In his plenary address as outgoing president of ASCO, Dr. George Sledge proposed that we are on the brink of a new era in cancer therapy – an era of genome-based treatment. He stressed that this new “genomic era” holds great promise for patients, citing as evidence a recent paper in JAMA that described a case in which the results of deep sequencing of a patient’s leukemic cells led to successful individualized therapy.

While overall mastectomy rates have dropped in recent years, more and more women with cancer in 1 breast are opting to have both breasts removed. The trend has left many researchers questioning whether contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) is getting overused, or if it simply reflects a better recognition by both patients and physicians of who is likely to develop breast cancer.

A growing understanding of the biology behind myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) is leading the way to improved treatment options, according to two presentations at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago.

As early as 1932, physicians noticed an apparent association between type 2 diabetes and increased cancer risk. In recent years, the epidemiological evidence of such an association has mounted steadily—especially with the emergence of large databases, which have allowed us to document the link.

Metastatic melanoma maintains a growing presence around the world, and a steady disregard for treatment efforts. But two novel drugs presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago, on Sunday, suggest that medicine might finally be ready to fight back against the deadliest form of skin cancer.

Despite dramatic improvements in survival for children and young adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), treatment failure in the central nervous system remains a constant foe.

Clearly, the realities of current health care economics are bringing to the fore important questions in clinical trial design. Not only does the United States spend far more on health care than other developed countries, with significantly worse outcomes, but the costs of cancer care account for a large and steadily increasing chunk of that spending. One way in which this trend can be curbed—and the money spent on cancer be made to produce more “bang for the buck”—is through changes to our drug development processes.

The picture in 2011 for the community oncologist is dire. Over the past several years many practices have been acquired by hospitals out of duress. Drug delivery has started to change as treatments have evolved, moving away from the high-margin infusion business. But there are still ways to grow a practice and improve the chances of profitability.

At the opening session of ASCO 2011, Dr. Kenneth C. Anderson, the Kraft Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the LeBow Institute for Myeloma Therapeutics and Jerome Lipper Center for Multiple Myeloma at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, was awarded ASCO’s highest award—the David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement in cancer research. Dr. Anderson was honored for his accomplishments in three decades of research in the field of multiple myeloma.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) continues to carry a poor prognosis. However, novel prognostic and potentially predictive biomarkers may soon improve that bleak outlook, according to a series of studies presented on Saturday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago.

At the session on Management of Prostate Cancer in Older Adults: To Treat or not to Treat, Anthony D’Amico, William Dale, and Shabbir Alibhai all lent their clinical expertise in treating prostate cancer to outline the latest recommendations for screening and treating men for prostate cancer.

Live coverage of the ASCO session on PARP inhibitors and DNA repair, with speakers Michael Kastan, Judy Garber, and Elisabeth Plummer.

Dr. Susan O’Brien was one of the presenters at the ASCO 2011 session on therapies for chronic lymphocytic leukemia, in this podcast she gives some highlights of the session and insights into her own work.

ONCOLOGY talks with Dr. David Mankoff, professor of radiology, medicine, and bioengineering in the department of radiology at the University of Washington in Seattle. Dr. Mankoff will be one of the co-chairs at the upcoming ASCO session on molecular imaging in cancer clinical trials, and he gives us a preview of what some of the highlights of the session are likely to be, as well as some insights into his own work.

The study showed that a single HPV test was superior to a single Pap smear for predicting which women would develop cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 3 or cancer within 5 years. Cytology testing only modified the risks only for women who were HPV-positive.