JUST 2 MONTHS before Congress passed what to this day is America’s most sweeping anticancer legislation, President Richard Nixon came to Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, to declare his administration’s historic commitment to the fight. “I have come here today for the purpose of making an...
Prosecuting health-care fraud is a top priority for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and other federal government agencies.1,2 After all, the government earns a $6 return for every $1 that it spends on enforcement. In December 2018, the DOJ announced that it had obtained more than $2.5 billion...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms of action, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On January 14, 2019, cabozantinib was approved for the...
AS REPORTED in The New England Journal of Medicine by Meletios A. Dimopoulos, MD, of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and colleagues, the phase II ELOQUENT-3 trial has shown that the addition of elotuzumab to pomalidomide and dexamethasone significantly prolonged...
MICHIANA HEMATOLOGY Oncology has announced that Robin Zon, MD, FACP, FASCO, has been elected President by its shareholders. In her new role as President, Dr. Zon will oversee and maintain leadership of the practice. Dr. Zon is a member of ASCO and was awarded Fellow status; with ASCO, she served...
THE U.S. PREVENTIVE Services Task Force (Task Force) announced the addition of two new members: Michael Cabana, MD, MA, MPH, and Lori Pbert, PhD. Both were appointed to serve 4-year terms, which began in January 2019. Dr. Cabana is Professor of Pediatrics, Epidemiology, and Biostatistics and a...
Shortages of essential chemotherapy drugs for children undergoing cancer treatment have been an increasingly frequent obstacle for patients and hospitals in the United States. These shortages can result in increased medication errors, delayed administration of life-saving therapy, inferior...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN) has published a new book of patient information that explains prevention, diagnosis, and treatment for squamous cell skin cancer. Squamous cell and basal cell skin cancers are responsible for about 5 million annual incidents of nonmelanoma...
In a modeling study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Simms et al detailed the preventive effects on cervical cancer that could be achieved by scaled-up human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and cervical screening efforts with the aim of disease elimination. The major modeling projections are...
The presence of nevi is an established risk factor for melanoma. In light of this, researchers examined the association between the presence of nevi on extremities and the risk of melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancers. Their findings were published by Wei et al in the Journal of the American...
A single dose of a programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitor before resection for melanoma may predict clinical outcomes for patients. Researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania—who documented this finding in the largest cohort of patients to be...
Men with early-stage testicular cancer can safely receive one course of adjuvant chemotherapy or radiotherapy without it having a long-term effect on their reproductive potential, according to a study published by Weibring et al in Annals of Oncology. Although it is known already that several...
In a report from the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, McNeer et al found that hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) did not improve outcomes in pediatric patients with hypodiploid B-lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL). Study Details The study was a...
In the international phase III LION study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Harter et al found that lymphadenectomy did not improve progression-free or overall survival vs no lymphadenectomy in women with advanced ovarian cancer. Study Details The trial enrolled 647 women with...
On March 5, 2019, Scott Gottlieb, MD, announced his resignation as Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a post he began in 2017. Dr. Gottlieb’s resignation will be effective next month. In a resignation letter to Alex M. Azar II, Secretary of Health and Human Services ...
The FDA recently issued announcements on a Fast Track designation, a Priority Review, two supplemental new drug applications, an investigational new drug application, and a marketing clearance. The agency also released a safety communication on cancer-related surgery. Fast Track Designation for...
While artificial intelligence (AI) systems for skin cancer detection have shown promise in research settings, there is still a lot of work to be done before the technology is appropriate for real-world use. This was the topic of a scientific session at the 2019 American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) ...
In a report from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Salloum et al found that changes in medulloblastoma therapy over 3 decades that have improved survival have also increased risk for subsequent neoplasms and debilitating health conditions. As noted...
In “A Lifesaving Intuition”, this month’s featured Your Stories podcast, a two-time cancer survivor shares lessons with her daughter about beating the odds, trusting science, and trusting your gut. Developed by ASCO’s Conquer Cancer Foundation, the Your Stories podcast series shares unscripted...
All homes and all families have or have had their own cancer experiences. Speaking about it dissolves the taboo and allows for earlier diagnosis, less discrimination, increased awareness, and higher commitment by authorities. It also helps those struggling with the disease feel like part of a...
Patients and caregivers are always looking for trusted online information on topics related to cancer. Display these free referral cards in your practice to encourage your patients to visit ASCO’s patient information website, Cancer.Net. There, patients may find authoritative, oncologist-approved...
Cancer can affect fertility in both men and women from adolescence through adulthood. Fertility preservation is often not addressed early enough during cancer treatment, but it should be a standard component of comprehensive care for prepubertal and reproductive-age patients. ASCO University offers ...
As of January 9, ASCO’s Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI®) Round 1 of reporting is open for data abstraction. Round 1 will close on June 3, and final reports will be available approximately 2 weeks after the round closes. To get started, go to the registration portal and log in. A...
I am a radiation oncologist from Zambia, where we only have one cancer center offering radiotherapy—and I will beat cancer. This bold statement often evokes a look of surprise. However, if the conversation is allowed to go on, I’ll say cancer is beatable even where resources are thin. I am...
ASCO, along with over 50 other organizations, signed a letter from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) urging the agency to reject proposed changes to Medicare Part D that could harm patient access to essential therapies, including...
The work of nine researchers who have previously received funding from Conquer Cancer is featured in ASCO’s Clinical Cancer Advances 2019. Visit CONQUER.ORG/CCA for more details. Immunotherapy At New York University Perlmutter Cancer Center in New York City, Leena Gandhi, MD, PhD, led a large...
The Targeted Anticancer Therapies (TAT) 2019 Honorary Award for cancer drug development has been given to Geoffrey Shapiro, PhD, MD, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and institute physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), for his leadership in developmental therapeutics. ...
The provision of palliative care (primary or specialty) is paramount to providing excellent quality care to all patients with cancer. Palliative care is associated with improving the quality of life, mood, and survival in patients with cancer. In fact, ASCO guidelines recommend that patients with...
As reported by Betty R. Ferrell, PhD, MA, FAAN, FPCN, of the Division of Nursing Research and Education, City of Hope Medical Center, Duarte, California, and colleagues in the Journal of Palliative Medicine, the National Consensus Project (NCP) of the National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lowe et al found that 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) had a high negative predictive value in the clinically N0 neck in patients with newly diagnosed head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, with ...
Researchers reported similar efficacy and safety with an every-4-week regimen of nivolumab in the second-line setting compared to an every-2-week schedule in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Edward B. Garon, MD, and colleagues presented the results of an interim analysis of...
Following identification of a positive sentinel lymph node, surgical axillary lymph node dissection and axillary radiation therapy provide comparable locoregional control and survival, according to a 10-year follow-up of the large European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer AMAROS...
Several breast cancer experts said the findings of the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG) meta-analysis and the AERAS study are in line with data emerging from other studies of extended treatment with aromatase inhibitors. All of these studies suggest that extended...
Biologic age—a DNA-based estimate of a person’s age—may be associated with development of breast cancer, according a report published by Kresovich et al in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Study Methods Scientists from the National Institute of Environmental Health...
Two studies presented at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium validated a small benefit of extending adjuvant aromatase inhibitor therapy beyond thestandard 5 years for postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer. In a meta-analysis of 24,912 patients from 12...
Neuroendocrine tumors appear resistant to single-agent immunotherapy, according to the results of the KEYNOTE-028 trial of pembrolizumab. “Pembrolizumab monotherapy showed limited antitumor activity but a manageable safety profile in patients with previously treated, advanced neuroendocrine...
Darolutamide—an investigational androgen receptor inhibitor—significantly improved metastasis-free survival in men with high-risk nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer vs placebo in the large phase III ARAMIS trial.1 Men treated with darolutamide had a median metastasis-free survival...
In a prospective, single-center, single-arm phase II trial reported at the 2019 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, a novel approach using a tumor-specific radioligand therapy that binds to prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) (lutetium-177 PSMA-617 -[LuPSMA]) achieved responses in a majority of...
Allyson Ocean, MD, a medical oncologist and attending physician in gastrointestinal oncology at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, commented on the Know Your Tumor study. “This study by Pishvaian et al highlights the importance of genomics in guiding treatment decisions in ...
Patients with advanced pancreatic cancer who have homologous repair damage response mutations may derive considerable benefit from treatment with platinum agents, according to an analysis of patients in the Know Your Tumor Program presented by Michael Pishvaian, MD, PhD, of Georgetown University,...
Formal discussant of KEYNOTE-426, Lori Wood, MD, of Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, called both KEYNOTE-426 and JAVELIN-101 “practice-changing.” “In 2019, we have a new standard of care,” Dr. Wood declared. “The majority of patients with clear cell advanced renal cell carcinoma ...
After preclinical findings showed shared activity between trastuzumab and HER2-targeted vaccines, researchers evaluated adjvuant nelipepimut-S plus granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) with trastuzumab compared to trastuzumab with GM-CSF alone in patients with HER2...
Leadership from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued the following statement yesterday: As the NIH Director stated in September, sexual harassment is about power. The goal of the perpetrator, most commonly but not exclusively a man, is to objectify, exclude, demoralize,...
The proportion of early-stage drug trials tackling the most common tumor types has declined sharply since the early 1990s, as less common cancers receive increasing attention in trials, according to new research presented by Sato et al at the TAT 2019–International Congress on Targeted...
The Lung Immune Prognostic Index (LIPI) calculated prior to the initiation of treatment may be used to stratify patients with diverse tumor types into groups that significantly associate with outcome following immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy, according to a retrospective study presented at the...
Compared to young adults, adolescents with the same types of cancer have far less access to immunotherapy and/or targeted therapies, according to findings presented at the TAT 2019–International Congress on Targeted Anticancer Therapies in Paris. In addition, young adults could be included in ...
In a Nordic Lymphoma Epidemiology Group study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Biccler et al found that relapse risk and loss in expectation of lifetime were low in young patients receiving contemporary therapy for classical Hodgkin lymphoma. Outcomes were particularly good among...
Patients with advanced prostate cancer who had preexisting cardiovascular disease had a higher risk of mortality in the 6 months after starting abiraterone acetate treatment compared with those who had no preexisting cardiovascular disease, according to data presented by Lu-Yao et al at a presscast ...
Among patients with melanoma treated with anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) immunotherapy, consumption of a high-fiber diet was associated with higher gut microbiome diversity and better response to treatment, according to data presented by Spencer et al at a presscast in advance of ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Stewart et al identified the risk of neoplasms and malignancies among nonproband carriers of pathogenic germline variants in DICER1. The nonproband carriers were the biologic relatives of probands enrolled in three cohorts of individuals...