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Showing 8651 - 8700ASCO Urges CMS to Withdraw Medicare Part B Demo in Formal Comments
ASCO President Julie M. Vose, MD, MBA, FASCO, issued this statement on May 10. “In comments submitted yesterday to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), ASCO underscored the urgent need to advance a more fair and responsible payment system for oncology than what is proposed ...
Factors Associated With Response to Dabrafenib/Trametinib in BRAF Inhibitor–Refractory Metastatic Melanoma
Poor response to combined BRAF and MEK inhibition with dabrafenib (Tafinlar)/trametinib (Mekinist) in patients with BRAF inhibitor–refractory metastatic melanoma may be associated with failure to significantly inhibit the MAPK pathway, according to a single-center phase II study reported in...
Overcoming Radiosensitization in Head and Neck Cancer
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Eke and colleagues found that simultaneous β1 and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibition resulted in increased cytotoxicity, radiosensitization, and tumor control in human head and neck squamous cell carcinomas....
Improved Survival With Shorter Delays Between Diagnosis and Surgery and Before Initiating Adjuvant Chemotherapy
The survival benefits of reducing the time to surgery following a diagnosis of breast cancer and the time to initiation of adjuvant chemotherapy following surgery were outlined in two articles and an accompanying editorial in JAMA Oncology. Analyzing two independent population-based studies with a...
Corporate Angel Network’s 50,000th Patient Flight Benefits Young Retinoblastoma Patient
On April 14, 2016, an 18-month-old patient with cancer named Baron Yerby flew home to Atlanta after receiving treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. However, instead of flying on a crowded commercial plane with the potential for immune deficiency issues, he and his parents flew on a...
Cancer Stole My Identity
In 1997, just 6 weeks after giving birth to my second child, I started having fevers and night sweats and my lymph nodes were swollen. I’m a physician, so I knew something was wrong and that my symptoms were unrelated to having just given birth. I had a blood test, and a biopsy was performed on one ...
‘So How Long Do I Have?’
Imagine accidentally falling off an abyss. One simply cannot fully understand the gravity of the situation! You might skip a beat thinking about it while sitting in a chair in your living room, if you have tons of empathy, as you try to get into the shoes that are flailing for survival. But there...
Breakthrough Therapy Efforts Result in Unprecedented Success
Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have been working together for many years on an idea known as breakthrough therapy, and it has produced results beyond anyone’s hopes. Said Ellen Sigal, PhD, Friends Chair and Founder, “When we were first talking...
Expert Point of View: Julie Margenthaler, MD and Mahmoud El-Tamer, MD
Press briefing moderator Julie Margenthaler, MD, of Washington University Siteman Cancer Center, St. Louis, who is Communications Committee Chair for the American Society of Breast Surgeons, agreed that surveillance would be acceptable only within a clinical trial, and one is underway now....
AUA 2016: Cell-Cycle Progression Score Provides Significant Prognostic Information in Patients With Gleason Score < 7
Myriad Genetics announced results from a study of the prognostic information provided by its Prolaris test in patients with prostate cancer and a Gleason score < 7 at the 111th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) (Abstract MP02-20). Prolaris is a novel 46-gene ...
AUA 2016: BRCA Gene Mutations Associated With Increased Prostate Cancer Risk
Though predominantly known for their increased associations with breast cancer risk, germline mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are also associated with an increased susceptibility to other diseases, including prostate cancer. New data being presented during the 111th Annual Scientific Meeting ...
New JOP Articles Highlight the Impact of NCI Programs on Clinical Trial Enrollment
Two new original contributions in the Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP) highlight how National Cancer Institute (NCI) programs have impacted clinical trial enrollment. The first1 looked at the pilot phase of the NCI’s Community Cancer Centers Program (NCCCP) and found that trial availability and...
Donor Spotlight: Gateway for Cancer Research
The Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO is collaborating with Gateway for Cancer Research (Gateway) to fund a 2016 and 2017 Young Investigator Award through the Conquer Cancer Foundation Grants and Awards program. “Conquer Cancer Foundation is grateful for the generous support from Gateway and...
Defibrotide Sodium for Hepatic Veno-occlusive Disease After HSCT
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 March 30, 2016, defibrotide sodium (Defitelio) was approved for...
Moving Forward in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer: The TERRAIN and STRIVE Studies
It was over 2 decades ago that my colleagues and I reported in The New England Journal of Medicine that a first-generation oral antiandrogen, flutamide, when added to a luteinizing hormone–releasing hormone (LHRH) agonist, improved survival by nearly 6 months compared to an LHRH agonist alone in...
Enzalutamide Produces Large Progression-Free Survival Benefit vs Bicalutamide in Two Trials in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer
In the randomized phase II TERRAIN trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Neal D. Shore, MD, of Carolina Urologic Research Center, Myrtle Beach, and colleagues found that use of the androgen receptor inhibitor enzalutamide (Xtandi) more than doubled median progression-free survival vs bicalutamide...
Expert Point of View: Gini Fleming, MD
In the discussion session, Gini Fleming, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Gynecologic Oncology and Medical Oncology Breast Program at the University of Chicago Medical Center, analyzed the three previous, large trials on which the presumed benefits of intraperitoneal therapy in women...
Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy in Question in Ovarian Cancers
A phase III trial of bevacizumab (Avastin) with intravenous vs intraperitoneal chemotherapy showed no improvement in progression-free survival for first-line treatment of patients with optimally surgically resected stage II and III ovarian, peritoneal, or fallopian tube cancer.1 When compared with...
Selected Abstracts From the 2016 BMT Tandem Meetings
The BMT Tandem Meetings are the combined annual meetings of the Center for International Blood & Marrow Transplant Research and the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Held recently in Honolulu, Hawaii, this year’s BMT Tandem Meetings drew 3,000 attendees from 35 countries,...
CancerCare Issues Report on Nationwide Surveys of 3,000 People Diagnosed With Cancer
The national nonprofit organization CancerCare has announced the publication of a comprehensive report on experiences, perceptions, and needs of people who are living with and beyond a cancer diagnosis. The 2016 CancerCare Patient Access and Engagement Report is a compilation of results from six...
First Results From MINDACT Confirm the Benefit of Genomic Profiling
The primary analysis of the MINDACT trial confirms the value of genomic profiling for patients with early breast cancer with zero to three positive lymph nodes, according to MINDACT investigators and breast cancer specialists who heard the results at the 2016 American Association of Cancer Research ...
Ado-Trastuzumab Emtansine Plus Pertuzumab: Promising Neoadjuvant Results for HER2-Positive Breast Cancer From the I-SPY 2 Trial
The combination of ado-trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) plus pertuzumab (Perjeta) is a worthy combination to pursue in phase III studies as neoadjuvant therapy for HER2-positive invasive breast cancer, according to findings in the I-SPY 2 trial presented at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American...
Using Telemedicine to Reduce Wait Times for Veterans
John Farrow, a 67-year-old Vietnam veteran, had not been able to sleep for days. A week ago, his primary care doctor at his local outpatient Veterans Administration (VA) clinic told him that his prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood level was rapidly increasing, and his prostate was abnormal on...
One-Third of Patients With Advanced Melanoma Survive at Least 5 Years After Nivolumab Treatment
The news is good from the longest follow-up survival study of patients with advanced melanoma who were treated with the anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) agent nivolumab (Opdivo).1 Thirty-four percent of patients who received the drug in a phase I trial (CA909-003) were alive 5 years...
Early Study Looks to Achieve Chloride Homeostasis Through Gene Transfer to Alleviate Cancer-Related Neuropathic Pain
A study providing new information about neuropathic pain afflicting some 90% of cancer patients who have had nerve damage caused by tumors, surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation indicates gene therapy as a possible treatment. The study in rats showed transfer of a gene known as KCC2 into the spinal...
Study Finds Benefit of Surveillance for Pancreatic Cancer in High-Risk Individuals
As reported by Vasen et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, surveillance for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma in high-risk individuals appears to be of benefit in individuals at risk due to CDKN2A mutation, with the advantage being less clear among individuals at risk due to familial clustering ...
Pembrolizumab Active in Virus-Positive and ‑Negative Advanced Merkel Cell Carcinoma
The PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1) inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was active in advanced Merkel cell carcinoma in both Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCP)-positive and -negative tumors, according to Nghiem et al, who reported their phase II study findings in The New England Journal of...
FDA Grants sBLA for Blinatumomab in Pediatric Patients With Ph–Negative Relapsed/Refractory B-Cell Precursor ALL
Amgen announced on May 3 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for priority review the supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for blinatumomab (Blincyto) to include new data supporting the treatment of pediatric and adolescent patients with Philadelphia...
Effects of High Residential Segregation and Neighborhood Characteristics on Early-Stage NSCLC Surgery
Black residents of highly segregated neighborhoods were less likely to receive surgery for early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) than their peers in less-segregated neighborhoods, according to a study published by Johnson et al in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention....
ESTRO 2016: New Study Sheds Light on Mastectomy vs Breast-Conserving Therapy in Older vs Younger Patients With Early Breast Cancer
New research presented at the ESTRO 35 Conference on April 30 (Abstract OC-0052) has shown women aged younger than 45 years with early-stage breast cancer that had not spread to the lymph nodes and who opted for breast-conserving therapy with radiation therapy had a 13% higher risk of developing a...
ESTRO 2016: SBRT in Early-Stage Lung Cancer Linked to Increased Risk of Noncancer Deaths
Researchers have found that treating patients who have early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) is associated with a small but increased risk of death from causes other than cancer, according to findings presented at the European Society...
ASCO Adapts CCO Guideline on Selection of Optimal Adjuvant Therapy for Breast Cancer
ASCO has adapted a Clinical Care Ontario (CCO) clinical practice guideline on the selection of optimal adjuvant chemotherapy for early breast cancer and adjuvant targeted therapy for HER2-positive breast cancer, as reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The adaptation was based on review by...
Solid Organ Transplant Recipients With Preexisting Malignancies in Remission May Be More Likely to Die, Develop New Cancers
Patients who had cancer before receiving an organ transplant were more likely to die of any cause, die of cancer, or develop a new cancer than organ recipients who did not previously have cancer, a new study published by Acuna et al in the journal Transplantation has found. However, the increased...
Severe Adverse Event Clusters Identified Using NCI Common Terminology Criteria
Using the National Cancer Institute’s Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE), researchers from Columbia University, New York, and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, identified six severe adverse event clusters in patients with advanced prostate cancer. The clusters...
PTK2/FAK as Driver of Radioresistance in HPV-Negative Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma
As reported in Clinical Cancer Research, Skinner and colleagues used proteomic profiling to identify PTK2/FAK as a driver of radioresistance in human papillomavirus (HPV)-negative head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Using proteomic and transcriptomic analysis of targetable markers, the...
City of Hope Awarded $2.5 Million Grant to Launch Nutrition Initiative
Funded by a $2.5 million grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, City of Hope has launched a 5-year initiative to reduce cancer risk in the Los Angeles area by promoting healthy eating and physical activity, particularly among school children. The long-range plan is to replicate the...
Raising Awareness of Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma
I’m used to having bumps and cysts pop up on my body, so when I felt a lump on the front of my throat, just below my Adam’s apple, I brushed it off. But when it was still there 6 months later, I became concerned and decided to see an ear, nose, and throat specialist. He performed a fine-needle...
Radiation: Myths, Facts, Dangers and Benefits
For many, the word “radiation” conjures up images of mushroom clouds and the nightmarish nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. It also brings to mind those pesky dental x-rays and lifesaving cancer treatments. However, to most people, radiation is a mysterious invisible power to be feared and embraced...
Immunotherapy Could Be the Wave of the Future, but Problems and Challenges Cannot Be Ignored
Immunotherapy is on its way. A few agents have already been approved: ipilimumab (Yervoy) in 2011 for melanoma; nivolumab (Opdivo) in 2015 for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and then later that year for renal cell carcinoma; and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for NSCLC. In addition, many clinical...
Supportive Care in the Older Adult With Cancer: What You Need to Know
The median age of patients at the first diagnosis of cancer in the United States is 65 years, and the majority of patients with cancer are older adults.1 As we have learned from previous articles in this series, older patients with cancer require more complex care. Older adults are more likely to...
AACR 2016: Genomic Variants May Influence Risk for Breast Cancer After Chest Radiotherapy to Treat Childhood Cancer
Among females who received radiotherapy to the chest as part of treatment for a childhood cancer, those who had either of two specific genetic variants were at significantly higher risk of developing breast cancer later in life, according to research presented by Morton et al at the 2016 AACR...
AACR 2016: Cologuard Detected Colorectal Cancer in Previously Unscreened Patients
A noninvasive colorectal cancer-screening test detected the disease in patients who had previously avoided more invasive screening measures, according to research presented by Prince et al at the 2016 AACR Annual Meeting (Abstract LB-296). The study of nearly 400 patients revealed four patients...
Adding Rituximab to Dose-Dense Chemotherapy May Be of Benefit in Burkitt Lymphoma
In a French phase III trial reported in The Lancet, Ribrag et al showed that adding rituximab (Rituxan) to dose-dense chemotherapy improved event-free survival among adults with Burkitt lymphoma. Study Details In the open-label trial, 260 patients were randomized between October 2004 and...
Boswellia
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. We chose Boswellia for this issue because of its increasing use by patients with cancer....
Expert Point of View: Thierry Facon, MD
Thierry Facon, MD, of Lille University Hospital in France, told The ASCO Post that he believes elotuzumab (Empliciti) works better with an immunomodulatory drug than with bortezomib (Velcade), at least according to the results of these two studies. “I think what’s most impressive is the ELOQUENT-2 ...
Expert Point of View: Thierry Facon, MD
Thierry Facon, MD, of Lille University Hospital in France, spoke to The ASCO Post about the preliminary results of the pembrolizumab studies. Dr. Facon cautioned that a response rate of 76% overall “is not so impressive,” given about 65% of patients respond to lenalidomide/dexamethasone alone....
Pembrolizumab Looks Promising in Multiple Myeloma
Monoclonal antibodies targeting the programmed cell death protein (PD-1) receptor look promising in multiple myeloma, according to early reports presented at the 2015 ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition. Early signs of activity in heavily pretreated patients may indicate that, as in solid tumors,...
AACR 2016: Certain Oral Bacteria May Be Associated With Increased Pancreatic Cancer Risk
The presence of two species of bacteria linked to periodontal disease in the mouths of healthy individuals was associated with an increased risk of subsequently developing pancreatic cancer, according to research presented by Fan et al at the 2016 AACR Annual Meeting (Abstract 4350). ...
Interim FDG-PET Response-Adapted Therapy May Be of Benefit in Hodgkin Lymphoma
In a phase II US Intergroup trial (Southwest Oncology Group S0816) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Press et al found that early interim fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography (FDG-PET) to guide response-adapted therapy resulted in progression-free survival substantially...
ASCO Statement on Human Papillomavirus Vaccination for Cancer Prevention
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Bailey et al, ASCO has released a statement on increasing human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination to prevent HPV-related cancers in the United States. In the United States, HPV is estimated to cause approximately 99.7% of cervical cancers, 60% of...
