Andrew D. Smith

Right-to-try legislation, which allows dying patients to take investigational medications without approval from the FDA.

The effort to improve outcomes of disadvantaged patients involves every aspect of lung cancer care.

After several decades without a new therapy, the approval of 4 treatments for acute myeloid leukemia over the span of just 4 months is either a total coincidence or an inevitable occurrence.

Frances A. Shepherd, MD, has spent more than 3 decades demonstrating that medical oncology can help patients with lung cancer during all stages of their journey.

John Mendelsohn, MD, served as president of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center for a 15-year period that saw that institution’s size triple and its budget quadruple.

The nanotechnology sector has had its share of disappointments in the arena of oncology therapeutics. Nevertheless, the FDA is reviewing a new drug application for a novel compound and numerous investigational agents are in the pipeline.

Emil J. Freireich, MD, DSc, was the originator of combination chemotherapy, the primary architect of the first cure for a systemic cancer, a major contributor to the cures for half a dozen other systemic cancers and, quite possibly, the man who did the most to transform MD Anderson from a minor facility to one of the world’s leading cancer centers.

After years of regulatory and legal wrangling, the development of biosimilars is starting to advance rapidly in the United States, particularly in the oncology sector where multiple versions of the most widely used cancer drugs are moving forward.

Axitinib was a promising newcomer in the renal cell carcinoma field when it was introduced as a second-line therapy 5 years ago. Now it is being displaced by newer therapies, a development that may serve as a harbinger for the evolution of treatment patterns in other tumor types with a bounty of novel agents.

Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies have already produced clinical trial results that, even by the lofty standards set by emerging immunotherapies, have been stunning.

The ambitious goals of the Cancer Moonshot initiative, now incorporated into the recently enacted 21st Century Cures Act, are generating excitement among oncology leaders.

Two headgear items, a system of applying electromagnetic currents to patients with glioblastoma and a cooling cap for individuals undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, are early entries in the field.

New Mexico Cancer Center has a proud record of innovation—its managing partner helped create the Community Oncology Medical Home model in 2012—but the Albuquerque-based practice has still spent much of the past five years fighting to maintain its independence.

There is some evidence that relatively short treatment courses might also be appropriate for other checkpoint inhibitors approved for treating some cancers, but the data are fairly sparse.

Randomized trials comparing proton beams with standard radiation for the treatment of prostate cancer and other common tumor types are years from completion, but healthcare providers around the nation are betting billions of dollars that the greater accuracy of proton beam therapy will justify the greater costs.

Changes are brewing again in the direct-to-consumer genetic testing industry including developments with the potential to affect the public in the oncology field.

Mortality and morbidity both appear to be declining with the emergence of better antibiotics and growth factors, so hematologists are beginning to consider transplants for patients who were once considered too old or too sickly to endure anything as harsh as a stem cell transplant.

Expert panel members highlight the latest NCCN guideline recommendations.

Elizabeth A. Mittendorf, MD, PhD, differentiates the main types of immunotherapy, highlights some of the most interesting results in breast cancer trials, and discusses why different types of immunotherapy might be appropriate for different types of breast tumors at various stages of development.

Hyman B. Muss, MD, provides expert insight on adjuvant treatment for older patients with breast cancer.

The only therapeutic cancer vaccine ever to win approval from the FDA has repeatedly missed sales projections, plunging the company that developed it into bankruptcy proceedings.

Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, led some of the first trials of gefitinib, the EGFR inhibitor that helped introduce targeted therapies of this important mutation into the treatment landscape of non–small cell lung cancer.

How should oncologists respond when initial treatment of EGFR-mutant or ALK-positive lung cancer with a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) no longer prevents all disease progression?

Although testing for EGFR mutations and ALK rearrangements in patients with NSCLC has become widespread, the time has come to translate into clinical practice next-generation sequencing assays that provide exponentially more information about tumor biology.

Research from Chile suggests that low levels of free testosterone indicate that an apparently low-risk case of prostate cancer will require treatment.

The first time Christina T. Giuliano, MD, saw a digital mammogram, she knew the extra clarity and detail would profoundly improve the diagnostic process.

At the recent National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) 19th Annual Conference, experts discussed this year's updates to the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology. The meeting also included reviews of NCCN Task Force reports on issues in supportive care. We asked eleven NCCN panel members to select the most significant updates and insights presented at the conference.

During the course of a 74-year life cut short by his sudden death in 2008, Folkman changed the world repeatedly with bold ideas that ranged from implantable pacemakers and subcutaneous birth control to an entirely new field of medical study: how diseases like cancer recruit blood vessels from the body via angiogenesis.

Success rates for lumpectomies or mastectomies are high with respect to survival, with up to 98% long-term survival rates for surgery and/or radiotherapy, but what if similar results could be achieved by substituting targeted medications for therapy?

The investigational cancer medications being developed by Stemline Therapeutics attack only a tiny percentage of all tumor cells. But those few cells-the stem cells that resist most treatment and drive tumor growth-may just be the most important ones.