A major new study has found substantial differences in the formulary availability, out-of-pocket costs, and actual availability of anticancer medicines across Europe. The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) European Consortium Study on the Availability of Antineoplastic Medicines was...
Prophylactic mastectomy that preserves a woman’s nipple is oncologically safe in patients with deleterious BRCA mutations, according to the largest study yet to evaluate this approach in this high-risk population. “In more than 500 risk-reducing nipple-sparing mastectomies in 348 deleterious...
According to William C. McGaghie, PhD, Professor of Medical Education and Professor of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, the principles of today’s clinical medical education are rooted in a 19th century model that is no longer useful in a...
Take advantage of the new online version of the ASCO Research Program Quality Assessment Tool, which was developed by the ASCO Research Community Forum to help research sites establish or enhance their internal quality assessment program. The online tool makes it easier than ever for users to gauge ...
On August 25, 2016, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) posted a final research plan on screening for intimate partner violence, elder abuse, and abuse of vulnerable adults. The draft research plan for this topic was posted for public comment from May 26 to June 22, 2016. The Task...
In 2011, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published its landmark report “The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding,” which recognized the scarcity of research in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals and the...
It is commonly said that if something is too good to be true, it usually is. It is therefore quite refreshing when really good results are replicated in a subsequent study. As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Younes et al1 and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, a phase II trial of...
ASCO commended the Cancer Moonshot Initiative Blue Ribbon Panel for its ambitious recommendations to accelerate progress against cancer. “We applaud the Blue Ribbon Panel for its work and the National Cancer Institute's (NCI's) National Cancer Advisory Board for convening the panel,”...
Weight Watchers International, Inc, has launched Project LIFT—Live Inspired, Fight Together—a new movement, in collaboration with the American Cancer Society, to inspire and guide breast cancer survivors with free resources focused on tackling the unexpected weight gain that can follow breast...
Sumanta K. Pal, MD, has had a longer career in oncology than many other colleagues his age. Perhaps the reason for that may center on his starting college at the age 13 and medical school at the age of 17. Today this internationally recognized leader in genitourinary cancers is Assistant Professor ...
A recent report regarding pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for advanced Merkel cell carcinoma ushered in a more optimistic era in the treatment of this rare but often lethal skin cancer.1 The ASCO Post spoke with one of the field’s leaders, Paul Nghiem, MD, PhD—the first author of the study—about the...
On August 5, 2016, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was granted accelerated approval for treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and disease progression on or after platinum-containing chemotherapy.1,2 As a condition of the accelerated approval, Merck is...
Physicians from Carolinas HealthCare System’s Neurosciences Institute and Levine Cancer Institute are among the authors of a recent study published by Brown et al in JAMA.1 The study showed how among patients with one to three brain metastases, the use of stereotactic radiosurgery alone, compared...
As reported by Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, MBA, FRCS, FACS, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, and colleagues at the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) and European Society of Surgical Oncology (ESSO), the rising global burden of cancer and inequalities in surgical oncology education ...
Margaret Spitz, MPH, Professor in the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine, has been appointed by President Barack Obama as a member of the National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB). A renowned expert in molecular...
Clinical trials focused on older adults with cancer were featured prominently at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting. There was a plenary session in glioblastoma, a clinical symposium on immunotherapy, and multiple educational lectures highlighting the growing literature and unique challenges in the...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug designation for chimeric antigen receptor–engineered T cells directed against the target protein CD4 (CD4CAR) for the treatment of peripheral T-cell lymphoma. William Tse, MD, Chief of the Blood and Marrow Transplantation Division ...
The ability to cure a majority of patients with advanced Hodgkin lymphoma is one of the major milestones of success in the combination chemotherapy era. It has been over 40 years since Bonadonna and colleagues in Milan developed the ABVD regimen (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and...
Although there is some overlap, past research has shown that the challenges faced by African American breast cancer survivors differ somewhat from Caucasian women. But the studies that demonstrated difference were not designed to explore those challenges in depth. Now new research from Thomas...
Assessment of minimal residual disease was associated with improved prediction of outcome in responders, as well as complete responders, in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who respond to treatment. Kovacs et al reported these findings, which are based on an analysis of two phase...
For at least the past quarter of a century, radiobiologists and radiation oncologists have debated the role of hypofractionation (fewer total fractions with a higher dose per fraction) for prostate cancer. The debate stems from the unique radiobiology of prostate cancer and the best means to...
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has named James Morgan, PhD, Scientific Director and Executive Vice President. Dr. Morgan held the Interim Scientific Director post since 2015 and was formerly Chair of the Department of Developmental Neurobiology. As Scientific Director, Dr. Morgan will...
In June 2016, the European Hematology Association Congress convened in Copenhagen, Denmark. The educational and scientific program highlighted state-of-the-art clinical practice and the latest findings in hematology research. The ASCO Post brings its readers brief summaries of some of the important ...
Outcomes for adults with high-grade and aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs) appear to be better when these patients are treated with pediatric-inspired protocols, according to Mitchell S. Cairo, MD, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation, Maria...
Certain factors increase the risk of unplanned readmission in the month after head and neck cancer resection requiring free tissue reconstruction, finds an analysis of data from the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) of the American College of Surgeons.1 Nearly 1 in 10 patients...
“This study is actually surprising to me, because earlier studies of that particular antibody as a single therapy for this disease, salivary duct carcinoma, showed it was not very effective, with only 10% to 15% response rates,” session co-moderator, M. Boyd Gillespie, MD, MSCR, Professor and Vice ...
The combination of trastuzumab (Herceptin) and docetaxel seems to be highly active in patients with unresectable advanced HER2-positive salivary gland carcinoma of the ductal subtype, according to interim data from an open-label, single-arm phase II trial.1 More than two-thirds of patients had a...
Patients undergoing transoral robotic surgery for head and neck cancer may experience improvements in some outcomes when given an extended course of corticosteroids, finds a randomized controlled trial reported at the 9th International Conference on Head and Neck Cancer.1 Relative to peers given...
“This work is intriguing and may have clinical potential,” commented session co-moderator William B. Armstrong, MD, Professor of Clinical Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and Chair, Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, at the University of California, Irvine, Orange, ...
Electrical stimulation of the spinal accessory nerve during neck dissection for head and neck cancer may reduce the development of shoulder dysfunction, according to a double-blind randomized controlled trial.1 A year after surgery, patients given intraoperative electrical stimulation had...
By identifying residual dysplasia in the tumor bed, Lugol’s iodine staining may improve pathologic outcomes with resection of oral and oropharyngeal cancers, according to interim findings of a UK randomized controlled trial reported at the 9th International Conference on Head and Neck Cancer.1...
A team of researchers, using a novel approach, found that while many cancer centers offer palliative and supportive care services, patients may face challenges when trying to access them. The study showed that expanding awareness and education to patient-facing cancer center employees about such...
A new multistate survey showed that nearly one-quarter to one-third of family caregivers of patients with high-mortality cancers experience high levels of depression and anxiety symptoms. The study also found that family caregivers can spend over 8 hours per day providing care and that as this time ...
A randomized clinical trial found that introducing palliative care shortly after a diagnosis of certain metastatic cancers greatly increases a patient’s coping abilities, as well as overall quality of life. Researchers also found that early integration of palliative care results in an...
An analysis of data from more than 1,200 caregivers in the United States finds that cancer caregivers report a higher burden and spend significantly more hours per week caregiving, as opposed to individuals who care for people with other conditions. The analysis was based on survey data from the...
Patients with cancer have heightened risks of unintentional and intentional injuries during the diagnostic process, revealed findings from a large study published by Shen et al in The BMJ. A range of injuries are common, and some are potentially life-threatening, the study showed. The authors...
University of North Carolina (UNC) Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers, by tracking p16INK4a, a molecular marker that has been shown to increase in white blood cells as people age, have uncovered clues suggesting that stem cell transplant is linked to a marked increase in the...
The words “cost control,” “value-based health care,” and similar iterations are floating around freely these days to make us aware of the unsustainable upward trajectory of health-care costs. We are reminded constantly about how health care in America currently costs more than $3.4 trillion...
Approximately 20% of patients with follicular lymphoma will relapse within 2 years of diagnosis. Although the optimal management of these patients has not been established, clinicians may be guided by data from recent clinical trials, according to Nathan H. Fowler, MD, Associate Professor and...
Two recent European phase III trials with different study designs focused on hypofractionated vs conventional radiotherapy in localized prostate cancer. Investigators in the CHHiP trial1 showed that the hypofractionated approach is noninferior to standard fractionation, with no increase in side...
Researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) identified 14 genes regulating genome integrity that were consistently overexpressed in a wide variety of cancers. They then created a scoring system based upon the degree of gene overexpression. For...
Researchers funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) have shown that when the metabolite fumarate accumulates in a hereditary form of renal cancer, it leads to an epigenetic reprogramming that drives cancer, according to a study published by Sciacovelli et al in Nature. The tumor growth...
In a pooled analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Meignan et al found that higher baseline total metabolic tumor volume measured by 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron-emission tomography–computed tomography (FDG PET-CT) was associated with poorer outcome in patients...
Approximately one in four patients who undergo radical prostatectomy experience a cancer recurrence. Now a study by Stura et al investigating a prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-based computational model that uses four consecutive postsurgical PSA values has found the mathematical model to be highly...
Retinoic acid may play a critical role in suppressing colorectal cancer in mice and humans, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Mice with the cancer have lower-than-normal levels of the metabolite in their gut, the researchers found. Furthermore, colorectal...
Pediatric stem cell transplant and cancer patients often are discharged from the hospital with an external central venous line for medications that parents or other caregivers must clean and flush daily to avoid potentially life-threatening infections. If an outpatient develops a bloodstream...
A group of University of North Carolina (UNC) Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers is calling for an overhaul of the process that determines which cancer drugs used off-label—or beyond their approved use—are reimbursed by federally funded health insurance in the United...
A novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method that detects low levels of zinc ion can help distinguish healthy prostate tissue from cancer, The University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center radiologists have determined. The findings were published by Clavijo Jordan et al in the Proceedings ...
Radiation for prostate cancer typically requires 40 to 45 daily treatments, given over 8 to 9 weeks. Long fractionation schemes are chosen for most cancers, because they allow for tumor killing while reducing the potential for injury to normal tissue. However, the radiobiology of prostate cancer...
Researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU) may have unraveled the metastatic mechanism of melanoma. According to a paper published by Dror et al in Nature Cell Biology, scientists discovered that before spreading to other organs, a melanoma tumor sends out tiny vesicles containing molecules of...