Oncology Times - OncTimes Talk

Lori Pierce on breast-conserving therapy + adjuvant chemotherapy for BRCA 1 & 2 carriers; Annette Heemskerk-Gerritsen on the relationship between contralateral mastectomy & survival; and a recommendation by Ajay Sahu for a "cooling off" period for low-risk patients thinking of having prophylactic contralateral mastectomy.

Hatem Azim on how pregnancy after breast cancer is safe and possibly protective; Angela Ives on why recent -- but not current -- pregnancy worsens breast cancer prognosis; and Sibylle Loibl on how chemotherapy is not generally hazardous to the fetus. Martine Piccart adds commentary & perspective.

Prof Giuseppe Saglio of the University of Turin and San Luigi Gonzaga Hospital in Italy on nilotinib as a new standard of care for chronic myeloid leukaemia. ASH President Nancy Berliner of Brigham & Women's Hospital adds her thoughts. Jorge Cortes of M. D. Anderson Cancer Center on three different ASH papers by his group looking at alternatives to standard imatinib in CML. Jane Apperley of Hammer...

George Canellos on aggressive chemotherapy's failure to benefit patients with high-risk B-cell lymphoma. Massimo Martelli of University of Perugia on infused donor T-regulatory cells to prevent graft-vs-host-disease in patients with leukemia & lymphoma; comments from Armand Keating of the University of Toronto. Mathias Rummel of University Hospital in Germany on using bendamustine rather than CHOP...

George Canellos : Raising the curtain on ASH 2009. Jorge Cortes , M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, on omacetaxine for CML patients with resistance to imatinib caused by the T 315I mutation; Commentary from Jane Apperley of Imperial College and Dr. Canellos . Srdan Verstovsek , also of M. D. Anderson, on JAK signaling inhibition as a treatment for myelofibrosis; Commentary from Richard Larson of Unive...

George Canellos , What’s hot from the ASH Plenary Session. Maria-Victoria Mateos of Salamanca University in Spain on melphalan as the better partner drug for bortezomib in multiple myeloma; Commentary Dr. Canellos and Jesus San-Miguel , also of Salamanca, and Richard Van Etten of Tufts University. Steven Devine of Ohio State University on T-cell depletion to avoid GVHD in AML; commentary from Dr....

Cornelis van de Velde at ECCO15-ESMO34 on the largest comparison of an aromatase inhibitor with tamoxifen as initial adjuvant therapy for patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer--analysis of results from the TEAM (Tamoxifen Exemestane Adjuvant Multinational) study reported at ECCO15-ESMO34.

John Burn talking at ECCO15-ESMO34 in Berlin about his international study showing that aspirin prevented the development of Hereditary Non-Polyposis Colon Cancer in people genetically at risk for the disease.

Mieke Van Hemelrijck at ECCO15-ESMO34 on findings that cardiovascular mortality from heart failure and arrhythmia in addition to ischemic heart disease and myocardial infarction increased among patients treated with endocrine therapy—of whatever type—for their prostate cancer.

Norman Wolmark on the study's frustrating but unequivocal results showing that bevacizumab did not extend disease-free survival in adjuvant therapy for early colon cancer at 3 years, even though there had been a benefit at 1 year. Also weighing in: Nicholas Petrelli

Richard Sullivan at ECCO15-ESMO34 on the need for research that is more “trans-national” and funded globally to shift priorities to prevention, surgical innovation and technological development, and creative, “outward branching” thinking. The need, he says, is not just for more investment but for a radical change in thinking and culture.

Éveline Boucher of Centre Eugene Marquis in France on the encouraging preliminary results of her Phase II open-label study of 101 patients reported at the ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer

Michel Ducreux , Head of the GI Service at Institut Gustave Roussy, talks about the new evidence and its clinical implications, as reported in his Phase II study at the ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer.

Eric Raymond of Beaujon University Hospital in France discusses his study reported at the ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer

New research for advanced NSCLC showing that combining monoclonal antibodies and chemotherapy can extend life: OTBN Editor Peter Goodwin and Producer Sarah Maxwell talk to Robert Pirker , Christian Manegold , Giorgio Scagliotti , Nick Thatcher , and Howard Sandler, MD . PLUS: Michel Coleman on the latest findings from the CONCORD study of international differences in survival rates for breast, pro...

Peter Goodwin talks to key investigators Francesco Zaja (on rituximab for ITP); Hannes Wandt (on how platelet transfusions may be able to be withheld in certain patients receiving stem cell transplants for hematologic cancers); and Michael Hallek and Tadeusz Robak (on improved benefits for CLL patients with rituximab added to standard chemotherapy). Offering perspective are Kenneth Kaushansky , Li...

Greater Role for Umbilical Cord Blood in Adult Transplants ( Mary Eapen , commentary from Armand Keating ). Ex Vivo Expansion of Cord Blood Derived Progenitor Cells: Patient Transplant Data ( Colleen Delaney , commentary from Armand Keating ). Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agents in Cancer Patients: Meta-Analysis Mortality Findings ( Julia Bohlius , commentary from Linda Burns and George Canellos )....

Silvia Novello and Giorgio Scagliotti on harnessing insulin-like growth factor receptor inhibition in a Phase II study that showed clinical activity of figitumumab to be at least as good as that of inhibitors of other growth factors already being used in cancer.

Todd Tuttle from University of Minnesota & Abram Recht from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on the surprisingly big recent increase in the use of prophylactic bilateral mastectomy for DCIS.

Paddy Stone of St. George's Hospital, University of London, & David Cella from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine about the effective use of questionnaires for assessing, screening, and perhaps diagnosing cancer-related fatigue syndrome.

Stanley H. Winokur, MD , on his clever, fun, and ever-evolving one-minute daily Internet quiz that lets oncologists test their knowledge & compete against others. TheSmartestOncologist.com

Also from the Palm Beach Cancer Symposium, Kathy Albain, MD , talks about the St. Gallen consensus meeting’s updated recommendations about adjuvant therapy for breast cancer—i.e., endorsing the 21-gene recurrence score and 70-gene profiling assay as key tools in decision-making for chemotherapy for ER-positive disease.

Marshall Posner, MD , talking from Palm Beach Cancer Symposium: Increased prevalence of HPV-related oropharyngeal cancers, more responsive to treatment with induction docetaxel, cisplatin, & 5-FU prior to standard chemoradiotherapy.

Also: (1) Feasibility of patients becoming pregnant while having TKI treatment after having stable disease for at least two years; and (2) Decreased need for allogeneic transplant.

Interviewed at the Palm Beach Cancer Symposium, John Macdonald , Chief Medical Officer of Aptium Oncology in Los Angeles, talks about his latest data on the relevance of KRAS tumor status—i.e., whether the gene is wild-type or mutant determines the sensitivity of the tumor to anti-EGF or anti-VEGF receptor therapy. He also discusses the disappointing finding that blocking both of these proliferati...