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Showing 851 - 900Johnson & Johnson Creates Independent Bioethics Panel to Evaluate Compassionate Drug Use Requests
In May 2015, Johnson & Johnson announced its partnership with New York University (NYU) School of Medicine in New York to create a first-of-its kind independent bioethics panel to review requests made to the company for compassionate use of an investigational drug and determine how the company...
‘Right to Try’ Laws: Helpful or Harmful?
Since 2014, “Right to Try” legislation has been sweeping the nation. Created to enable terminally ill patients to gain access to experimental drugs, biologics, and devices by sidestepping the approval process of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), at press time, 22 states have enacted...
A Cancer Handbook for Inquisitive Laypersons and Health-Care Professionals
Bookmark Title: The Cancer Solution: Taking Charge of Your Life With CancerAuthor: Jack C. Westman, MD, MSPublisher: Archway PublishingPublication date: January 15, 2015Price: $20.00; paperback, 310 pages I was at a meeting in San Francisco in 1978 and received a call from my wife, Nancy:...
Coping With Aging and Cancer: Psychosocial Factors and Geriatric-Specific Interventions
You can’t control the wind, but you can adjust your sails,” said Mindy Greenstein, PhD, consulting psychologist and author, to begin her talk at the 2015 World Congress of Psycho-Oncology, held in July in Washington, DC. The sense of this proverb pervaded the entire session on cancer and aging....
Secondary Prevention in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: Benefits of Vitamin D and Aspirin Explored
Two low-cost, low-tech options may lead to a survival benefit in metastatic colorectal cancer, according to separate retrospective studies selected for the Best of ASCO® 2015. The first study suggested that vitamin D supplementation is worthy of investigation in this regard,1 and the second study...
Colorectal Liver Metastases: Thumbs Up for Radiofrequency Ablation, Jury Still Out for Selective Internal Radiotherapy
Two “firsts” in studies of colorectal liver metastases were highlighted at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting: the first prospective randomized trial to evaluate radiofrequency ablation plus chemotherapy1 and the first large randomized phase III trial to study liver-directed selective internal radiation...
In Search of a Good Ending for a Life Well Lived
BOOKMARK Title: The Conversation: A Revolutionary Plan for End-of-life CareAuthor: Angelo E. Volandes, MDPublisher: BloomsburyPublication date: January 13, 2015Price: $26.00; hardcover, 240 pages A quick Google search on books about end-of-life care will yield pages of hits on the subject. The...
ASCO 2015: Geriatric Oncology Highlights
The theme of the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting, Illumination and Innovation, is especially appropriate as we consider the field of geriatric oncology. For too long, the elderly cancer patient has remained in the dark regarding treatment planning, clinical trial enrollment, and shared decision-making....
ASCO Asks CMS to Revisit Its Payment Policy to Support Optimal Cancer Care
ASCO has called on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to reconsider revisions to payment policies that could be administratively burdensome to oncology practices and result in reimbursement that inadequately supports optimal cancer patient care. In a comment letter to CMS on...
Ductal Carcinoma in Situ: Where We Have Been and Where We Can Be
Ductal carcinoma in situ has been a recent topic of debate in the news because of a recent article by Narod et al1 and an accompanying editorial2 about the study in JAMA Oncology. This study, summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post, chronicled the long-term outcomes for women diagnosed with...
Smoking Cessation Reduces Mortality in Lung Cancer Screening Population
Data from an analysis of lung cancer screening programs in Italy add further evidence that smoking cessation reduces mortality. Heavy smokers screened by low-dose computed tomography (CT) who stopped smoking before or during the screening period had a three- to fivefold reduction in mortality...
Expert Point of View: Clifford Hudis, MD
Clifford Hudis, MD, Chief of the Breast Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, said the findings suggest there is essentially no meaningful benefit from chemotherapy in the recurrence score low-risk subset. “It is clinically appropriate to offer endocrine therapy...
Falls Experienced by Older Patients Are Often Not Recorded or Responded to by Oncology Providers
A study comparing self-reported falls by older patients with cancer with the history and physical and/or clinic notes completed by their oncology providers “found that oncology providers rarely recorded or responded to falls in their older patients.” There was minimal evidence of documentation of...
Updated ACS Breast Cancer Screening Guideline Recognizes Greater Role for Individual’s Values and Preferences
The reactions to the updated breast cancer screening guideline from the American Cancer Society (ACS) have been many, varied, and not consistently favorable but not surprising to Kevin C. Oeffinger, MD, who chaired the ACS panel that issued the guideline. Breast cancer screening “is an area that...
The State of Progress in Hematologic Malignancies
The number of targeted therapies approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the treatment of a variety of cancers, especially hematologic malignancies, continues to rise. In 2014 alone, 4 of the 10 new agents directed at discrete molecular targets approved by the FDA were for blood...
Evidence Mounts for Less-Intense Chemoradiation Therapy for Low-Risk Oropharyngeal Cancer
A new study shows that deintensification of chemoradiation therapy translates to excellent pathologic complete response rates in low-risk human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated oropharyngeal cancer.1 Patient-reported outcomes showed that side effects declined after 8 weeks. The hope is that these...
Third Annual JADPRO Live at APSHO Conference Attracts Over 700 Advanced Practitioners in Hematology-Oncology
Over 700 nurse practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, clinical nurse specialists, and other oncology health-care professionals were convened in Phoenix, Arizona, earlier this month to participate in JADPRO Live at APSHO (Advanced Practitioner Society in Hematology and Oncology), the...
The Sixth Edition of the Essential Breast Cancer Book
Bookmark Title: Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book Author: Susan M. Love, MD Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books Publication date: September 8, 2015 Price: $24.00; paperback, 704 pages For more than 25 years, Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book has been the best source of information for women with breast...
Yet Another Reason Why Dogs Are Our Best Friends
BookmarkTitle: Heal: The Vital Role of Dogs in the Search for Cancer CuresAuthor: Arlene WeintraubPublisher: ECW PressPublication date: October 13, 2015Price: $16.95; paperback, 240 pages Comparative oncology, a fairly recent addition to the ever-evolving world of cancer research, studies the...
Practicing the Humanistic and Holistic Approach to End-of-Life Care
In 1990, when Bruce (B.J.) Miller, MD, was an undergraduate at Princeton University, the practice of medicine was far from his mind. Then a student in Chinese and Asian studies and later an art history major, Dr. Miller would come to pursue a career specializing in palliative medicine after an...
Understanding Health-Care Disparities Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Patients to Ensure More Effective Cancer Care
A new study examining the health-care needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender/transsexual patients has found myriad disparities in access to cancer care.1 The researchers reviewed nearly 170 papers published over the past 15 years on the health-care needs among this population. Although...
Combining Molecular-Driven Approach and Immunotherapy to Improve Treatment for Patients With Inflammatory Breast Cancer
We have a responsibility to develop better treatment for inflammatory breast cancer,” Massimo Cristofanilli, MD, FACP, told participants at the 17th Annual Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium in Chicago. As recently appointed Associate Director of Translational Research and Precision Medicine at the ...
Mixing Metaphors to Change the Language of Cancer
BookmarkTitle: Malignant Metaphor: Confronting Cancer MythsAuthor: Alanna MitchellPublisher: ECW PressPublication date: September 15, 2015Price: $24.95; hardcover, 184 pages Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom...
A Primary Care Doctor’s Tough-Love Medicare Fix
Bookmark Title: Curing Medicare: One Doctor’s View of How Our Health Care System Is Failing the Elderly and How to Fix It Author: Andy Lazris, MD Publisher: CreateSpace Publication date: September 13, 2014 Price: $13.75; paperback, 290 pages Several years ago I decided to write a book about...
Surgical Excision Without Radiation Therapy in Women With Low-Risk Ductal Carcinoma in Situ
Lawrence J. Solin, MD, of Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, Philadelphia, and colleagues reported the 12-year results from the ECOG-ACRIN E5194 trial in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Among women with ductal carcinoma in situ with low-risk clinical and pathologic characteristics, they found...
Journal of Oncology Practice Expands Research Coverage and Debuts a New Look
Launched by ASCO in 2005 to provide oncologists with original research on the delivery of high-quality cancer care, the Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP) enters its 11th year with a new look and feel. Beginning in January 2016, JOP will be copublished by ASCO and Harborside Press, the publisher of ...
SABCS 2015: Patients With Ductal Carcinoma in Situ Receiving Anastrozole Reported Symptoms Different From Those in Patients Receiving Tamoxifen
Analysis of patient-reported outcomes, a secondary endpoint of the phase III NSABP B-35 clinical trial, in which anastrozole and tamoxifen were compared in postmenopausal women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) who underwent lumpectomy plus radiotherapy, found that there were no differences in...
Rates of Curative Lung Cancer Surgery Vary by State
The likelihood of receiving curative-intent surgery for patients with early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) varies substantially from state to state, according to data presented at the Eighth American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Conference on the Science of Cancer Health...
Antiangiogenic Breast Cancer Treatment May Benefit Only Patients With Well-Perfused Tumors
A Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) research team, in collaboration with investigators at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, may have found a reason why the use of antiangiogenic drugs—which has improved outcomes for patients with several types of cancer—fails to benefit some breast...
12-Year Ipsilateral Breast Invasive Recurrence in 7.5% to 13.4% of Women With Low-Risk DCIS Receiving Surgical Excision Without Radiation
As reported by Solin et al in Journal of Clinical Oncology, 12-year results from the ECOG-ACRIN E5194 trial indicate that among women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) with low-risk clinical and pathologic characteristics, surgical excision without radiation therapy was associated with...
Palliative Radiotherapy May Be Overused in Late-Stage Lung Cancer
Almost half of patients with advanced lung cancer receive more than the recommended number of radiation treatments to reduce their pain, according to a new study published by Koshy et al in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Radiation therapy that is palliative can reduce the pain from...
ECC 2015: Living Conditions and Gender Appear to Affect Incidence of Hodgkin Lymphoma
Living in overcrowded conditions appears to protect children and young adults against developing a particular type of Hodgkin lymphoma. This protective effect seems to suggest that infections earlier in life may stimulate the immune system to deal with future infections and cancerous cells more...
ECC 2015: Childhood Cancers in Europe: Progress Has Been Made, but Much Still to Do
Each year in Europe, 6,000 young people die from cancer, and two-thirds of those who survive suffer from treatment-related side effects. Although there has been considerable progress in the treatment of childhood cancers over the past few decades, and cancer in childhood is rare, these are major...
High Use of Complementary or Alternative Medicines in Older Patients With Cancer
Alternative medicines are widely thought to be at least harmless, and very often helpful, for a wide range of discomforts and illnesses. However, although they’re marketed as “natural,” they often contain active ingredients that can react chemically and biologically with other...
European Trial Indicates No Additional Benefit From Preoperative Radiotherapy Following Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Stage IIIA/N2 NSCLC
In a phase III trial reported in The Lancet, Pless et al in the Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research found that adding preoperative radiation following neoadjuvant chemotherapy did not appear to improve outcomes vs neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone in patients with stage IIIA/N2 non–small...
Dose-Escalated EBRT Yields Survival Benefit in Intermediate- and High-Risk but Not Low-Risk Nonmetastatic Prostate Cancer
In a retrospective study reported in JAMA Oncology, Kalbasi et al found that dose-escalated external-beam radiation therapy was associated with improved overall survival among men with intermediate- and high-risk, but not low-risk, nonmetastatic prostate cancer. Study Details The study involved...
Poor Survival in Patients With Multiple Myeloma Linked to Genetic Variation
As part of a multi-institutional effort, researchers with Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah have found that patients with multiple myeloma with a genetic variation in the gene FOPNL die, on average, 1 to 3 years sooner than patients without it. The finding was identified with...
T-cell Receptor Therapy Achieves Encouraging Clinical Responses in Multiple Myeloma
Results from a clinical trial investigating a new T-cell receptor therapy demonstrated a clinical response in 80% of patients with multiple myeloma who had advanced disease after undergoing autologous stem cell transplants. Researchers at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center modified T cells to ...
‘Pill on a String’ Could Help Spot Early Signs of Esophageal Cancer
A “pill on a string” developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge could help doctors detect esophageal cancer at an early stage, helping them overcome the problem of wide variation between biopsies, suggests research published by Ross-Innes et al in Nature Genetics. The...
ESMO World GI 2015: Studies Confirm Regorafenib Benefit in Pretreated Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
The phase IIIb CONSIGN trial has confirmed the benefit of regorafenib (Stivarga) in patients with previously treated metastatic colorectal cancer, researchers announced July 3 at the European Society for Medical Oncology World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer in Barcelona, Spain (Abstract...
MASCC/ISOO 2015: Data Show Disconnect Between Clinician and Patient Perceptions of Treatment-Induced Nausea and Vomiting
Researchers from Norgine B.V. presented new data highlighting a perceptual gap between health-care professionals and patients in terms of the incidence and impact on patients’ daily life of chemotherapy- and radiotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV/RINV) at the joint Multinational...
Cardio-Oncology Services May Improve Patient Care if More Widely Available
The impact of cancer treatments on cardiovascular health is an important consideration when treating cancer patients. However, many hospital training programs have no formal training or services in cardio-oncology, and a lack of national guidelines and a lack of funding are frequent barriers to...
Early Menarche May Play a Role in Development of Aggressive Breast Cancer in African American Women
Early age at menarche could play a role in the disproportionate incidence of estrogen receptor–negative breast cancers diagnosed among African American women, according to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study is a result of a multicenter collaborative...
Lymph Nodes Signal More Aggressive Thyroid Cancer, Even in Young Patients
Patients older than age 45 with thyroid cancer that has spread to neck lymph nodes have long been considered at higher risk of dying, but the same has not been true for younger patients. Now researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute and the Duke Clinical Research Institute have found that...
ASCO 2015: ASCO Announces First-Ever Clinical Trial
ASCO announced its first-ever clinical trial, which will offer patients with advanced cancer access to molecularly targeted cancer drugs and collect “real-world” data on clinical outcomes, to help learn the best uses of these drugs outside of indications approved by the U.S. Food and...
Two Studies Highlight Benefit of Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy in Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer
Two studies from researchers at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center add to preliminary evidence that high-dose radiation treatment, or stereotactic body radiotherapy, appears to be safe and as effective as standard radiation treatment for certain patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer....
Multigene Panel Testing Provides Broader Information About Breast Cancer Risk
For women with a family history of breast cancer, new multigene panel testing yields greater information about cancer risk while assessing deleterious BRCA1/2 mutations as accurately as BRCA testing alone, according to a study presented at the American Society of Breast Surgeons Annual Meeting....
Evidence Grows That Melanoma Drugs May Benefit Some Lung Cancer Patients
A subset of lung cancer patients can derive important clinical benefits from drugs that are more commonly used to treat melanoma, the authors of a new academic clinical trial in Europe have reported at the European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC) in Geneva (Abstract 21PD_PR). Oliver Gautschi, MD, a...
Findings in Pooled Analysis of Long-Term Survival With Ipilimumab in Advanced Melanoma
In a pooled analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Schadendorf et al found 3-year overall survival rates of 26% and 20% in treatment-naive and previously treated patients receiving ipilimumab (Yervoy)-based treatment for unresectable or metastatic melanoma. A survival curve plateau...
Sputum Biomarker Panel May Help Identify Which Patients With Lung Nodules Have Lung Cancer
Among patients who had an unidentifiable lung nodule detected by a chest computed tomography (CT) scan, testing sputum for a panel of three microRNA (miRNA) biomarkers successfully distinguished early-stage lung cancers from nonmalignant nodules most of the time, according to a study reported by...
