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Showing 851 - 900Overcoming the Challenges of Presenting the ASCO Annual Meeting During the COVID-19 Pandemic
As the worldwide cases of the coronavirus started to mount in February and March, medical societies and organizations monitoring the escalating COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on international and domestic travel made the difficult decision to postpone or cancel their scientific conferences. On...
Lessons Learned on Rotation at COVID-19 Inpatient Service at New York City Hospital
AS I WRITE TO YOU, I am happy to report I have just completed a 7-day rotation at the COVID-19 inpatient service at my hospital in New York City! Overall, it was a positive experience, despite the occasional sad and scary moments. I left the service feeling uplifted and fulfilled. I am glad to have ...
New ASCO Guideline Addresses Head/Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Unknown Primary
ASCO has released a new clinical guideline titled, “Diagnosis and Management of Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Unknown Primary in the Head and Neck: ASCO Guideline.”1 The guideline, promulgated by an international expert panel, is intended to “provide evidence-based recommendations to practicing...
Do Men Treated With ADT for Prostate Cancer Have a Lower Risk of Acquiring COVID-19?
A study of 4,532 men in the Veneto region of Italy has found that those who were being treated for prostate cancer with androgen-deprivation therapies (ADT) were less likely to develop COVID-19, and if they were infected, their disease tended to be less severe. This research was published by...
Study Finds a High Rate of Intra- and Postoperative Conversions to Total Thyroidectomy
The overall risk of needing a total thyroidectomy was found to be 19.4% for patients undergoing lobectomy for indeterminate and high-risk thyroid nodule, according to a report published by Moore et al in the World Journal of Surgery. The study also found that 21% and 26.5% of patients originally...
Study Finds Cancer-Related Deaths Declined in States With Expanded Access to Medicaid
States that adopted Medicaid expansion after passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010 saw a decline in cancer mortality rates by 29% compared with 25% in states that did not expand access to Medicaid, according to a study by Anna Lee, MD, MPH, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New...
Cancer vs COVID-19: Clinical Trial Research During the Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic transformed cancer care, seemingly overnight, as practices scrambled to ensure a safe environment for caregivers and patients. Although regulatory burdens have been relaxed to allow patients to continue on trial treatment and telemedicine has expanded its competency and reach, ...
AACR 2020: Continuous Dosing of Dabrafenib Plus Trametinib Improves Progression-Free Survival vs Intermittent Dosing in Advanced Melanoma
Continuous dosing with dabrafenib and trametinib improved progression-free survival in patients with BRAF-mutated advanced melanoma compared with an intermittent-dosing strategy, according to results of the phase II SWOG S1320 randomized trial reported at the opening Plenary Session of the 2020...
Don’t Touch Me With a 6-Foot Pole
The universe has an intriguing way of registering our wishes and delivering them in convoluted, mutated forms. Last winter, I recall coming home after a long day at the hospital and being ambushed by my 3-year-old daughter and preteen son. She wanted to play, he needed help with homework, and they ...
In ‘Remembering Mum,’ Siblings Honor Their Mother With Action and Innovation
It’s one of the worst things Claire Paxman can recall: She’s 14 years old, using orange-handled kitchen scissors to cut her mother’s hair. “You shouldn’t be standing in the bathroom cutting your mom’s hair because of chemotherapy,” said Claire as she describes that defining childhood moment when ...
Grace and Forgiveness
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,...
Understanding Patient-Reported Outcomes in Cancer Trials: A Beginner’s Guide
Patient-reported outcomes are measures used in clinical trials to capture aspects of a patient’s health condition, reported directly by the patient, without introduction of bias from third parties. They are distinct from the physical toxicities reported by clinicians1 and are collected using a...
Expert Point of View: Virginia Kaklamani, MD, DSc, and Minetta Liu, MD
Virginia Kaklamani, MD, DSc, Professor of Medicine and Head of the Breast Cancer Program at UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center, moderated a press conference where Milan Radovich, PhD, reported the robust ability of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and circulating tumor cells to predict...
Vascular Imaging for Detection of Breast Cancer: Best of Two Worlds?
For breast imaging, contrast-enhanced mammography, which uses the anatomic imaging of a mammogram in addition to imaging neovascularity, can offer the overall screening capability of standard mammography and the sensitivity of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at a fraction of the cost of MRI,...
Mehdi Hamadani, MD: In My Experience Question 2
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when and why would you consider delaying autologous transplant for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in second complete remission? Recorded April 21, 2020.
Expert Point of View: Charles Sawyers, MD
“The hypothesis of combining kinase inhibitors with checkpoint inhibitors could be a fantastic idea,” said formal study discussant Charles Sawyers, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. “This trial [IMspire150] is positive, and that is great news. Triple therapy is superior to...
On the Shoulders of Giants
Before the dawn of the modern antibiotic era and amid the chaos of World War II, future Professor of Radiology and Founding Dean of two American medical colleges, Dr. George T. Harrell,* penned what could now be argued was far too bold a statement. As the opening lines of his nonrandomized study...
Allocating Ventilators in Times of Crisis: A Brave New World
The unprecedented COVID-19 crisis has challenged us, as a society, to evaluate our core values and philosophy. Ventilators, a precious and limited commodity, are now in short supply. Humanity is at a precipice, and we physicians are facing an ethical dilemma, how best to allocate ventilators, and, ...
AACR 2020: Continuous vs Intermittent Dabrafenib/Trametinib Dosing in Patients With BRAF-Mutated Melanoma
A randomized clinical trial offers evidence that a combination of two targeted melanoma drugs, when given continuously, improves progression-free survival when compared with intermittent treatment, according to study results presented by Algazi et al at the American Association for Cancer Research...
How CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing May Improve the Effectiveness of Cellular Therapeutics in Patients With Cancer
The results from the first in-human phase I clinical trial in the United States evaluating CRISPR-Cas9–edited T cells in patients with advanced cancer has shown that the therapy is both feasible and safe, representing a big step forward in the potential of using gene editing to boost the natural...
Do HIV Positivity and Autoimmune Disease Preclude Treatment With Checkpoint Inhibitors?
Can patients with cancer and preexisting autoimmune disorders safely benefit from immunotherapy? The answer has been unclear, with only retrospective studies and anecdotal reports guiding oncologists. This subpopulation of patients has largely been excluded from clinical trials out of concerns over ...
Expert Point of View: Dana E. Rathkopf, MD
Study discussant Dana E. Rathkopf, MD, Director of Clinical Research, Prostate Cancer, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, began her presentation by noting that the “complicated” landscape of metastatic prostate cancer can be approached like a chess game. She used a chess analogy...
Merry-Jennifer Markham, MD, FACP, FASCO, Rose From Humble Beginnings to a Leadership Role in Oncology
Merry-Jennifer Markham, MD, FACP, FASCO, grew up in Fort White, Florida, a rural speck on the map in the northern part of the state. Fort White is home to the Ichetucknee River and Springs, a crystal-clear natural wonder known only to the locals until 1972, when it was declared a National Natural...
It’s T Time for Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma, a Much-Neglected Disease
The lymphomas are an incredibly complex assemblage of neoplastic diseases. They are not one disease, and, at least based on the World Health Organization (WHO) Classification of Tumors published in 2017, they represent a collection of approximately 80 different malignancies, a number that will...
EXPECT INTEREST AND QUESTIONS ABOUT STATINS AND METFORMIN
A study showing that statins used alone or in combination with metformin was associated with reduced prostate cancer mortality and all-cause mortality among men with high-risk prostate cancer may raise more questions about these already commonly used drugs.1 “Metformin is the first-line therapy for ...
Statins With or Without Metformin Are Associated With Increased Survival in Patients With High‑Risk Prostate Cancer
A population-based retrospective cohort study involving 12,700 patients found that men with high-risk prostate cancer who took a statin alone or in combination with metformin had reduced all-cause and prostate cancer–specific mortality. The associations between the medications and reduced...
Chemotherapy and the Sweat Lodge
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of 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, historical...
April Is the Cruelest Month
April is the cruelest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow, feeding A little life with dried tubers. —T.S. Eliot, The Burial of the Dead, The Waste Land, 1922 I started...
Joint Publication Focuses on Clinical Practice Guidelines on Opioid Use for Pain Management
A recently published article by Schatz et al offers new clarity around the use of prescription opioids in pain management for people with a diagnosis or history of cancer and chronic pain. The joint publication, which appeared in both JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and...
City of Hope Deploys Platform, Makes Study Data Accessible
A $12 million federal grant enabled City of Hope and collaborators to deploy a novel cloud-computing platform, making an immense amount of data from a historic 25-year study more accessible and user-friendly. The ongoing California Teachers Study, which began in 1995, has already given researchers...
Inspired by Her Physician Father, Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPhil, Tirelessly Advocates for Women’s Health and Careers in Medicine
Physician-scientist, Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPhil, was encouraged by her parents to become a politically active, socially conscious citizen of the world. “As a young woman, my mother traveled from Africa on a scholarship to the United States, where she attended the University of Wisconsin. It was in the ...
Should Restrictions on Genetic Testing Be Loosened?
The loosening of restrictions on genetic testing would mean that all health-care providers could help move this needle to where it should be, according to Kevin S. Hughes, MD, a surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, and Medical Director of the...
ASCO Board Concludes Annual Meeting Cannot Occur in Person
On March 24, 2020, ASCO issued the following statement: ASCO’s primary concern is the health and safety of the global oncology community and the patients we serve. As public health safety measures related to COVID-19 extend, the ASCO Board has concluded that the Annual Meeting, scheduled for May 29 ...
William A. Wood, MD, MPH, on the New ASH Research Collaborative Data Hub COVID-19 Registry for Hematologic Malignancy
William A. Wood, MD, MPH, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Oversight Group Chair for the new COVID-19 registry, talks about why it was formed, how it can help patients and providers, and how it operates and could evolve in the future. Filmed April 3, 2020.
Treatment With Checkpoint Inhibitors May Cause Thyroid Dysfunction
Thyroid dysfunction following treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors is more common than previously thought, according to research that was accepted for presentation at ENDO 2020, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting (Abstract SAT-418), and that will be published in Journal of the Endocrine...
Apixaban for Cancer-Associated Venous Thromboembolism
For patients with cancer, the oral blood thinner apixaban is at least as effective as dalteparin, a low–molecular-weight heparin given by injection, in preventing a repeat venous thromboembolism (VTE), with no excess in major bleeding events. These findings from the phase III Caravaggio study were...
Disparities in Receipt of Chemotherapy Among Patients With pN1 Lung Cancer
In patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) where the cancer has spread to one or more lymph nodes close to the lungs—a condition known as pathologic N1 (pN1) disease—current guidelines recommend a two-part protocol: surgical resection, followed by chemotherapy. However, a retrospective...
Leaving ‘No Stone Unturned’ in Research to Cure a Rare Kidney Cancer
It is devasting for a doctor to tell a patient there is nothing that can be done to help him. For Nizar Tannir, MD, FACP, the words of a young father still ring in his ears: “I was trying to tell him that, unfortunately, despite all our efforts, I didn’t have any more treatments to offer him. And...
The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy Awards $2.75 Million to Support Six Early-Career Researchers
The parker institute for cancer immunotherapy (PICI) recently announced awards for six early-career researchers through the Parker Scholars, Parker Bridge Fellows, and Parker Senior Fellows programs. They are receiving a total of up to $2.75 million in funding to advance their research in profound...
Addressing the Needs of Transgender Patients for Breast Cancer Screening in Comfortable and Inclusive Environments
An analysis of breast imaging center websites and a literature search for research articles on transgender breast health found that “issues related to transgender breast imaging are not well addressed in the radiology literature or in the radiology community, even though more transgender patients...
Adding Radiotherapy to Immunotherapy in Renal Cell Carcinoma: Studies Find Mixed Results
Despite recent enthusiasm for combining stereotactic body radiation therapy with immunotherapy in renal cell carcinoma, two preliminary studies presented at the 2020 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium suggest that it may not be the best path forward. In one study, the combination of nivolumab plus...
Patients With Certain Cancers May Be at a Higher Risk for Atrial Fibrillation
People with a history of cancer have an over twofold risk of developing atrial fibrillation, the most common heart rhythm disorder, compared to the general population, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session (Abstract 1216-235). In...
Cisplatin/Gemcitabine Alone and With Veliparib in BRCA-Mutated Advanced Pancreatic Cancer
In patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and a germline BRCA/PALB2 mutation, first-line therapy with cisplatin plus gemcitabine yielded high response rates and encouraging survival, according to Eileen M. O’Reilly, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, who presented the findings...
COVID-19 May Remain Stable for Hours to Days in Aerosols and on Surfaces
The virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is stable for several hours to days in aerosols and on surfaces, according to a new study published as a research letter in The New England Journal of Medicine. A team of researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH); the Centers ...
Continuous Coverage of COVID-19
The staff of The ASCO Post recognizes the steady flow of news on the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19. Here, we've compiled a list of links to articles and resources on the COVID-19 pandemic. If you have a report you'd like to share, please e-mail it to us at editor@ascopost.com. Direct From ASCO:...
How COVID-19 Is Affecting the Oncology Community
Over the past month, medical societies worldwide have been monitoring the escalating outbreak of the novel coronavirus and its effect on international and domestic travel and making difficult decisions to cancel or postpone their scientific conferences or make them available digitally. On March...
Colorectal Cancer Statistics 2020 Published
The burden of colorectal cancer is shifting to younger individuals as incidence increases in young adults and declines in older age groups, according to Colorectal Cancer Statistics 2020. The median age of diagnosis dropped from 72 in 2001–2002 to 66 in 2015–2016. This finding and other data were...
Treating Patients With Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia in 2020
With the availability of a number of effective targeted agents for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the question arises whether chemotherapy still has a role in treating this malignancy. At the 2019 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, CLL...
Expert Point of View: Javier Pinilla-Ibarz, MD, PhD
Javier Pinilla-Ibarz, MD, PhD, of Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida, commented on this study: “ELEVATE TN compared front-line treatment with acalabrutinib alone or in combination with obinutuzumab vs obinutuzumab/chlorambucil and showed that a second-generation Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK)...
Expert Point of View: Charles G. Drake, MD, PhD
In an interview with The ASCO Post, Charles G. Drake, MD, PhD, expounded on the results of the COSMIC-021 trial. Dr. Drake is Division Director for GU Oncology, Co-Director of the Cancer Immunotherapy Program, and Co-Leader of the Tumor Biology and Microenvironment Program at the Herbert Irving...
