Non-Melanoma Skin Cancers: Reviewed Abstracts in Basal Cell and Merkel Cell Carcinoma
June 4th 2014Multiple abstracts on melanoma and skin cancer were reviewed at the ASCO Annual Meeting, with a focus on new treatment approaches in non-melanoma skin cancers, particularly basal cell carcinoma and Merkel cell carcinoma.
How Will This Change Your Management? Ethical Questions Posed by Tumor Genomic Profiling
June 3rd 2014When treating patients, we often ask ourselves how the results of the tests we order will potentially change our management of the patient, or change the way we think about our patient’s disease, or offer information that will enhance our treatment approach.
What It Costs to Be an Oncologist
June 1st 2014One of the most fascinating sessions I attended so far here at ASCO was on payment reform. As a faculty member of a cancer center at a state university, I generally consider myself lucky that I can remain quite sheltered from the financial side of oncology clinical care.
Getting the Most Out of the ASCO Poster Sessions
May 31st 2014It’s Saturday morning, and ASCO is fully underway. I started the morning at the immense poster exhibit hall. Although it is easy to feel intimidated by the size of the room and number of posters, I find that walking the poster hall can actually be one of the most personal and intimate ways to experience the ASCO meeting.
Thoughts on the Annual PLATO Fellows Forum in Breast Oncology
May 31st 2014This morning I attended the Annual PLATO Fellows Forum in Breast Oncology at ASCO. This is a fantastic venue in which oncology trainees can learn about cutting-edge breast cancer management strategies and the frontiers of research.
ASCO: Cetuximab Ups Survival Over Bevacizumab in Colorectal Cancer
June 14th 2013Results from the German AIO KRK-0306 study, FIRE-3, show that the addition of cetuximab (Erbitux) to chemotherapy rather than bevacizumab (Avastin) increased overall survival by nearly 4 months in patients with KRAS wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer.
ASCO: Sorafenib Slows Progression in Advanced Thyroid Cancer
June 10th 2013Data presented at ASCO from the phase III DECISION trial showed treatment with the TKI sorafenib (Nexavar) delayed disease progression by 5 months in patients with metastatic differentiated thyroid cancer that had progressed on radioactive iodine.
ASCO: Vinegar Screening Significantly Reduces Cervical Cancer Mortality
June 7th 2013Biennial visual inspection with acetic acid (vinegar) screening by trained public health workers significantly reduced cervical cancer mortality in a large cluster-randomized controlled trial conducted among thousands of women from poor neighborhoods in Mumbai, India.
ASCO: Frequent Genetic Mutations in Black Women With Breast Cancer
June 7th 2013A single-center study analyzed the frequency of breast cancer susceptibility mutations among black women diagnosed with breast cancer. The findings suggest that broader genetic screening may be beneficial for these women. The study also suggests that family history is not the only criteria by which patients at risk for breast cancer can be identified.
ASCO: Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy by Subtype
June 7th 2013In a study presented at ASCO, a team of researchers used microarrays to characterize 130 triple-negative breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy to see whether certain subtypes are more likely to respond to the treatment.
ASCO: Immunotherapy for Advanced Melanoma
June 6th 2013Building on the landmark studies of the immunotherapeutic agent ipilimumab just a few years back, ASCO 2013 saw the presentation of truly impressive data on two PD1 blockers, as well as noteworthy studies of other immunotherapeutic approaches to advanced melanoma.
ASCO: Updated Analyses Confirm Safety and Efficacy of Ra-223 in CRPC
June 6th 2013Further analyses of data subsets from the ALSYMPCA study of the alpha particle-emitting isotope Ra-223 (Xofigo) were presented at ASCO, providing additional evidence of efficacy and safety of the recently FDA approved therapeutic agent.
ASCO: Pemetrexed Plus Carboplatin No Better Than Bevacizumab-Containing Regimen in NSCLC
June 6th 2013A phase III study, presented at ASCO, comparing pemetrexed and carboplatin with paclitaxel, carboplatin, and bevacizumab failed to find a difference in a composite endpoint of progression-free survival and severe drug-related toxicities in patients with nonsquamous non–small-cell lung cancer.
ASCO: Proteomic Stratification Test Can Help Guide Second-Line Treatment of NSCLC
June 6th 2013A simple serum protein test can help guide treatment decisions between chemotherapy and erlotinib as second-line therapy for patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, according to results of a phase III study presented at ASCO.
ASCO: Adding Curcuminoids to Docetaxel Shows Promise in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer
June 5th 2013Addition of curcuminoids to treatment with docetaxel was well tolerated and showed promise in improving the response rate to docetaxel “in terms of both PSA decrease and objective response” in a phase II trial in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer.