Several times during his lecture at the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting, Stuart M. Lichtman, MD, FACP, FASCO, the recipient of the B.J. Kennedy Award for Scientific Excellence in Geriatric Oncology, emphasized, “Physician education is the key” to continued advances in geriatric oncology. He specified that ...
Patricia M. LoRusso, DO, a leading expert on drug development through clinical trials, will join Yale Cancer Center in August as a Professor of Medicine and Associate Director of Innovative Medicine at Yale Cancer Center in New Haven, Connecticut. Dr. LoRusso brings more than 25 years of expertise...
A study by investigators at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has indicated that people who are highly addicted to nicotine, ie, those who smoke their first cigarette within 5 minutes after awakening, are at higher risk of developing lung cancer than those who wait for 1 hour or more to smoke....
An estimated 25% of children in remission from acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) are missing too many doses of the oral agent mercaptopurine, a maintenance medication that minimizes their risk of relapse when taken every day for 2 years, according to a study recently published online in Blood.1 The...
Finishing up a 2-year term as President of the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (ASPHO), A. Kim Ritchey, MD, summarized ASPHO’s achievements in advocacy, education, and professional development in his State of the Society address at the ASPHO 27th Annual Meeting in Chicago. He also ...
Join fellow community-based researchers at the ASCO Community Research Forum Annual Meeting, September 28 to 29, 2014, at ASCO headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. As part of ASCO’s efforts to support community-based researchers, this meeting provides a unique opportunity to discuss barriers and...
At the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting, Pasi Jänne, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, presented findings from a phase I study of AZD9291, a new mutant-selective EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor that offers a promising new treatment option for patients ...
ASCO’s educational symposia have historically provided attendees with a forum for learning and discussion, demonstrating ASCO’s commitment to promoting a network of global oncology expertise. The 2014 Breast Cancer Symposium, to be held in San Francisco from Thursday, September 4, to Saturday,...
Brain metastases are a devastating complication of cancer, and occur in up to 50% of patients with advanced human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer. Management of brain metastases requires individualized coordination between the traditional treatment modalities for...
As many as half of all patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer develop brain metastases over time. The American Society of Clinical Oncology recently released a clinical practice guideline on disease management for patients with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer and brain...
TH3RESA is a randomized phase III open-label study, reported in The Lancet Oncology and summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post, which examined the activity of ado-trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) in heavily pretreated HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.1 Formerly known as T-DM1,...
There are few treatment options for breast cancer patients with progressive disease after two or more HER2-directed regimens for recurrent or metastatic disease. In the open-label phase III TH3RESA trial reported in The Lancet Oncology by Ian E. Krop, MD, PhD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute,...
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has named Li Ma, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Jeffrey Tyner, PhD, of Oregon Health & Science University, co-winners of the distinguished Martin and Rose Wachtel Cancer Research Award. Dr. Ma is...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) voted 11 to 2 that current evidence from clinical studies does not support an accelerated approval for use of olaparib as a maintenance treatment for women with platinum-sensitive relapsed ovarian cancer who have...
Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, Director of the Donald A. Adam Comprehensive Melanoma Research Center at the Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, Florida, was very impressed by the response rate and survival outcomes. “Responses were outstanding. Eight of nine patients in cohort 2...
The ASCO Post asked for comment about the presentation by Nowakowski et al from Nathan Fowler, MD, who developed and led many of the early studies of R-Squared (lenalidomide [Revlimid], rituximab [Rituxan]), in lymphoma as well. Dr. Fowler is Associate Professor in the Department of...
Monoclonal antibodies targeting the programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) pathway are expected to answer an unmet need in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). With first-line platinum-doublets, 1-year overall survival is 30% to 50%, and while treatments targeting sensitizing mutations are more...
Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, Director of the Donald A. Adam Comprehensive Melanoma Research Center at the Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida, formally discussed the prembrolizumab study at the ASCO Annual Meeting. He called the response rate and the ongoing responses...
The latest bit of good news for the programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1)–targeting antibodies in advanced melanoma comes for pembrolizumab (MK-3475). While the results came from only a phase I study, they were among those chosen for presentation at an ASCO press briefing during the Annual Meeting....
A multicenter, open-label phase II trial found that the selective proteasome inhibitor carfilzomib (Kyprolis), in combination with cyclophosphamide and dexamethasone produced high complete response rates and was associated with low toxicity in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma....
Survivors of nonmetastatic colorectal cancer, when surveyed about their needs and preferences for survivorship information, responded that they would prefer receiving more information about late effects of treatment, challenges to expect, general health maintenance, and risks of recurrence. Most of ...
Women who have small (≤ 1 cm), node-negative breast tumors “have an excellent prognosis without chemotherapy,” concluded the authors of a prospective cohort study involving 4,113 women with T1a,b, N0, M0 breast cancer. “Size and tumor subtype may identify patients in whom the rate of recurrence...
His life was gentle, and the elements So mixed in him that Nature might stand up And say to all the world, “This was a man!” —William Shakespeare I have too many positive memories of John to regale you with here,” said Roger Kirby, MD, in a tribute to his close friend and colleague, John Michael...
Prostate cancer will be diagnosed in 233,000 American men in 2014. It is one of the leading causes of death by a cancer (killing ~29,500 men annually).1 Hundreds of thousands of men undergo prostate biopsies each year, most for either benign disease or for a cancer that will never lead to their...
Patrick G. Johnston, MD, PhD, FMedSci, Professor of Oncology and President and Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast, grew up in Derry, a city in Northern Ireland. Derry is distinct in being Ireland’s only remaining fully intact walled city, considered one of the finest examples of a walled ...
The International Federation of Head and Neck Oncologic Societies (IFHNOS), as part of the opening ceremonies of its 5th World Congress, and in collaboration with the annual meeting of the American Head and Neck Society (AHNS), will proclaim July 27th as “World Head and Neck Cancer Day.” The...
Despite promising new agents and therapeutic approaches, 5-year lung cancer survival rates have lagged far behind those of most other malignancies. To shed light on some of the important issues facing lung cancer experts, The ASCO Post recently spoke with internationally recognized lung cancer...
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected people diagnosed with cancer are two to four times more likely to go untreated for their cancer compared to uninfected cancer patients, according to a large retrospective study from researchers in Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center and the National...
Despite evidence from a number of prospective, randomized controlled trials showing that screening mammography reduces breast cancer mortality, screening mammography has been the subject of continual debate, controversy, and conflicting guidelines. Recently, the Swiss Medical Board, tasked with...
In a New England Journal of Medicine “Perspective” article, Nikola Biller-Andorno, MD, PhD, of the University of Zurich and Harvard Medical School, and Peter Jüni, MD, of the University of Bern, provide the rationale for a recent report by the Swiss Medical Board advocating the phasing out of...
Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and its receptor MET have been found to promote the proliferation, migration, and survival of tumor cells and to play a role in gastric cancer. In a phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Timothy Iveson, MD, of the University Hospital Southampton NHS...
Treatment of differentiated thyroid cancer has been slow to advance. Three decades lapsed between the description of the first differentiated thyroid cancer patient being cured by radioactive iodine in the 1940s1 and the report of the study that led to the approval of doxorubicin in the 1970s.2 The ...
Patients with radioactive iodine–refractory locally advanced or metastatic differentiated thyroid cancer have a poor prognosis. In the double-blind phase III DECISION trial reported in The Lancet, Marcia S. Brose, MD, PhD, of Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues ...
The Conquer Cancer Foundation has an excellent track record of finding and funding the most promising young investigators. Past recipients Joyce F. Liu, MD, MPH, and Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, received funding from the Conquer Cancer Foundation early in their career and at the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy status to CTL019, an investigational chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy for the treatment of pediatric and adult patients with relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The Breakthrough Therapy filing...
At the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting, one phase III trial confirmed the promise of a novel agent in advanced multiple myeloma, while another cooperative group trial returned some rather surprising results in newly diagnosed myeloma patients. Panobinostat Doubles Response, Prolongs Remission The phase...
The Long-term International Fellowship (LIFe) provides early-career oncologists in developing nations the support and resources needed to advance their training by deepening their relationship with a U.S. or Canadian colleague and his or her institution. The fellowship was first awarded to a single ...
The ASCO Post recently spoke with ASCO Immediate Past President Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, about his term as ASCO President. Dr. Hudis discussed his thoughts on ASCO today and shared his perspective on a number of important issues in oncology, including value in cancer care, big data, and more....
The requirements for sound evidence of a drug’s therapeutic benefit have translated laboratory experience to human testing. In the laboratory, experimental animals give their lives to lethal testing of drugs and scientific analysis. LD50, the terminology denoting an anticipated 50% death rate of...
Higher-dose carflizomib (Kyprolis) “provided a high overall response rate with a remarkable duration of response in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma” in a phase II study, Nikoletta Lendvai, MD, PhD, and colleagues from Memorial Sloan Kettering Center, New York, wrote in Blood....
“Despite the strong scientific rationale and preclinical data, everolimus [Afinitor] plus best supportive care failed to improve survival over placebo plus best supportive care” among patients with advanced hepatocellular cancer that progressed during or after receiving sorafenib (Nexavar), or who...
Patients with poor performance status have an increased incidence of adverse effects from therapy and worse overall outcomes than those with good performance status, but “a selected proportion may still benefit from standard therapy,” according to a review article published in the Journal of the...
Long-term results from the Health Professionals Follow-up Health Study have shown a 20% increased risk of advanced prostate cancer and a 19% increased risk of lethal prostate cancer among men who had vasectomies.1 According to the study’s lead author, Mohummad Minhaj Siddiqui, MD, it is...
Detecting circulating plasma tumor DNA in patients with early-stage cancer has the potential to influence selection of adjuvant systemic therapy. In a study reported in Clinical Cancer Research, Beaver and colleagues found that plasma tumor DNA could be detected both before and after surgery in...
Each year, thousands of Americans are diagnosed with some form of skin cancer. The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to prevent skin cancer is important especially during these hot summer months when many of us spend extra time in the sun. Over the last few years, the FDA has taken a number of...
Michael S. Katz, MBA, has lived longer than any of his doctors thought he would. A two-time cancer survivor, Mr. Katz was diagnosed, first with multiple myeloma in 1990 and then with colorectal cancer in 2008, and has spent the past 2 decades tirelessly advocating for patients with cancer. The...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently took important steps to ensure that certain tests used by health-care professionals to help diagnose and treat patients provide accurate, consistent, and reliable results. First, the FDA is issuing a final guidance on the development, review, and ...
While the first written record of cancer dates back to ancient Egypt, the history of modern oncology is fairly short, dating back only slightly more than half a century. Clinical trials in the early days of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the emerging cooperative groups were led by a...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On July 28, 2014, the approved use of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) in...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On July 23, 2014, idelalisib (Zydelig) was approved for use in...