Latest Conference Articles

The American Society of Clinical Oncology kicked off its 49th Annual Meeting with leaders urging all stakeholders in cancer care to vigorously oppose cuts to vital US biomedical research funding.

Richard Pazdur, MD, from the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, emphasizes the importance of adequate data supporting proposals to the FDA for breakthrough therapy designations.

Combining the checkpoint antibodies ipilimumab and nivolumab led to deep tumor regression in approximately one-third of patients with advanced melanoma.

Men with a high level of cardiovascular fitness at middle age had a reduced risk of developing and dying from lung and colorectal cancer later in life.

The novel selective PI3K-delta inhibitor idelalisib produced rapid and prolonged tumor shrinkage in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia who received the drug as a monotherapy.

Active surveillance following radical orchiectomy is an effective treatment strategy for men with stage I seminoma.

Routine follow-up imaging is of limited value in determining whether patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma have experienced a relapse of their disease.

Radiotherapy at a higher-than-standard dose is harmful to patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer who are also getting concurrent and consolidation chemotherapy.

An antibody that targets PD-L1 to unleash the body's immune system has demonstrated a 21% response rate in a phase I study of patients with multiple solid tumors, setting the stage for an advance in immunotherapy with broad implications for treatment.

An estimated 16,000 urologists will be needed to provide specialty care by 2025, but estimates of the number of urologists likely to be in practice at that time range between 6800 and 7400.

The American Urological Association outlines clinical guidelines for sequencing castration-resistant prostate cancer therapies based on six "index patients" each with specific disease characteristics.

The 108th AUA Annual Meeting held May 4-8 in San Diego, California, contained over 2,000 presentations focused on urologic medicine. This entry contains summaries of four abstracts focused on urothelial, testicular, and prostate cancer.

Expectant management, which includes active surveillance and watchful waiting, is widely underused in the treatment of prostate cancer in the United States.

The 108th American Urological Association (AUA) Annual Meeting is being held at the San Diego Convention Center from May 4 - 8, 2013, and features research, guideline updates, and the latest advances in urologic medicine.

Susan F. Slovin, MD, PhD, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, summarizes the development process of an effective immunotherapy for the treatment men with prostate cancer.

Hormonal therapies that target androgen are the focus of several ongoing clinical trials for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer, and as more data accrues, clinicians are gaining valuable insight as to how these drugs can best be used to manage the disease.

Following the recent flurry of FDA approvals for prostate cancer medications, oncologists are grappling with questions about which combinations or sequences of those therapies might improve outcomes for patients.

Leonard G. Gomella, MD, from the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, describes the identification of appropriate surrogate endpoints for the evaluation of new therapies for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

This year marks the 30th Annual Miami Breast Cancer Conference, a milestone for Daniel A. Osman, MD, and his wife Lois, who together launched the gathering in 1983 with fewer than 100 attendees and a focus on the then relatively new domain of lumpectomies in breast cancer treatment.

Donna Shalala, PhD, President, University of Miami, discusses the new healthcare reform in the U.S.

Physicians wondering how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will impact their practices heard a robust defense of the new law from Donna E. Shalala, PhD, on Saturday.

Martine Piccart, MD, PhD, discusses the implications of the HERA trial, which looked at two years compared with one year of trastuzumab after adjuvant chemotherapy in women with HER2-positive breast cancer.

As the genomic era in oncology unfolds, the development of new therapeutics increasingly will involve targeting a range of mutations simultaneously, requiring a "next-generation clinical trials system" to match the advances that technology is delivering.

Two large clinical trials are expected to define the impact that employing genomic tests in treatment decisions has on survival outcomes, according to Martine J. Piccart, MD, PhD.

Oncology leaders are bracing for a host of changes in the healthcare system, not only as a result of the recently upheld insurance reform legislation but also because of continued pressure to control the ever-rising cost of cancer care.

Lisa A. Carey, MD, Professor of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, discusses the field of psycho-oncology.

Burnout is described as a syndrome of "emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feelings of low personal accomplishment," and is an increasingly problematic condition among physicians for a multitude of reasons.

The incidence of adverse effects with regorafenib in metastatic colorectal cancer is highest during the first treatment cycle and then diminishes over time.

Hope S. Rugo, MD, at the University of California, San Francisco, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the standard for front-line chemotherapy in patients with breast cancer.

An interview with Debu Tripathy, MD, summarizing noteworthy results from the 2012 ASCO Annual Meeting and SABCS, including clinical studies in local, adjuvant, and metastatic breast cancer therapies.