Lindsay L. Peterson, MD, of the Washington University, St. Louis, discusses the value of physical activity in improving cancer prognosis, especially for patients with breast or colon cancer. Aerobic exercises and resistance training are recommended during and after treatment. Exercise may help...
Sandra L. Wong, MD, of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, discusses her study findings showing that when patients with cancer who have had surgery reported severe symptoms via an electronic patient-reported outcomes questionnaire at six cancer centers, it appeared to be beneficial without...
Dawn L. Hershman, MD, of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, discusses findings that showed substantial variability in clinicians’ adherence to prescribing primary prophylactic colony stimulating factors in a pragmatic trial. Although the ability to opt out of the intervention...
Sriram Yennu, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the placebo response in patients with advanced cancer and cancer-related fatigue. His latest findings show that open-labeled placebo was efficacious in reducing cancer-related fatigue and improving quality of life in...
Youssef Zeidan, MD, PhD, of Florida International University and the Lynn Cancer Institute, discusses the advances in radiotherapy planning and delivery that have reduced cardiac radiation exposure in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer who are treated with radiotherapy and trastuzumab...
Supriya Chopra, MD, of Tata Memorial Centre, discusses a final analysis of the phase III PARCER trial, which showed that image-guided intensity-modulated radiotherapy is superior to conventional radiotherapy in reducing bowel toxicity in women with cervical cancer. Acute diarrhea was also reduced,...
Lauren Thomaier, MD, of the University of Minnesota, discusses the genetic variants found to be associated with an increase in chemotherapy-induced neuropathy symptoms in a cohort of gynecologic cancer survivors. Combining these variants with clinical characteristics may provide an important...
Anne M. Barry-Weers, RN, of Aurora Health Care/Aurora Cancer Care in Milwaukee, discusses strategies that helped patients with cancer to better manage their chemotherapy-related symptoms at home, thus reducing visits to the emergency department and inpatient admissions, and improving treatment...
Marie A. Flannery, PhD, and Eva Culakova, PhD, both of the University of Rochester, discuss a geriatric assessment tool that helped reduce symptomatic toxicities, as measured by Patient-Reported Outcomes Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (Abstract 138).
Monika K. Krzyzanowska, MD, MPH, of the Princess Margaret University Health Network, discusses study findings on remote proactive telephone-based toxicity management for patients with breast cancer receiving chemotherapy. Although the telehealth program was associated with fewer grade 3 toxicities...
Karen Wonders, PhD, of Wright State University, discusses the safety and efficacy of exercise during cancer treatment in minimizing toxicities and addressing the short- and long-term effects of cancer therapy. Dr. Wonders suggests that exercise becomes a standard of care for patients with cancer...
Carryn M. Anderson, MD, of the University of Iowa Hospital, discusses the investigational agent GC4419, previously shown to be safe and effective in decreasing the duration, incidence, and severity of oral mucositis in patients receiving concurrent cisplatin and radiation for oral cavity and...
Hannah L. Rush, MBChB, of the Clinical Trials Unit at University College London, discusses an analysis of the STAMPEDE trial, which showed that patients treated with abiraterone had higher scores in global quality of life as well as in the physical, social, and role function domains and lower...
Karim Fizazi, MD, PhD, of the Institut Gustave Roussy, discusses results from the CARD study, which showed that cabazitaxel improved pain, time to pain progression, and symptomatic skeletal events, as well as quality of life in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. The...
Kevin Tyan, of Kinnos, and currently a medical school student at Harvard University, discusses his study findings, which showed that patients with melanoma who are treated with immunotherapy had a significantly lower risk of developing colitis if they also took vitamin D ( Abstract 89).
Angela M. Stover, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, discusses ASCO’s initiative to develop patient-based performance measures for assessing and managing symptoms. The measures have made substantial differences in reducing nausea, constipation, and insomnia (Abstract 173).
Mark K. Ferguson, MD, of the University of Chicago Hospital, discusses frailty and loss of muscle tissue, which are common among patients with lung cancer. These conditions are linked with decreased survival as well as increased surgical complications, chemotherapy toxicity, and cost of care.
Silke Gillessen, MD, of Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen, discusses data from a phase III study on the incidence of hypocalcemia in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer treated with denosumab. The trial was designed to assess prevention of symptomatic skeletal events with denosumab...
Alok A. Khorana, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, discusses study findings on rivaroxaban thromboprophylaxis in high-risk ambulatory patients, which showed a reduction in venous thromboembolism and related death (Abstract LBA1).
Allison S. Betof Warner, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the rationale for immunotherapy and combination treatments, identifying the agents that lead to toxicities, and ways to manage them.
Eric Roeland, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses the wide variation among physicians in preventing vomiting from highly emetogenic chemotherapy (Abstract 74).
Elizabeth Jane Cathcart-Rake, MD, of the Mayo Clinic, discusses the frequency of side effects from immunotherapy, the need to closely monitor those receiving this treatment, and the role of clinicians in educating their patients on toxicities (Abstract 184).
Thomas Galloway, MD, of Fox Chase Cancer Center, summarizes a session on head and neck cancer that included findings on reducing oral mucositis, improving quality of life with deintensified chemoradiotherapy, and the costs of dose de-escalation (Scientific Session 31).
Caroline Robert, MD, PhD, of Gustave Roussy Cancer Centre, discusses managing toxicities of immunotherapy, including neurotoxicity, and treating beyond acute adverse events.
Paolo A. Ascierto, MD, of Istituto Nazionale Tumori–Fondazione Pascale, discusses the breakthroughs in melanoma treatment and the challenges of managing toxicities, especially endocrine and neurologic side effects, which can require lifetime hormone replacement and may cause permanent dysfunction.
Angela M. Stover, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, discusses study findings on ways to alert clinicians when patients signal symptoms such as pain or diarrhea that may be cause for concern (Abstract 158).
Susan Blumel, RN, BSN, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and Laura J. Zitella, MS, RN, ACNP-BC, AOCN, of Stanford Health Center, discuss immunotherapy, CAR T-cell toxicities, and the principles of team management.
Jun J. Mao, MD, MSCE, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses study findings on the effect of acupuncture vs cognitive behavior therapy in cancer survivors experiencing insomnia (Abstract 10001).
Ryan D. Nipp, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses study findings on electronic symptom monitoring vs usual care to assess whether the intervention, tested in hospitalized patients with advanced cancer, can improve symptom burden and reduce the risk of readmission (Abstract 10005).
David Baraghoshi, of the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, discusses an assessment of cardiovascular risk more than 10 years after diagnosis for colorectal cancer survivors compared with a cancer-free general population cohort (Abstract 113).
Eric Roeland, MD, of the University of California, San Diego, summarizes key papers delivered at the Palliative Care Symposium on managing insomnia, fatigue, nausea, and the ways in which physical therapy and nausea can reduce the side effect burden.
Peter Hoskin, MD, of Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, discusses study findings on single-dose radiotherapy compared with multifraction radiotherapy in patients with metastatic spinal canal compression. (Abstract LBA10004)
Laura E. Panattoni, PhD, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, discusses results from a regional study on emergency department costs during cancer treatment and the need to focus on managing symptoms (Abstract 2).
Ethan M. Basch, MD, of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, discusses programs—now rolling out at various institutions—that use direct patient reporting of symptoms as a part of quality assessment (Posters 61, 81; Abstract 218).
Electra D. Paskett, PhD, of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses an intervention that increased knowledge of lymphedema in breast cancer, and the personal story that drove her research (Abstract 104).
Patricia A. Ganz, MD, of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, summarizes two studies on using duloxetine for aromatase inhibitor–associated musculoskeletal symptoms, and aromatase inhibitors’ effect on endothelial function and heart disease (Abstracts S5-06 and S5-07).
Anne Hudson Blaes, MD, of the University of Minnesota, discusses the association between aromatase inhibitors, endothelial function, and early heart disease (Abstract S5-07).
Jame Abraham, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, discusses findings of the Scalp Cooling Alopecia Prevention trial for patients with early-stage breast cancer (Abstract S5-02).
Brenda M. Sandmaier, MD, of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Sagar Lonial, MD, of Emory University, discuss study findings on sirolimus combined with mycophenolate mofetil and cyclosporine to improve prevention of acute graft-vs-host-disease after unrelated hematopoietic cell...
Jean M. Connors, MD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Julie Vose, MD, MBA, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, discuss a roundup of key findings on a critical area in the treatment of hematologic malignancies (Abstracts 17, 85, 86, 135, 139, 143, 273, 415, 419, 719, 877, 880).
Stephen T. Sonis, DMD, DMSc, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the epidemiology, pathogenesis, and scope of oral complications of radiation therapy.
Joseph A. Greer, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses the development of a mobile application to address treatment adherence and symptoms (Abstract 104).
Tracy A. Balboni, MD, MPH, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, talks about how to preserve quality of life in the presence of complex spinal lesions, including novel ways to assess spinal instability and treat metastases.
Joseph B. Narus, DNP, GNP-BC, ANP, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the impact of cancer treatment on men’s sexual health, and treatment options to improve erectile function.
Mario E. Lacouture, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the effect on patients of dermatologic toxicities associated with targeted therapies: their psychosocial impact, financial burden, physiological pain, and potential to alter therapy. But the side effects of targeted...
Daniel A. Vorobiof, MD, of the Sandton Oncology Centre, and Bernardo Leon Rapoport, MD, of The Medical Oncology Centre of Rosebank, discuss the first study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a single dose of intravenous fosaprepitant. The use of this NK1 inhibitor and another (rolapitant) in a...
Charles F. von Gunten, MD, PhD, of OhioHealth Kobacker House discusses the ROMANA 1 and 2 trials on cachexia in NSCLC and a study on olanzapine vs fosaprepitant for the prevention of nausea and vomiting (Abstracts 9500 and 9502).
Philip Bonomi, MD, of Rush Medical College, summarizes the findings on anamorelin and its use in advanced NSCLC for improvement in anorexia/cachexia symptoms (Abstracts ORAL 29.01, ORAL 29.02).
Eduardo Bruera, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses exciting developments in the assessment and management of cachexia, as well as a number of emerging pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions (Abstract 67).
Lorenzo Cohen, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses nonpharmacologic approaches to symptom control. Techniques such as acupuncture for managing pain and chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, or yoga and meditation to help improve quality of life, can be safely...