BOOKMARK Title: Toms River: A Story of Science and SalvationAuthor: Dan FaginPublisher: Random HouseOriginal publication date: March 2013Price: $28.00, hardcover, 560 pages The Toms River emerges in the Pine Barrens of northern Ocean County, New Jersey, and zigzags through wetlands, emptying into...
THE EMERGENCE of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has sparked a wave of optimism in hematologic malignancies, but as experience in using CAR T-cell therapy has grown, new challenges have surfaced. A pioneer in the field, David G. Maloney, MD, PhD, enlightened attendees on these issues ...
ON MAY 30, 2018, President Donald J. Trump signed into law the Trickett Wendler, Frank Mongiello, Jordan McLinn, and Matthew Bellina Right to Try Act of 2017.1 This law creates an additional and alternative pathway for patients with a “life-threatening disease or condition” to access...
A new study from the Stanford Cancer Institute found that young women who are treated with chemotherapy for breast cancer but have residual tumor in either the breast or lymph nodes have higher chances of recurrence compared to those with no evidence of any residual invasive...
MANY IN the cancer research and National Institutes of Health (NIH) community are mourning the loss of long-time National Cancer Institute (NCI) senior leader Alan S. Rabson, MD, who died on July 4 at the age of 92. With a distinguished scientific career that spanned 6 decades and included...
Despite the fact that my father was a smoker and I watched him die a horrible death from lung cancer in the 1970s, until 4 years before my own lung cancer diagnosis in 2012, I, too, was a heavy smoker for most of my adult life. Still, cancer was the farthest thing from my mind when I made an...
The ASCO Answers Advanced Cancer Care Planning booklet contains comprehensive information about how patients can communicate directly and honestly about advanced cancer and end-of-life care with their friends, family, and children, as well as the health-care team. With this expert resource,...
RECOMMENDATIONS IN the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) clinical practice guidelines for integrative therapies during and after breast cancer treatment “are clear, thorough, and based on the most relevant scientific evidence,” concluded an ASCO expert panel that reviewed the guidelines.1,2...
In an article published recently in TheNew England Journal of Medicine, Gary H. Lyman, MD, MPH, FACP, FRCP (Edin), FASCO, of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and colleagues reviewed opportunities, issues, and challenges posed by the advent of biosimilar medications, focusing on...
In my area of research, lung cancer, precision medicine is indeed transforming the treatment of this disease and has important implications for other cancers and for the future of our patients with cancer. Today’s achievement of being able to systematically identify genomic changes that can be...
In this edition of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, interviewed medical oncologist Lee S. Schwartzberg, MD, FACP, Executive Director at the West Cancer Center, Memphis. Dr. Schwartzberg’s major research interests are new therapeutic approaches to breast cancer,...
TUMOR MUTATIONAL burden is emerging as a predictive biomarker for the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as well as other tumor types. However, experts say tumor mutational burden has hurdles to overcome. At the 2018 Annual Meeting of...
The following essay by Sushil Bhardwaj, MD, 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...
To dig a bit deeper into some of the issues touched upon in the new book, The Key to Prostate Cancer: 30 Experts Explain 15 Stages of Prostate Cancer, The ASCO Post recently spoke with the author, Mark Scholz, MD. Dr. Scholz is a medical oncologist who exclusively treats men with prostate cancer....
Despite significant gains in improved access to public places, transportation, and job opportunities for people with disabilities since the enactment of the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990, the long history of discrimination in the social and medical treatment of people with disabilities is ...
Terminally ill patients with cancer will sometimes ask their clinicians for help with assisted or hastened death.1 Although palliative care and hospice care can usually address the concerns of most patients, some have physical or existential suffering that is refractory to comfort and supportive...
A career in oncology can be extremely rewarding. Fast-paced advances in research and treatment, exciting changes in the practice environment, and the opportunity to build strong relationships with and provide critical support to patients can be incredibly professionally satisfying—but they can...
Parents of adolescents believed that the potential to prevent certain types of cancer is the best reason for their children to receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, whereas other reasons health-care providers often give were far less persuasive. Findings from this study were published by...
The call from the dermatologist came at noon on Good Friday, just after my wife left with our two young daughters for a week on her family’s tree farm in Northern Michigan. I was on call for the hospital inpatient leukemia service, so I could not join them. When the dermatologist solemnly began,...
Testing for minimal residual disease (MRD) has become an established part of the management of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), but in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the technology still warrants validation. To address issues and set new standards, the European LeukemiaNet Working Party recently ...
Every day in their treatment rooms, physicians encounter individuals who are making profound sacrifices to help a loved one who is seriously ill, often at the expense of their own well-being. To help physicians understand the day-to-day challenges and risk of burnout faced by informal caregivers,...
In an article in The New England Journal of Medicine, Lyman et al reviewed opportunities, issues, and challenges posed by the advent of biosimilar medications, focusing on biosimilars in cancer treatment. Although these agents could help to meet the health-care goals of high quality care with cost...
THE NUMBER of opioids prescribed after surgery for gynecologic cancer decreased significantly after implementation of an ultra-restrictive opioid prescription protocol, with no apparent negative effect on patient satisfaction or pain, according to research presented by Jaron Mark, MD, and...
“THIS STUDY represents a true milestone in the field of lung cancer. For the first time, the vast majority of patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) can receive immunotherapy with pembrolizumab (Keytruda),” said ASCO expert John Heymach, MD, PhD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston,...
Dr. Hayes, ASCO President 2016–2017, is Professor of Internal Medicine; Stuart B. Padnos Professor in Breast Cancer; and Clinical Director of the Breast Oncology Program at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor. AS I COMPLETE my 3-year term as ASCO President, I am...
ADVANCES IN cancer treatment have been nothing short of breathtaking in recent years. Among the most important has been the advent of effective oral therapies, marking a significant change in the way many patients receive treatment and in the oversight required by the cancer care team. As with...
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,...
Nationally regarded radiation oncologist Karen M. Winkfield, MD, PhD, was born and reared in Wheatley Heights, a suburban hamlet on Long Island, New York, that shares borders with the prosperous community of Dix Hills and one of the Island’s lowest-income towns, Wyandanch. “I was fortunate to live ...
Razelle Kurzrock, MD, regarded internationally for her work in translational science, was born and reared in Toronto, Canada. “My parents were immigrants from Eastern Europe. My father, who was Jewish, was a Holocaust survivor. My parents put a strong emphasis on education,” she said. ‘The...
Internationally renowned expert on the early detection, prevention, and treatment of younger women with breast cancer, Nagi S. El Saghir, MD, FACP, FASCO, was born on January 5, 1953, in Bint Jbeil, a village in southern Lebanon. His parents moved to Beirut in 1948, at the height of the...
Volker S. Diehl, MD, the internationally renowned hematologist and researcher, was born in Berlin, Germany, on February 28, 1938—arguably one of the most tumultuous periods in world history. Germany had just invaded Austria, signaling the dark intentions of the Third Reich. In 1943, the air raids...
Education is such an integral part of ASCO’s strategic plan to reduce the burden of cancer for all patients, it is incorporated into the Society’s mission statement to “conquer cancer through research, education, and promotion of the highest patient care.” In 2017, ASCO’s Board of Directors voted...
On April 16, 2018, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York hosted the annual Visible Ink live performances at The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College. The evening marked the 10th anniversary of the ongoing one-on-one writing program for patients undergoing cancer treatment at MSK....
With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals of tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah)1 and axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta),2 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has moved into real-world practice, offering new potentially curative options for incurable hematologic malignancies. Its ...
On April 12, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital launched the St. Jude Cloud, an online data-sharing and collaboration platform that provides researchers access to the world’s largest public repository of pediatric cancer genomics data. Developed as a partnership among St. Jude, DNAnexus, and...
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) held its first scientific Annual Meeting on April 9, 1965, in the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. More than 70 members and invited guests attended the inaugural event, which featured three presentations on leukemia and multiple myeloma. The ...
Sir Murray F. Brennan, MD, FACS, was born on April 2, 1940, in Auckland, New Zealand, which lies on and around an isthmus surrounded by the sparkling azure waters of the Hauraki Gulf. “I was born at the beginning of World War II. Fortunately, my father was too old to be drafted into the army. I...
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 May 1, 2018, tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah), a...
This past year’s approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of two chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies heralded a new era in both effective cancer treatments and the most expensive cancer drugs ever. Tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) was initially approved for the treatment of...
The 2018 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting was abuzz with more than 22,000 attendees from around the world who came to Chicago to hear the latest in basic science and clinical trial results. Here we present summaries of a few of the highlights from the AACR meeting...
To stem the rising tide of financial toxicity in cancer care, creative physician reimbursement strategies, by themselves, will not work, according to a thought leader in the field who advocated for elimination of the federal mandate against price negotiation, curbing the power of monopolies, and...
The opportunity to serve as ASCO President is the greatest honor of my professional career. It has been a pleasure and a highly rewarding experience to interact with our members and members of ASCO’s Board, executive leadership, and professional staff during my tenure. The year has allowed me to...
With all the advances in oncology care over the past decade, the most important contribution to high-quality care remains the personal connection between oncologist and patient, said Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, FACS, FASCO, ASCO President-Elect, who will take the reins as ASCO’s 55th President...
Flushing the bladder with a common chemotherapy drug immediately after surgery significantly reduces the chances of bladder cancer returning, according to a study by Messing et al published in JAMA and led by SWOG. First author Edward M. Messing, MD, is Professor of Urology and...
Precision medicine is changing cancer care in profound ways. It is expected that the number of patients who benefit from precision medicine will continue to increase in the coming years, as treatments become more effective and research yields more insights on patient populations who are most likely ...
THE USE OF oral chemotherapy drugs is becoming more and more prevalent—for many types and stages of cancer, during different treatment phases, and for varying lengths of time. So it’s vital that physicians, nurses, and advanced practitioners understand all the potential adverse events of these...
INTER- AND INTRAPATIENT heterogeneity of the tumor microenvironment may explain the limited success of checkpoint blockade thus far observed in patients with advanced high-grade serous ovarian cancer, according to Paulina Cybulska, MD, MSc, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York....
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION for Cancer Research (AACR) presented Special Recognition Awards to the following four individuals whose work has made extraordinary contributions to the AACR’s mission to accelerate the prevention and cure of all cancers through research, education, communication, and...
THE NATIONAL Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) debuted three sets of completely new guidelines for treating patients with uveal melanoma, for treating patients who have cancer and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and for managing immune-related toxicities. Cancer in People Living With...
Nearly 85% of patients surveyed 6 or more months after completing radiotherapy as part of their treatment for breast cancer reported the side effects were not as bad as they had feared or expected. Approximately 92% of the 269 patients treated with breast conservation and 81% of the 58 patients...