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Showing 8601 - 8650Ramucirumab/Chemotherapy in Gastric Cancer: ‘Positive’ Trial but Insufficient Benefit
BASED ON EFFICACY seen in the second-line setting for the treatment of metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, ramucirumab (Cyramza) was evaluated as first-line therapy in the international phase III RAINFALL trial. Although the study met its primary endpoint, with a 25%...
Bone-Modifying Agents in Metastatic Breast Cancer: Time to De-escalate Dosing Intervals
AS REVIEWED in this issue of The ASCO Post, ASCO and Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) have issued an updated guideline on the role of bone-modifying agents in metastatic breast cancer.1 The updated guideline supports a change in clinical practice for our patients with breast cancer and bone metastasis....
Changing Negative Perceptions on the Impact of Clinical Trials in Brazil
CLINICAL TRIALS are an essential research tool to advance medical knowledge and patient care. Traditionally, the majority of pharmaceutical-sponsored clinical trials have been implemented in Western Europe and North America. More recently, however, large pharmaceutical companies have increased...
FDA Approves Radiopharmaceutical for Rare Gastrointestinal Cancers
On January 26, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved lutetium Lu-177 dotatate (Lutathera) for the treatment of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs). The drug is indicated for adult patients with somatostatin receptor–positive GEP-NETs. GEP-NETs can be...
Expect Questions About Necessity of Chemotherapy for Early-Stage Breast Cancer
“For patients with early-stage breast cancer, we’ve seen a significant decline in chemotherapy use over the past few years without a real change in evidence,” or in national guidelines and recommendations, reported Allison W. Kurian, MD, MSc, lead author of a study on chemotherapy recommendations ...
Steep Decline in Chemotherapy Use for Early-Stage Breast Cancer
The use of chemotherapy to treat women with early-stage breast cancer “declined markedly over time,” according to analysis of data from 2,926 women between the ages of 20 and 79. The trends documented “are remarkable for their steepness of decline, independent of clinical factors and despite no...
I’m Not a Victim of Cancer
What I thought after feeling a large, hard lump—similar to the feel of a granola bar—in my left breast was that I probably pulled a muscle while playing with my two young children, ages 7 and 5. Cancer never entered my mind until I asked my husband to feel the lump, and he immediately said, with...
The Toxicity of Time
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,...
Up-to-Date Labels for Older Drugs Essential for Appropriate Use
Oncology drug labels, especially those that have been on the market for more than 15 years, may not always be up-to-date. Critical data about safety, efficacy, or prescribing information may be missing. Modernizing the labeling process can correct inaccurate information, add data for indications ...
Daratumumab in Previously Treated Multiple Myeloma
On June 16, 2017, daratumumab -(Darzalex) was approved for use in combination with pomalidomide (Pomalyst) and dexamethasone for treatment of patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least two prior therapies including lenalidomide (Revlimid) and a proteasome inhibitor.1,2 Supporting...
Pembrolizumab in MSI-H or dMMR Solid Tumors: ‘First Tissue/Site-Agnostic’ Approval by FDA
On May 23, 2017, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was granted accelerated approval for treatment of adult and pediatric patients with unresectable or metastatic microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) solid tumors progressing following prior treatment and who have no...
Enasidenib in IDH2-Mutant Relapsed or Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia
On August 1, 2017, the IDH2 inhibitor enasidenib (Idhifa) was granted regular approval for treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with an isocitrate dehydrogenase-2 (IDH2) mutation as detected by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved...
Blinatumomab in Relapsed or Refractory B-Cell Precursor ALL
On July 11, 2017, blinatumomab (Blincyto) was approved for the treatment of relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in adults and children.1,2 Blinatumomab received accelerated approval in December 2014 for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome (Ph)-negative...
Potential Effect of Excess Body Weight on Detection of Cervical Precancer
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Clarke et al found that increasing body mass index (BMI) was associated with lower rates of cervical precancer diagnosis and higher rates of cervical cancer diagnosis. The investigators had hypothesized that increased body mass could decrease ...
Evaluating the Need for Biopsies During Follow-up Care in Early Breast Cancer
In an analysis of more than 120,000 women diagnosed with and treated for early-stage breast cancer, researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center determined the rate of additional breast biopsies needed for these patients during their follow-up care. The findings, reported by...
The Roller Coaster
The following essay by Shaker R. Dakhil, MD, FACP, is adapted, with permission, from The Big Casino: America’s Best Cancer Doctors Share Their Most Powerful Stories, which was coedited by Stan Winokur, MD, and Vincent Coppola and published in May 2014. The book is available on Amazon.com and...
Making Personalized Medicine a Reality for More Patients With Cancer
This past September, Olivier Elemento, PhD, Associate Director of the Institute for Computational Biomedicine and Director of the Laboratory of Cancer Systems Biology at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, was named Director of Weill Cornell’s Englander Institute for Precision Medicine. In this...
The State of Integrative Oncology: A New Era
Now that we have entered 2018, let’s take a moment to reflect on how far we have come and what lies ahead in integrative oncology care. Overview To cope with the physical, emotional, and spiritual effects of cancer, and in search of relief from symptoms that their conventional treatments have not...
FDA Takes Steps to Improve Transparency in Clinical Trial Information Related to New Drugs
As part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) efforts to enhance transparency around its drug-approval decisions, the FDA is exploring new ways to build on its obligation to share information about product approvals, as announced by FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD. The FDA is...
For Holly G. Prigerson, PhD, Psychosocial Issues Are at the Heart of End-of-Life Cancer Care
Holly G. Prigerson, PhD, Co-Director of the Weill Cornell Medicine’s Center for Research on End-of-Life Care, was born in Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn, where her father had been a resident. Her family moved to Long Island, first living in Islip, where Dr. Prigerson’s father practiced medicine...
CAP, IASLC, AMP Update Guideline for Molecular Testing and Targeted Therapies in Lung Cancer
To ensure that clinicians stay apace and provide optimal patient care, three leading medical societies—the College of American Pathologists (CAP), the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), and the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP)—have updated their...
High Body Fat Levels in Postmenopausal Women With Normal BMI May Be Associated With Increased Breast Cancer Risk
Among postmenopausal women with normal body mass index (BMI), those with higher body fat levels had an increased risk for invasive breast cancer, according to data presented at an American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Special Conference titled Obesity and Cancer: Mechanisms...
Clinical Hold on BPX-501 Trials in the United States Announced
On January 30, Bellicum Pharmaceuticals announced it has received notice from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that U.S. studies of BPX-501—an agent being studied to improve outcomes for patients undergoing stem cell transplant who lack a matched donor—have been placed...
CAR T-Cell Immunotherapy Named Advance of the Year in ASCO’s Clinical Cancer Advances 2018
A new and unique new way to treat cancer—chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy—is poised to transform the outlook for children and adults with certain otherwise incurable cancers. ASCO named this type of adoptive-cell immunotherapy the Advance of the Year in its annual...
FDA Approves Lutetium Lu-177 Dotatate for Treatment of Gastroenteropancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors
On January 26, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved lutetium Lu-177 dotatate (Lutathera) for the treatment of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs). This is the first time a radiopharmaceutical has been approved for the treatment of GEP-NETs. Lu-177 dotatate is...
Detecting and Localizing Eight Cancer Types With One Multianalyte Blood Test
Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers developed a single blood test that screens for eight common cancer types and also helps identify the location of the cancer. The test, called CancerSEEK, is a unique noninvasive, multianalyte test that simultaneously evaluates levels of eight cancer...
Addition of Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy to Cytoreductive Surgery in Advanced Ovarian Cancer
In a Dutch/Belgian phase III trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by van Driel et al, the addition of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy to interval cytoreductive surgery following neoadjuvant chemotherapy was associated with significantly improved recurrence-free and...
Former President and Director of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Robert W. Day, MD, Dies at 87
ROBERT W. DAY, MD, the longest-serving President and Director of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the leader who brought into being its campus overlooking Seattle’s South Lake Union, died in his Seattle home on January 6, 2018 of lung cancer. He was 87. “It is a tragic loss for all of...
The Telltale Heart: A Surgeon’s Memoir
We don’t feel our liver or pancreas working, but we all feel our hearts beating—the drumbeat of our mortality since we all have a finite number of heartbeats from birth to death. And unlike with most other organs, we are painfully aware of how fragile this mighty muscle can be. About 610,000 people ...
Internationally Renowned Prostate Cancer Expert Gerald E. Hanks, MD, Dies
FROM WILHELM RÖNTGEN’S groundbreaking discovery of x-rays in 1895, the history of radiotherapy has been rich with colorful paradigm-changing researchers and physicians who over the past century have transformed the field into one of the pillars of cancer treatment. One such trailblazer who...
A Neuroscientist Examines Intact Minds Adrift in Damaged Brains and Bodies
Understanding what consciousness is, and why and how it evolved, is perhaps the greatest mystery known to science. With its 100 billion or so neurons and a processing rate of about 4 billion bits per second, the human brain is a miraculously complicated entity, much of which is still under...
Second Global AYA Cancer Congress Highlights Research Advances and the Global Burden of Cancer Among Young Adults
This past December, nearly 400 medical professionals from a variety of fields—including medical oncology, palliative care, science, nursing, social work, and psychology—and 23 countries traveled to Atlanta, to attend the 2nd Global Adolescent & Young Adult (AYA) Cancer Congress. The 3-day...
Against All Odds
The days leading up to our daughter Emily’s diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) on May 28, 2010, when she was just 5, offered few clues about the terrifying, life-and-death months and years we were about to experience. She was happy and seemingly healthy, literally until the day before...
Working Together to Help Pediatric Patients With Cancer Live and Live Well
While many patients with cancer can benefit from palliative care to ease symptoms from the disease or its treatment, for children with cancer, especially critically ill children, palliative care can provide an additional layer of medical and emotional support for both young patients and their...
Pomegranates and Other Polyphenols: New Evidence to Share With Prostate Cancer Patients
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the availability of evidence-based information on integrative and complementary therapies commonly used by patients with cancer. In this installment, Channing Paller, MD, explores the role of pomegranate- and grape-based...
Durvalumab Takes a Giant Leap Into Stage III NSCLC
Immune checkpoint inhibitors have had a dramatic impact on survival for patients with stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with whispers that a cure might be achieved in a subset of patients. In typical fashion, active new agents are evaluated in earlier stages of disease. Stage III NSCLC...
2018 GI CANCERS SYMPOSIUM: Nab-Paclitaxel Plus Gemcitabine in Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer
Primary endpoint findings and updated results of secondary endpoints from the phase II LAPACT trial of nanoparticle albumin–bound (nab)-paclitaxel (Abraxane) plus gemcitabine in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer were presented by Hammel et al at the 2018 Gastrointestinal (GI)...
ASCO Endorsement of ASTRO Guideline on Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy for NSCLC Highlights Shared Patient Decision-Making
As reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, a recent ASCO panel, chaired by Bryan Schneider, MD, and Brendon Stiles, MD, has provided an endorsement of a recently published guideline on the use of stereotactic body radiotherapy for non–small cell lung cancer.1 The original guideline,2 developed and ...
ASCO Endorses ASTRO Guideline on Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy for Early-Stage NSCLC
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Bryan J. Schneider, MD, of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and colleagues, ASCO has endorsed the recently released American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) evidence-based guideline on stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) in early...
Diary of a Storm
FOR DAYS BEFORE HURRICANE HARVEY was expected to move toward Houston, Texas, on Sunday, August 27, 2017, after pummeling other cities in Texas and Louisiana, the leadership team at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MD Anderson) in Houston strategized on how to ensure the...
Pembrolizumab in Advanced Urothelial Carcinoma
On May 18, 2017, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was granted regular approval for treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma who have disease progression during or following platinum-containing chemotherapy or within 12 months of neoadjuvant or adjuvant...
Ceritinib in ALK-Positive Metastatic Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
On May 26, 2017, ceritinib (Zykadia) was granted regular approval for treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors are anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive as detected by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved test.1,2 In 2014, the drug received ...
Cancer Statistics, 2018: U.S. Cancer Mortality Continues Decades-Long Drop
THE CANCER death rate dropped 1.7% from 2014 to 2015, continuing a drop that began in 1991 and has reached 26%, resulting in nearly 2.4 million fewer cancer deaths during that time. The data are reported in “Cancer Statistics, 2018,” the American Cancer Society’s comprehensive annual report on...
Mackenzi Pergolotti, PhD, OTR/L: A Leader in the Emerging Field of Occupational Therapy in Oncology
Oncology occupational therapist Mackenzi Pergolotti, PhD, OTR/L, was born in Buffalo, New York. “I lived there until I was 6,” she shared. “Then my family moved around the state a bit, finally settling in the small town of Bath, situated near the Finger Lakes—a beautiful area in central New ...
Listen to Conquer Cancer Mini-Podcasts Inspired by StoryCorps and ASCO Members, Grantees
Debuting this year, “Your Stories: Conquering Cancer” are unscripted conversations among doctors, patients, and caregivers who have been affected by cancer. The Conquer Cancer Foundation produced the mini-podcast series through the award-winning StoryCorps organization, a national nonprofit...
Educate and Support Your Patients With ASCO Answers Materials
GIVE YOUR PATIENTS ASCO-approved information on diagnosis, treatment, side effects, and the psychosocial impact of cancer. Cancer.Net is ASCO’s patient information website, and it offers fact sheets and comprehensive, patient-friendly ASCO Answers guides. These easy-to-read materials cover breast, ...
Howard A. ‘Skip’ Burris III, MD, FACP, FASCO, Elected ASCO President for 2019–2020 Term
Howard A. “Skip” Burris III, MD, FACP, FASCO, a long-time member and volunteer, has been elected to serve as the President of ASCO for the term beginning in June 2019. He will take office as President-Elect during the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago in June 2018. Additionally, five members were...
2018 GI CANCERS SYMPOSIUM: First-Line Ramucirumab in Gastric Cancer Improves Progression-Free but Not Overall Survival
The monoclonal antibody ramucirumab (Cyramza) was evaluated as first-line therapy for the treatment of metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma in the international phase III RAINFALL trial. Charles Fuchs, MD, of Yale New Haven Health in Connecticut, presented findings...
Preserving Sexual Function in Women Treated for Cancer
“There is huge potential to positively influence a patient’s experience and outcomes” by addressing concerns about sexual function after cancer treatment early in the course of treatment planning, Stacy Tessler Lindau, MD, MA, stated in her keynote address at the 11th Annual Oncofertility...
Expert Point of View: Robert Brodsky, MD and Henry Fung, MD, FACP, FRCPE
“Several new drugs that have been approved for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) are changing the landscape of this disease. CLL is associated with a long survival, so we will need longer follow-up to see how deep the responses are,” said Robert Brodsky, MD, Director of...
