The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the “Art of Oncology” as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO). These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
Gianni Bonadonna, MD, was considered the “Father of Italian Oncology,” but his scientific contributions to the field and his generous collegial spirit extended far beyond the shores of his native land. Dr. Bonadonna was at the forefront in the battle to convince the surgical establishment that...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Mark E. Robson, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues, ASCO has issued a policy statement update on genetic and genomic testing for cancer susceptibility.1 The statement, commissioned by ASCO’s Cancer Prevention and Ethics...
BOOKMARK Title: The Conversation: A Revolutionary Plan for End-of-life CareAuthor: Angelo E. Volandes, MDPublisher: BloomsburyPublication date: January 13, 2015Price: $26.00; hardcover, 240 pages A quick Google search on books about end-of-life care will yield pages of hits on the subject. The...
BOOKMARK Title: 10% Human: How Your Body’s Microbes Hold the Key to Health and HappinessAuthor: Alanna CollenPublisher: Harper CollinsPublication date: April 27, 2015Price: $39.99; hardcover, 400 pages "As I walked back through the forest that night in the summer of 2005, with twenty bats in...
Physical medicine and rehabilitation in oncology care explores the benefits of cancer rehabilitation in oncology clinical practice to screen survivors for physical and cognitive impairments along the care continuum to minimize survivors’ disability and maximize their quality of life. According to a ...
Statin use has been associated with improved outcomes in prostate cancer. In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Lauren C. Harshman, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and colleagues found that statin use at the time of the initiation of androgen-deprivation therapy was associated with...
As reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Chlebowski and colleagues1 reported differing patterns of breast cancer risk during or after hormonal therapy with estrogen plus progestin2 or estrogen alone,3 in an analysis of two Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) trials. This recent update on risk...
In an analysis of Women’s Health Initiative trials reported in JAMA Oncology, Rowan T. Chlebowski, MD, PhD, of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and colleagues found differing patterns of breast cancer risk among women receiving menopausal hormone therapy with estrogen plus progestin or estrogen alone.1...
When Tucker Davis was diagnosed with fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma (FL-HCC) in 2008, there was very little information about this very rare cancer and, as Tucker would soon discover, even fewer treatment options available. An annoying cough and sharp pain radiating down his back leg...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has selected seven leading physician-researchers to receive a total of $675,000 in awards and grants to advance radiation oncology research. Together, the grants will support studies in cancer biology, radiation physics, translational research,...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has chosen three radiation oncology physicians and researchers to receive the 2015 ASTRO Gold Medal: Carl R. Bogardus, Jr, MD, FASTRO; Carl M. Mansfield, MD, ScD (Hon), FASTRO; and James B. Mitchell, PhD, FASTRO. Drs. Bogardus, Mansfield, and...
St. Barnabas Hospital is located in the heart of Bronx, New York, and as such, it has a culturally diverse, largely poor, patient population. The backbone of successful palliative care services is the doctor-patient communication bonding process. However, many of the patients with late-stage cancer ...
James P. Allison, PhD, Chair of Immunology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, has been named the 2015 winner of the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award from the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation. The Lasker awards, in their 70th year, honor major achievements in basic...
Radiation oncologists dream of a day when, faced with a new patient sitting in their office, they can quickly consult a computer database offering specific treatment recommendations based on accurate, freshly updated data from millions of previously treated patients with cancer. To hasten that day, ...
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 September 2, 2015, rolapitant (Varubi) was approved for use in...
Are there patients with locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) for whom chemotherapy can be omitted? Experts debated this question at the 2015 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology Conference in Sea Island, Georgia,...
The Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation (ALCF) honored Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD, with the 2015 Addario Lectureship Award for his continued leadership and expertise in lung cancer treatment and research. Dr. Hirsch, CEO of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC),...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) will present the 2015 William Dameshek Prize to John C. Byrd, MD, of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center–Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC–James) for his contributions to the development of...
Autologous stem cell transplantation has played a critical role in the treatment of mantle cell lymphoma, but in the age of novel treatments, is it always warranted? Two experts in the field explored the question at the 2015 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology Conference sponsored by...
The research summit was part of the ASCO Obesity Initiative, which sought to increase awareness of the links between obesity and cancer and to foster research in this area that evaluated the impact of weight loss and increased activity on cancer outcomes. There have been hundreds of observational...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Jennifer A. Ligibel, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and colleagues, ASCO has issued a statement providing recommendations for obesity clinical trials in cancer survivors.1 ASCO convened the Research Summit on Advancing Obesity Clinical...
"Double-hit lymphoma” represents a challenging malignancy without a standard-of-care treatment, although outcomes for some patients are better than was once believed, according to Jonathon B. Cohen, MD, Assistant Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University, Atlanta. Dr. Cohen...
In a bold move to shed light on the ramifications of the ever-increasing cost of cancer drugs for patients with cancer and for the health-care system, 118 prominent oncologists came together to write a commentary in Mayo Clinic Proceedings detailing their concerns.1 To learn more about these...
Cancer prevention is a child-care issue. With many of cancer’s instigators planting their seeds during childhood, we—as a profession and as a nation—must seize this important window of opportunity to protect the health and well-being of future generations. Current estimates suggest that up to...
Glenwood Goss, MD, FRCPC, FCPSA, Professor of Medicine and Director of Clinical and Translational Research at the Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre and University of Ottawa, Canada, formally discussed the findings. He noted that this combination in advanced melanoma showed “limited progression-free...
The following essay by Emil J. Freireich, MD, is adapted 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 thebigcasino.org. I learned...
BOOKMARK Title: Epic Measures: One Doctor. Seven Billion PatientsAuthor: Jeremy N. SmithPublisher: Harper WavePublication date: April 7, 2015Price: $26.99; hardcover, 352 pages Health measures are essential tools in assessing public health and safety. Collecting large amounts of data is a laborious ...
The recent study findings that women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ had a low breast cancer–specific mortality and that preventing ipsilateral recurrences did not prevent breast cancer mortality1 might lead some women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ to question the need for...
Women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ have a low risk of dying of breast cancer, according to an observational study looking at data from 108,196 women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ between 1988 and 2011.1 The breast cancer–specific mortality rate for these women was 1.1% at 10...
Rural cancer patients have long had to adjust to difficult geographic and financial barriers to access high-quality cancer care. These problems are exacerbated by today’s fiscal challenges, which have disrupted many of the small community practices that once served rural communities. In 2006, the...
In a randomized phase II trial (KEYNOTE-002) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Antoni Ribas, MD, of UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Los Angeles, and colleagues found that treatment with the anti–PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1) antibody pembrolizumab (Keytruda) prolonged...
A new study conducted by ASCO in collaboration with the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology1 found that patients who have to travel farther to appointments are less likely to receive adjuvant...
In early 2016, readers of Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP) will be greeted with an expanded journal, featuring a new section of succinct, focused, practical clinical reviews authored by expert opinion leaders in oncology. These reviews are designed to provide busy, full-time clinicians with...
The United States—and much of the world—is experiencing unprecedented demographic shifts in the population of older people, defined as people age 65 and over. In 2012, the population of older people in the United States reached a never-before seen height of 43.1 million, a number that will more...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Steven A. Narod, MD, FRCPC, of Women’s College Research Institute, Women’s College Hospital, and the University of Toronto, and colleagues found that the risk of breast cancer mortality was elevated in patients with ductal carcinoma in situ compared with the...
The 2013 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report Delivering High Quality Cancer Care: Charting a New Course for a System in Crisis1 identified the dearth of evidence on older adults as a major quality-of-care issue. The U.S. population is aging at a rapid rate, and cancer is a disease that primarily...
Older persons are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population and account for the majority of cancer diagnoses and deaths and the majority of cancer survivors. However, since this population is underrepresented in clinical trials, the evidence base for treating older patients is poor. As...
Sweeney et al reported on the results of a seminal phase III trial (E3805) of chemohormonal therapy vs androgen-deprivation therapy in metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer in a recent issue of The New England Journal of Medicine,1 and the study is summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post....
In a phase III trial (E3805) reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Christopher J. Sweeney, MBBS, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and colleagues found that chemohormonal therapy with docetaxel plus androgen-deprivation therapy produced a significant 13.6-month increase in median...
The Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG) continues its practice of being a lighthouse, shedding its beacon of light on the vast ocean of breast cancer research through the publication of two large, individual patient level–data meta-analyses on the management of women with...
The Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG) patient-level meta-analyses, concurrently reported in The Lancet, sought to clarify the effects of adjuvant aromatase inhibitor vs tamoxifen treatment and adjuvant bisphosphonate treatment in early breast cancer.1,2 The endocrine...
According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), about 70,000 adolescents and young adults—defined by the NCI as those in the 15- to 39-year-old range—are diagnosed with cancer each year in the United States, about six times the number of cases diagnosed in children aged 0 to 14.1 And, although...
For the treatment of advanced squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) antibody nivolumab (Opdivo) continues to show results in key trials that now report 18-month data. The updates were reported at the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Denver,...
Lung cancer is becoming an equal-opportunity malignancy—with rates rising among never-smokers, especially females, according to studies presented at the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Denver. British investigators reported that in one large tertiary medical center, the proportion of...
At the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer, several studies showed consistent activity with the investigational third-generation inhibitor AZD9291 in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that is resistant to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors....
Ductal carcinoma in situ has been a recent topic of debate in the news because of a recent article by Narod et al1 and an accompanying editorial2 about the study in JAMA Oncology. This study, summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post, chronicled the long-term outcomes for women diagnosed with...
Integrative oncology had a long road to acceptance by the mainstream medical community; the field is now widely accepted for its healthful benefits, especially in assuaging the more troublesome side effects of cancer treatments. Many well-known oncologists have adapted integrative oncology into...
Researchers on Mayo Clinic’s Florida campus have been awarded a $13.3 million, 5-year federal grant to test a vaccine designed to prevent the recurrence of triple-negative breast cancer. This Breakthrough Award from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Breast Cancer Research Program will fund a...
Patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors in real-world clinical practice tend to be older and sicker than the patients enrolled in pivotal clinical trials of these agents. In addition, patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with the mTOR...