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Showing 9901 - 9950Randomized Trials vs Meta-analyses: Which Is the Better Bet?
Two surgical oncology experts who squared off in a “Great Debate” at the 2014 Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) Annual Cancer Symposium in Phoenix. Heidi Nelson, MD, Professor of Surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, argued for the superiority of randomized controlled trials in...
17-Gene Assay Is a Significant Predictor of Prostate Cancer Aggressiveness
Results from three studies published recently in European Urology indicate that the 17-gene Oncotype DX Genomic Prostate Score is a significant predictor of disease aggressiveness at the time of diagnosis before intervention with radiation or surgery.1 The test provides precise and individualized...
Experts Share Keys to a Successful Lung Screening Program
There are currently 172 computed tomography (CT)-based lung screening centers up and running in the United States, according to the Lung Cancer Alliance.1 In a presentation at the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) 2014 Annual Meeting in San Diego, Reginald Munden, MD, DMD, MBA, and Ralph...
Ceritinib in ALK-Positive Metastatic NSCLC Patients With Progression on or Intolerance to Crizotinib
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 April 29, 2014, ceritinib (Zykadia) was granted accelerated...
ASCO Takes Aim at the Link Between Obesity and Cancer
ASCO is stepping up its efforts to address the link between obesity and cancer—both as a leading cause of cancer and as a complicating factor for treatment. In recent years, research has demonstrated that a growing number of cancers are linked to obesity, and public health researchers predict that...
A Way Forward in Genomic Medicine
Over the past several decades, the convergence of scientific discovery, technology, and therapeutic developments has created an unparalleled opportunity to integrate our growing knowledge of genomics into the clinical practice of oncology. To shed light on the current state and future of...
Should Breast Cancer Patients With One to Three Positive Nodes Routinely Receive Postmastectomy Radiation?
The Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG) continues to provide valuable clinically relevant and practice-influencing information garnered from individual patient-level data from numerous randomized trials in breast cancer. The large numbers of patients and long-term follow-up...
ASCO Guideline Update Extends Sentinel Node Biopsy Indications in Breast Cancer
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) published its first guideline for sentinel lymph node biopsy in 2005.1 Since that time, many new randomized and cohort studies have been published investigating the indications and outcomes of the procedure. The updated 2014 guideline, recently...
ASCO Clinical Practice Guideline Update: Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy for Patients With Early-Stage Breast Cancer
ASCO recently convened an update committee of experts in medical oncology, pathology, radiation oncology, surgical oncology, guideline implementation, and advocacy to develop evidence-based recommendations that update the ASCO 2005 clinical practice guideline on use of sentinel node biopsy in...
Patients Benefit From Faster FDA Drug Approval Process
In an increasing spirit of cooperation, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and several pharmaceutical companies are bringing to fruition the newest in a series of ways to expedite drug development and review. Breakthrough therapy is the designation instituted in 2012 by the FDA Safety and...
NCCN Scientific Posters Include New Findings in Bladder Cancer, Survivorship Care, and Antiemetic Therapy
The 19th Annual Conference of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), recently held in Hollywood, Florida, featured a number of scientific posters by member organizations and meeting sponsors. The ASCO Post captured some of the most interesting findings for our readers, including these...
Surveillance After Colon Cancer Surgery: Too Much of a Good Thing?
Finding salvageable colon cancer recurrence is akin to finding a needle in a haystack, rendering routine patient surveillance of little value. But finding that needle offers an opportunity for treating recurrent disease early, which makes surveillance worthwhile. These were the opposing views...
Glioblastoma: Can We Make This Intractable Disease Tractable?
In the clinical array of brain tumors, glioblastoma is the most difficult to treat, and despite decades of research and the advent of new therapies, patients with glioblastoma continue to have a very poor prognosis. Leading brain tumor experts at the recent 25th Annual Cancer Progress Conference in ...
Cryoablation of Breast Tumors Shows Promise in Patients With Early-Stage Disease
Cryoablation of breast tumors, which destroys lesions by exposing them to extremely low temperatures, shows promise as an alternative to surgery in carefully selected women with early-stage disease, according to a study presented at the American Society of Breast Surgeons Annual Meeting in Las...
Expert Point of View: Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP
“To our surprise, obesity had a negative prognostic effect on premenopausal patients with breast cancer but not on those who were postmenopausal. We need to consider these findings in the context of results from other data sources that suggest that obesity remains a negative prognostic feature in...
Phase I Study of Novel Third-Generation EGFR Inhibitor Holds Promise Against Resistance Mutation in Patients With Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
Preliminary evidence suggests that AZD9291, a novel mutant-selective epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor, may become a treatment option for patients with advanced, EGFR-mutant, non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that has progressed on standard EGFR inhibitors....
ALTTO Trial Finds Dual Anti-HER2 Therapy No Better Than Trastuzumab Alone
The highly anticipated results from the phase III ALTTO trial show no additional benefit for adding lapatinib (Tykerb) to trastuzumab (Herceptin) in the adjuvant treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer.1 The results were presented at the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting’s Plenary Session by Martine J....
Medicare Advisory Panel Cast Doubts on Lung Cancer Screening, Leaving Advocates Dismayed but Undaunted
On April 30, 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) convened the Medicare Evidence Development & Coverage Advisory Committee (MEDCAC) to assess the value of low-dose computed tomography (CT) lung cancer screening in the Medicare population. After a decades-long battle,...
'Small Practices Like Mine'
Recently, I participated in ASCO’s Congressional news briefing in Washington, DC, following the release of its report, The State of Cancer Care in America: 2014. During my presentation I talked about the workforce shortage of approximately 1,500 medical oncologists that is predicted by 2025. A...
‘Unprecedented’ Survival Benefit in Prostate Cancer With Addition of Docetaxel to Hormone Therapy
Adding docetaxel to standard androgen ablation therapy (ie, testosterone suppression) extended survival by more than 1 year in men with newly diagnosed metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer in the phase III E3805 trial, funded by the National Institutes of Health. As reported at the ASCO...
Sharing 50 Years of Christmas: A Quality Metric?
A very pleasant 68-year-old woman was referred to my clinic with biopsy-proven liver metastasis from primary colon cancer. She was initially diagnosed with colon cancer, which was resected, and she then received chemotherapy. A suspicious liver lesion was biopsied in the adjuvant setting, which...
Leading Cancer Researcher and Public Health-Care Expert, Eddie Reed, MD, Dies
In a 2010 interview, Eddie Reed, MD, a pioneer in the molecular pharmacology of DNA-damaging anticancer agents and the clinical development of paclitaxel for ovarian cancer, was asked what lay ahead. Before answering, Dr. Reed first acknowledged the esteemed mentors who gave him their most precious ...
Long-Term Follow-up Confirms Low Incidence of Cardiac Events Associated With Trastuzumab
At a median follow-up of 8 years, patients receiving trastuzumab (Herceptin) sequentially after chemotherapy and radiotherapy in the Herceptin Adjuvant (HERA) trial had a low incidence of cardiac events and these were reversible in the vast majority of patients. This long-term assessment confirms...
New Option for Preserving Fertility in Women Being Treated With Chemotherapy for Early-Stage Breast Cancer
One of the most reported studies emanating from the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting involves the use of the luteinizing hormone–releasing hormone (LHRH) agonist goserelin (Zoladex) to reduce the risk of ovarian failure among women being treated with chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer, and to...
Cancer Care Under the Affordable Care Act
The problematic rollout of the Affordable Care Act’s website, HealthCare.gov, made good political theater, but while much of the heated discussion centered on the plan’s need to enroll “young invincibles,” America’s cancer care system and the older patients it serves were also affected by parts of...
Federal Pain Research Database Launched
The Interagency Pain Research Portfolio (IPRP), a database that provides information about pain research and training activities supported by the federal government, has been launched by six federal agencies. “This database will provide the public and the research community with an important tool...
Issues in the Management of the Axilla in Patients With Breast Cancer
For the past 40 years the story of breast cancer surgery in general, and for the past 20 years the management of the axilla in particular, has been one of increasing conservatism. To give our readers insight into the current and future direction of axillary management, The ASCO Post spoke with...
A New Era in the Management of Advanced HER2-Positive Breast Cancer
Approximately 20% of all breast cancers are human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive. Prior to the era of HER2-targeted therapy, HER2-positive breast cancer was characterized by a poor prognosis.1,2 The development of the first HER2-targeted therapy, trastuzumab (Herceptin), led to...
ASCO Clinical Practice Guideline: Systemic Therapy for Patients With Advanced HER2-Positive Breast Cancer
Approximately 15% of patients with breast cancer have tumors that overexpress the HER2 protein and these patients can benefit from HER2-targeted therapies. The American Society of Clinical Oncology recently released a clinical practice guideline on systemic therapy for patients with advanced...
Congress Salutes ASCO’s 50th Anniversary on House Floor
On May 8, 2014, the House of Representatives held a Special Order in honor of ASCO as it celebrates its 50th anniversary. Representatives Leonard Lance (R-NJ), Brian Higgins (D-NY), Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN), and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) spoke during the Special Order, which took place on the House ...
Conquering Cancer With 2013 Career Development Award Recipient Rebecca A. Gardner, MD
Rebecca A. Gardner, MD is an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington and Attending Physician at Seattle Children’s Hospital. She received a 2013 Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO Career Development Award (CDA) for her project “Autologous T cells genetically modified to express a CD19...
Colorectal Cancer Screening Poised for Change
New screening modalities and the customization of the screening population could soon change the way that screening for colorectal cancer is done. At Digestive Disease Week 2014, the largest gathering of gastrointestinal disease specialists in the world, researchers presented data suggesting that...
Preoperative Breast MRI: Does Higher Sensitivity Equal Better Outcomes?
Breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is superior to more commonly used imaging modalities in preoperative breast cancer staging and should be a key element in routine workup. But despite its high sensitivity for catching cancers, breast MRI still does not deliver maximum value for the patient....
FDA Approves Magnetic Resonance Contrast Agent for Evaluation of Breast Cancer
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new indication for gadobutrol (Gadavist) injection for intravenous use with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the breast to assess the presence and extent of malignant breast disease. The approval is based on priority review of two multicenter...
Expert Point of View: Sherene Loi, MD PhD
Sherene Loi, MD PhD, Head of the Translational Breast Cancer Genomics Lab at the Peter McCallum Cancer Centre, Victoria, Australia, commented on the N9831 study presentation and referred to her group’s own work on tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. These investigators have shown a positive association ...
Goserelin With Chemotherapy Prevents Early Menopause, Helps Preserve Fertility in Younger Women With Hormone Receptor–Negative Breast Cancer
The good news for younger women with hormone receptor–negative early breast cancer is that adding goserelin (Zoladex), a luteinizing hormone–releasing hormone (LHRH) agonist, to chemotherapy can prevent sudden menopause, better preserve ovarian function and fertility, and lead to successful...
Oral Two-Drug Regimen Appears Promising in Phase II Trial of Recurrent Platinum-Sensitive Ovarian Cancer
An all-oral combination of the investigational agents olaparib and cediranib nearly doubled progression-free survival in platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer in a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-sponsored randomized phase II trial reported at the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 The toxicity...
Expert Point of View: Nasser H. Hanna, MD
Formal discussant of the study by Park et al, Nasser H. Hanna, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Indiana University Simon Cancer Center, Indianapolis, said that the trial confirms the difficulty of giving consolidation therapy, since less than two-thirds of patients were able to get the...
Pieces of the Puzzle in Treating Early Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
Separate studies in early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) found that the addition of consolidation chemotherapy to concurrent chemoradiotherapy did not improve survival and that adjuvant erlotinib (Tarceva) did not improve survival. There was a suggestion of benefit for adjuvant erlotinib...
Ibrutinib Surpasses Ofatumumab as Second-Line Treatment of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
Ibrutinib (Imbruvica) significantly improved progression-free survival, overall survival, and response when compared with ofatumumab (Arzerra) as second-line treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) in the phase III RESONATE study. The study results were...
Early Study Explores New Approach to Treating Advanced Cervical Cancer
A small, federally funded study of nine patients treated with human papillomavirus (HPV)-targeted adoptive T-cell therapy gives reason to hope that this type of therapy may be a new effective approach for patients with metastatic cervical cancer and possibly other solid tumors.1 In the study, two...
Expert Point of View: Scott T. Tagawa, MD
Formal discussant Scott T. Tagawa, MD, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and Urology at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, had the task of putting the three prostate cancer trials—PREVAIL, ELM-PC 4, and SWOG S0925—into context. “Since the approval of docetaxel, we have learned much...
Updated Information on Prostate Cancer Drugs: Enzalutamide, Orteronel, and Cixutumumab
Three separate studies of treatments for prostate cancer reported at the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago showed excellent, intermediate, and disappointing results. An update of the previously reported PREVAIL trial (see March 1 issue of The ASCO Post, page 1) was overwhelmingly positive for the ...
Combined With Chemotherapy, Cetuximab and Bevacizumab Found Comparable for First-Line Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Treatment
Call it a draw: Cetuximab (Erbitux), an EGFR inhibitor, and bevacizumab (Avastin), a VEGF inhibitor, confer comparable benefits as first-line treatment with chemotherapy for metastatic colorectal cancer, according to the phase III Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB)/Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) ...
Advancing Immune Checkpoint Targeting in Cancer Treatment
James P. Allison, PhD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Immunology, Executive Director of the Moon Shots Immunotherapy Platform, and Deputy Directory of the David H. Koch Center for Applied Research of Genitourinary Cancers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, is...
Exemestane/Ovarian Suppression Reduces Recurrence vs Tamoxifen/Ovarian Suppression in Premenopausal Breast Cancer
A joint analysis of two important phase III clinical trials—TEXT (Tamoxifen and Exemestane Trial) and SOFT (Suppression of Ovarian Function Trial)—showed that exemestane plus ovarian function suppression was superior to tamoxifen plus ovarian suppression in preventing recurrence in premenopausal...
Siltuximab for Multicentric Castleman’s Disease
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 April 23, 2014, the anti–interleukin (IL)-6 monoclonal antibody...
Life: Magnified
On June 10, Life: Magnified, an eye-catching photo exhibit of scientific images, opened at Washington Dulles International Airport’s Gateway Gallery in Chantilly, Virginia. The exhibit features 46 high-resolution backlit images of cells from the body, including the brain, blood, eye, skin, liver,...
'Physician Education Is Key' to Continued Advances in Geriatric Oncology
Several times during his lecture at the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting, Stuart M. Lichtman, MD, FACP, FASCO, the recipient of the B.J. Kennedy Award for Scientific Excellence in Geriatric Oncology, emphasized, “Physician education is the key” to continued advances in geriatric oncology. He specified that ...
Importance of Using Multiplex Testing for Oncogenic Drivers to Select Targeted Drugs in Lung Cancer
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the world as well as in the United States, where it is the leading cancer killer in both men and women. The majority of lung cancer patients present with metastatic (stage IV) disease that cannot be cured with current therapies. Standard cytotoxic ...
