert J. Motzer, MD, of...
Sheldon Davidson, MD, has been an ASCO member for nearly 30 years, and has been a donor to the Conquer Cancer Foundation since its origins as The ASCO Foundation nearly 15 years ago. As a practicing oncologist, Dr. Davidson’s explanation for why he has chosen to support the Conquer Cancer...
Reigning in the nation’s runaway medical costs was an underlying theme of President Obama’s health-care reform platform. Citing projects like The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, which documented large gaps in the quality, costs, and outcomes of health services around the country, the...
The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) has announced two open access gateways, the MMRF Researcher Gateway, which will upload genomic data as it becomes available and make it accessible to all researchers, and the MMRF CoMMunity Gateway, which will aggregate subtypes of myeloma patients...
More active support and interventions by physicians are required to get patients who still smoke to stop, according to two articles published online by the Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP),1,2 and to prevent school-aged children and adolescents from starting to use tobacco, according to a U.S....
All nonessential government services were suspended at midnight on October 1, 2013, after Congress failed to reach a budget compromise to keep the government funded before the start of the new fiscal year beginning on October 1, 2013. ASCO issued a statement in response to the government shutdown...
Patients with stage I non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who are medically inoperable have an excellent chance at full local tumor control and long-term survival with stereotactic body radiation therapy. Hak Choy, MD, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology at The University...
At the 14th International Lung Cancer Congress, held recently in Huntington Beach, California, Tony S.K. Mok, MD, Professor of Clinical Oncology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, was the honored recipient of the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation Award. The award was presented by Ms....
The study by Lund and colleagues discussed in this issue of The ASCO Post reinforces concerns about psychosocial health in long-term survivors of childhood cancer. Taking advantage of national registries, these investigators demonstrated that, when compared to the general population, survivors are...
Cancer cells are known to have short telomeres, but just how short they are from cancer cell to cancer cell may be a determining factor in a prostate cancer patient’s prognosis, according to a study1 led by scientists at Johns Hopkins. “Doctors are looking for new ways to accurately predict...
Steven J. O’Day, MD, Director of Clinical Research at the Beverly Hills Cancer Center and Adjunct Member of the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Los Angeles, said, “This is an important study. It allows us to feel comfortable with our aggressive approach to the management of DCIS.” Dr. O’Day...
In an e-mail interview, E. Shelley Hwang, MD, an expert who has coauthored several papers on ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), weighed in on the two abstracts about management of DCIS featured in this issue of The ASCO Post—one presented by Melissa L. Pilewskie, MD (perioperative MRI in DCIS, page...
Larry Norton, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, is the recipient of the 2013 Gianni Bonadonna Breast Cancer Award, which he received at the 2013 Breast Cancer Symposium. The Symposium is sponsored by ASCO, the American Society of Breast Surgeons, the American Society of Radiation...
In Keynote Lectures during the 2013 ASCO Breast Cancer Symposium, experts George Sledge, MD, and Monica Morrow, MD, offered their opinions and outlook on how the medical and surgical management of breast cancer may continue to evolve over the next 5 to 10 years.1 Dr. Sledge is Chief of Oncology at...
One of the more significant problems in modern oncology practice is to provide increased value at a time when costs are spiraling upward, and new parameters of “success” are being introduced into the equation—most visibly, inside the Beltway in Washington, DC. Thus, oncologists will need to address ...
Prepare for big changes ahead, Lawrence N. Shulman, MD, Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School in Boston, told oncologists at the 2013 Breast Cancer Symposium.1 One change is the emergence of...
At the 2013 Breast Cancer Symposium, studies suggested that with current radiotherapy techniques the mean radiation doses to the heart are much lower—and thus radiotherapy is presumably much safer—than findings suggested by an article published in The New England Journal of Medicine last spring.1...
Evidence has long been accumulating that radiotherapy involving the heart can result in premature ischemic heart disease, but interest peaked last spring when a case control study published in The New England Journal of Medicine1 found an increased risk for cardiac-related deaths in breast cancer...
“The management of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is undergoing profound changes. Several new drugs have been approved for CLL treatment (fludarabine, bendamustine [Treanda], and the monoclonal antibodies alemtuzumab [Campath], rituximab [Rituxan], and ofatumumab [Arzerra]), and many more drugs ...
days getting shorter the unopened rose buds … Fall color viewinghere and therethe sky … leaves leaves …not one lefton our maple seasonal affective disorderpumpkin festivallifts my mood Jyothirmai Gubili is an editor with the Integrative Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in ...
“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” —Leonardo da Vinci Lung cancer CT screening may have had no greater advocate than Claudia I. Henschke, PhD, MD. In the face of...
Celgene Corporation recently announced the two recipients of Celgene’s inaugural Innovation Impact Awards: The Aplastic Anemia & Myelodysplastic Syndromes International Foundation (AA&MDSIF) and the Lung Cancer Alliance. The Innovation Impact Awards program recognizes effective, innovative, ...
I know it sounds strange, but being diagnosed with cancer was one of the best things to have happened to me. I don’t mean to diminish the traumatic experience of hearing the words, “You have breast cancer.” That was over 11 years ago, and I’m still reeling from the diagnosis and its aftereffects....
On September 17, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) presented highlights of its 2013 Cancer Progress Report1 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. AACR Chief Executive Officer Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), opened the program with a double-edged message, first citing the...
Dubbed “Cancer Czar” by the media, Richard Pazdur, MD, Director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of Hematology and Oncology Products, said he has the “best job in oncology, with a unique vantage point in cancer drug development.” An oncologist for more than 30 years—including...
Cost of Care and Federal Funding How can ASCO address the high cost of cancer care and diminishing federal resources for basic and translational research? We need to work with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, private insurers, and health-care systems to encourage evidence-based...
Cost of Care and Federal Funding How can ASCO address the high cost of cancer care and diminishing federal resources for basic and translational research? In answer to the first part of this question, the rising cost of cancer care has certainly become a focus of national conversation given the...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) recently announced the election of three new members to its Executive Committee for terms beginning after the ASH Annual Meeting in December. Charles S. Abrams, MD, will serve a 1-year term as Vice President, followed by successive terms as President-Elect...
Dr. Gary Gilliland, MD, PhD, has been named the inaugural Vice Dean and Vice President for Precision Medicine, at Penn Medicine, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Dr. Gilliland is a cancer genetics expert and pioneer in the development of targeted therapies. “We are proud to be among the...
As the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) 8th Annual Congress: Hematologic Malignancies was drawing to a close, The ASCO Post spoke with Andrew D. Zelenetz, MD, PhD, about the themes of the meeting and the take-home messages for attendees and for our readers. Dr. Zelenetz is Vice Chair...
Although upfront therapy can achieve remission in multiple myeloma, most patients will ultimately relapse. Newer targeted therapies and genomic analysis are moving the management of relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma forward, according to Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, Director, Jerome Lipper Multiple...
The National Cancer Institute has awarded more than $11 million in funding to Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI), in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI), to begin an aggressive, multipronged search into preventing and treating ovarian cancer. Distributed over 5 ...
At the 2013 European Cancer Congress, two investigative teams attempted to explain how aspirin may protect against colorectal cancer recurrences, with one study showing PIK3CA mutations associated with protection from aspirin, but not a COX-2 inhibitor, and the other study implicating HLA class I...
The primacy of science and the overwhelming belief in medical research by the American people has sustained the research community and improved quality of life roughly since the turn of the 20th century. Almost without exception, the American people have voted for politicians who promise improved...
We are just 7 months into the $1 trillion in automatic federal budget spending cuts known as sequestration, and the impact on scientists in all areas of research is already so great, some say its full effects may be irreversible. The ASCO Post recently interviewed ASCO President Clifford A. Hudis, ...