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Showing 9901 - 9950Philip E. Bourne, PhD, Leaves NIH, Accepts Position at University of Virginia
On January 6, Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, Director, National Institutes of Health (NIH), issued the following statement: It is with truly mixed emotions that I announce the departure of Philip E. Bourne, PhD, who will be leaving his post as NIH’s first Associate Director for Data Science to...
Esophagoscopy by the High-Low Method
Endoscopic examination of the intestinal tract remains a prime diagnostic tool for positive identification of cancers. Endoscopic instruments also aid in the retrieval of tissue for biopsy, providing a more accurate diagnosis and help in the staging of tumors. This is a photograph of the pioneer...
I’m Learning to Live With Chronic Cancer
I was feeling a bit more tired than usual as the Christmas holidays approached in December 2012, but I chocked it up to the frenetic pace of the season and keeping up with caring for my two young children, ages 4 and 12. I had none of the other typical warning signs of chronic myeloid leukemia...
What Have We Got to Lose?
Tuesday morning was the regular time for the departmental meeting—an opportunity to discuss cases, troubleshoot, debrief, and expedite the necessary allied health referrals. As usual, patient cases were being discussed in alphabetical order of the attending oncologist. We were already three...
Clinical Trials Actively Recruiting Patients With Bladder Cancer
Phase I Study Title: Ethacrynic Acid Elimination in Nonmuscle Invasive Bladder Cancer Patients Undergoing Transurethral Resection Study Type: Phase I/interventional/single-group assignment Study Sponsor and Collaborators: University of Kansas Medical Center Purpose: To provide quantitative...
What Cancer?
If they are honest, most oncologists who’ve practiced medicine for more than 15 years will tell you they’ve learned much more from their patients than their patients have learned from them. The life lessons I’ve learned from treating this complicated, resilient, and often cruel disease are many....
Rucaparib in Previously Treated BRCA Mutation–Associated Ovarian Cancer
On December 19, 2016, rucaparib (Rubraca) was granted accelerated approval for the treatment of patients with deleterious BRCA mutation–associated (germline or somatic) advanced ovarian cancer who have received two or more prior chemotherapy regimens.1,2 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ...
An Insider’s Account of the AIDS Epidemic
On June 5, 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) describing cases of a rare lung infection in five young gay men in Los Angeles. The men had other unusual infections as well, indicating their immune systems were compromised....
An Ovarian Cancer Survivor’s Story
Ovarian cancer, the deadliest of gynecologic cancers, is usually diagnosed after the disease has spread. Susan Evans was a secondary English and remedial reading teacher for 32 years in Bradford, Pennsylvania. She was on several advisory boards and was recognized by the Pennsylvania Senate and...
FDA Approves Extended-Release Morphine Product Formulated With Abuse-Deterrent Properties
On January 9, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved morphine sulfate extended-release tablets with abuse-deterrent properties (Arymo ER), a C-II drug for the management of pain severe enough to require daily, around-the-clock, long-term opioid treatment and for which alternative...
Canadian Study Looks at an Integrated Palliative Care Model
Although initiation of palliative care from the time of cancer diagnosis produces optimal outcomes for patients, this strategy is often not practiced. A recent Canadian study conducted in patients with advanced cancer and their caregivers examined the opinions of patients with advanced cancer and...
Eastern Maine Medical Center Cancer Care Joins Dana-Farber Cancer Care Collaborative
Eastern Maine Medical Center Cancer Care, located at the Lafayette Family Cancer Center, is the newest member of the Dana-Farber Cancer Care Collaborative. Participation in the Collaborative reflects a demonstrated commitment to excellence by meeting a wide array of standards and best practices. As ...
How ASCO’s New Health Policy Fellowship Program Is Helping Shape Future Cancer Care Policy
In October 2015, ASCO launched the Health Policy Fellowship program to help the next generation of oncologists with an interest in health policy to develop the skills and experience necessary to achieve their goals and shape cancer care policy in an increasingly complicated and diverse care...
Telemedicine: Transforming Health Care One Computer at a Time
Telehealth is the delivery of health care remotely via telecommunication tools. Its aim is to increase access to care, especially for patients with chronic diseases such as cancer and for populations for whom care is not always available. With the growing availability of broadband and portable...
Pamela Laszewski, RN, OCN, Receives 2017 ONS Excellence in Radiation Therapy Nursing Award
Pamela Laszewski, RN, OCN, Clinical Leader of Radiation at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, will receive the notable 2017 Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) Excellence in Radiation Therapy Nursing Award during the Annual ONS Congress May 4–7, 2017, in Denver. The award was created to...
Jennifer Lycette, MD, Takes Pride in Delivering Cancer Care to Those Most in Need in Northwest Oregon
Born and reared in Anchorage, a city located in Southcentral Alaska, farther north than St. Petersburg, Russia, Jennifer Lycette, MD, grew up during the 1970s and 1980s. “We were fairly isolated from the lower 48. We didn’t have cable TV in Anchorage, and I remember my father would turn off the TV ...
New President of the Skin Cancer Foundation Emphasizes Public Education to Reduce Skin Cancer Incidence and Deaths
The statistics on the rising rates of skin cancer are alarming. According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, each year over 5.4 million cases of nonmelanoma skin cancer are treated in more than 3.3 million people, and an additional 76,380 people are diagnosed with the deadliest form of skin cancer,...
Expert Point of View: Kanti R. Rai, MD
Kanti R. Rai, MD, Professor of Medicine, Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine, New Hyde Park, New York, commented on these study findings. “I congratulate the investigators for a work done with discipline, excellent collaboration, and speed.” “All of us who have become familiar with ibrutinib...
Ibrutinib: A Potential Option for Chronic Graft-vs-Host Disease?
Currently, there is no U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved therapy for chronic graft-vs-host disease—a life-threatening consequence of stem cell or bone marrow transplant—that has not responded to corticosteroids, but this may be about to change. Ibrutinib (Imbruvica) achieved...
Survivorship Symposium 2017: Almost Half of Partners and Caregivers of Young Breast Cancer Survivors Experience Long-Lasting Anxiety
While evidence is mounting on the physical and emotional challenges many cancer caregivers experience, few studies have addressed the experience of partners of young adults with cancer. Now, a new study evaluating the psychosocial concerns and mental health in the partners of young survivors of...
AACR Receives $1.125 Million National Cancer Institute Grant to Continue Annual Clinical Trials Workshop
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is pleased to announce that the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has awarded the organization a 5-year, $1.125 million grant to continue providing clinical fellow and junior faculty clinical researchers the opportunity to learn the essentials of...
Addressing Discrimination and Bias in Medical Education
“As a medical student, I often felt marginalized from my medical community. I have been told that my name is ‘not American,’ fallen prey to being confused for support staff such as a janitor (even while wearing my white coat) and been asked questions like, ‘Where are you really from?’ or ‘How old...
Vanderbilt Study to Explore Lymphedema Self-Care for Head and Neck Cancer Survivors
Vanderbilt University School of Nursing Assistant Professor Jie Deng, PhD, RN, has been awarded a $789,000 research scholar grant by the American Cancer Society to develop and test a self-care program for head and neck cancer survivors diagnosed with secondary lymphedema/fibrosis....
ASCO’s State Affiliate Council: Helping Practices to Meet the Challenges Ahead
ASCO’s State Affiliate Council serves as an advisory group to ASCO’s Board of Directors on issues relating to its State/Regional Affiliates and their members, and serves as a vehicle for effective communications between the Board and domestic membership. The Council is made up of physician...
ASCO Launches JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics
JCO Clinical Care Informatics (JCO CCI) will be the first ASCO journal devoted to applications of biomedical informatics to cancer care. Debra Patt, MD, MPH, MBA, the Editor-in-Chief of JCO CCI, understands how important biomedical informatics research is to the oncology field. Dr. Patt coauthored ...
ASCO Launches First Journal Dedicated to Precision Oncology
ASCO has launched a new journal dedicated to precision oncology, JCO Precision Oncology (JCO PO). JCO PO features original clinical research, scientific reviews, and editorials on genomics. James M. Ford, MD, the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, said JCO PO offers precision oncologists a place to...
Survivorship Symposium 2017: Physical and Psychological Factors Contribute to Decreased Physical Activity in 75% of Patients With Cancer
Although, in the past, patients with cancer were often counseled by their physicians to rest and reduce their physical activity, according to the American Cancer Society, emerging data are showing that exercise is not only safe and possible during cancer treatment, it can improve patients’...
Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, Elected ASCO President for 2018–2019 Term
Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, a long-time member and volunteer, has been elected to serve as President of ASCO for the term beginning in June 2018. She will take office as President-Elect during the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago in June 2017. Additionally, three new members were elected to the ASCO...
Conquer Cancer Foundation Researcher Spotlight: Vamsidhar Velcheti, MD
What if more patients with lung cancer could benefit from immunotherapy? Although progress in this area of research is exciting, unfortunately, a vast majority of patients with thoracic malignancies do not respond to this pioneering form of treatment. Vamsidhar Velcheti, MD, Assistant Professor of ...
ASCO, AMP, and CAP Issue New Joint Guidelines to Standardize Interpretation and Reporting of Sequence Variants in Cancer
On December 16, a set of joint guidelines developed by ASCO, the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP), and the College of American Pathologists (CAP) on standardizing the interpretation and reporting of sequence variants in cancer was published online, ahead of the January print issue of The...
PARP Inhibitor Niraparib Yields ‘Unprecedented’ Results in Ovarian Cancer in Phase III Trial
The first phase III trial of an inhibitor of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) yielded unprecedented results in treating ovarian cancer. The trial was presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Copenhagen, Denmark, and electronically reported concurrently in The New England ...
Survivorship Symposium 2017: Younger Survivors of Thyroid Cancer Face Increased Risk of Hypertension, Heart Disease, and Osteoporosis
According to the American Cancer Society, in the United States, thyroid cancer is the most rapidly increasing cancer, tripling in the past 3 decades, and is commonly diagnosed at a younger age than most other adult cancers. A study by Blackburn et al examining whether survivors of thyroid cancer...
Diane M. Simeone, MD, to Lead New Pancreatic Cancer Center at NYU Langone
New York University (NYU) Langone Medical Center has announced that surgeon and scientist Diane M. Simeone, MD, will join its Perlmutter Cancer Center on March 1, 2017, to serve as Associate Director for Translational Research and to lead its newly established Pancreatic Cancer Center. Currently...
Understanding Cancer Epigenetics and Its Clinical Implications
The field of epigenetics emerged in the 1990s and has been described with somewhat variable meanings. In 2008, a meeting at the Cold Spring Harbor laboratory arrived at a definition of epigenetics by consensus: “A stably heritable phenotype resulting from changes in a chromosome without...
UMass Memorial Medical Center Seeks to Join Dana-Farber Cancer Care Collaborative
UMass Memorial Medical Center and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have notified the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission that UMass Memorial Medical Center intends to become the first academic medical center to join the Dana-Farber Cancer Care Collaborative. The agreement, for adult medical oncology ...
Diamonds Are Forever, Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors Are Not?
Sir Donald Munger: “You have been on holiday, I understand. Relaxing, I hope?” James Bond: “Oh, hardly relaxing, but most satisfying.” (Diamonds Are Forever) As tyrosine kinase inhibitors became the mainstay of therapy for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), our assumption has been that...
Falls in Older Patients With Cancer: Recognizing and Reducing the Risk
In older patients, a current or previous cancer diagnosis confers a 15% to 20% greater risk of suffering a fall.1 Defined as an “unexpected event in which the participant comes to rest on the ground, floor, or lower level,” a fall occurs in 30% to 50% of cancer patients 65 years of age or...
Nivolumab in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck in CheckMate 141: Game Not Over
Most patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck present with locally advanced disease. With combined-modality approaches, the chance of cure ranges from < 50% to up to 80%, depending on the site, stage, and other risk factors, such as human papillomavirus (HPV) status. When...
Radiation Therapy for Glioblastoma: What Is New and What Is Missing in the ASCO-Endorsed ASTRO Guidelines
An ASCO Special Article in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Sulman et al,1 reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, issued ASCO’s endorsement of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) guidelines on radiation therapy for adult patients diagnosed with glioblastoma. It is a positive...
ASCO Endorses ASTRO Guideline on Radiation Therapy for Glioblastoma
As reported by Erik P. Sulman, MD, PhD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, ASCO has endorsed the 2016 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) evidence-based guideline on radiation therapy for glioblastoma.1 The endorsement was based on review ...
Optimizing Access to Fertility Preservation Options
Ensuring that people with cancer understand how cancer treatment could affect their fertility and what options are available for preserving fertility were widely recognized as top priorities by attendees of the 2016 Oncofertility Conference in Chicago. As detailed at the conference, means of...
Managing Breast Cancer in a Pregnant Patient
“One of the most challenging oncologic situations that I face as a clinician is the diagnosis of breast cancer in a young pregnant patient,” Jacqueline Jeruss, MD, PhD, Director of the Breast Care Center at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, told the more than 250...
Expert Point of View: Anas Younes, MD
Anas Younes, MD, Chief of the Lymphoma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, commented on the brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris)/nivolumab (Opdivo) combination studies, noting that complete response rates of 60% are “impressive.” “It seems that in the pretransplant setting, the...
Brentuximab Vedotin Plus Nivolumab Highly Active in Relapsed Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma
Response rates of 90% to 100% were achieved in early studies evaluating the combination of brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) and nivolumab (Opdivo) in relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma. The findings were presented at the 2016 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting &...
CAR T-Cell Therapy KTE-C19 Appears Successful in Aggressive B-Cell Lymphoma
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy continues to have impressive showings in patients with aggressive hematologic malignancies and no other good treatment options. Interim results of the pivotal phase II ZUMA-1 trial, the first multicenter trial of the experimental CAR T-cell therapy...
Expert Point of View: Philip McCarthy, MD
The ASCO Post asked Philip McCarthy, MD, Professor of Oncology and Internal Medicine at Roswell Park Cancer, Buffalo, and Director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Center there, to comment on these study findings. He first addressed the need to study earlier intervention for smoldering ...
High Response Rates to Triplet Therapy in Smoldering Myeloma
High-risk patients with smoldering multiple myeloma responded to a regimen of elotuzumab (Empliciti), lenalidomide (Revlimid), and dexamethasone, in a multicenter phase II study led by Irene Ghobrial, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston.1 “The high response rates among this patient...
Expert Point of View: Sara Hurvitz, MD; Mothaffar Rimawi, MD; and Carlos L. Arteaga, MD
Sara Hurvitz, MD, Director of the Breast Oncology Program at the University of California, Los Angeles, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, commented that in the United States, a bone mineral density test can help identify candidates for bone-modifying agents. “We look at women who are going on...
Ibandronate Fails to Improve Disease-Free Survival in Early Breast Cancer Patients—but With Favorable Trends
Addition of the oral bisphosphonate ibandronate to endocrine therapy did not significantly improve disease-free survival in patients with early breast cancer, according to the first results from the Dutch TEAM IIb trial presented at the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 The results were...
Breast Cancer Experts Question New Recommendations for 21-Gene Recurrence Score Assay
At the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, a group of breast cancer experts made a case for using the 21-gene Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score Assay in node-positive patients, despite ASCO’s latest recommendations to restrict it to node-negative estrogen receptor–positive patients. The...
