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March 9, 2021
Just Diagnosed with Advanced Lung Cancer: What Now?
With:A new cancer diagnosis is overwhelming. Patients often ask their doctors, “What would you do if you were me?” Here, our Curious Dr. George asks lung cancer expert Howard (Jack) West, MD, how he would handle his own diagnosis of advanced lung cancer. Dr. West is a Princeton- and Harvard-educated oncologist with additional training and experience in Boston and Seattle focusing on lung cancer.… Read more »
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September 1, 2020
Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC)—An OverviewBookmark
George Lundberg, MDCurated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes:
Small cell lung cancer is a common, particularly deadly form of lung cancer. If you wish to learn more, this authoritative encyclopedic discussion from Medscape should be very useful (written with a physician audience in mind).
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August 15, 2020
NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology: 2020 UpdatesBookmark
George Lundberg, MDArticle from The ASCO Post curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes:
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) recently made key updates to its clinical practice guidelines. This news story provides a summary of the updates.
Go to full news story published by The ASCO Post.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
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August 7, 2020
FDA Approves Merck’s Keytruda, Foundation Medicine CDx for TMB-High Solid TumorsBookmark
George Lundberg, MDArticle from GenomeWeb curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the drug pembrolizumab (brand name Keytruda) for solid tumors based solely on whether they have a high tumor mutational burden—a high number of changes in the DNA of the cancer cells.
Go to full article published by GenomeWeb.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
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August 7, 2020
Expert on Emergence of Osimertinib, New Discoveries in Lung Cancer CareBookmark
George Lundberg, MDArticle from Cancer Network curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes:
The drug osimertinib (brand name Tagrisso) is beneficial as an adjuvant therapy—treatment given in addition to tumor-removal surgery—for patients with stage IB–IIIA non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that has a mutation in the EGFR gene.
Go to full article published by Cancer Network.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
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May 30, 2020
FDA Approves Frontline Atezolizumab for PD-L1–High NSCLCBookmark
George Lundberg, MDArticle from OncLive curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved another new drug for people with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumors that have high levels of a protein called PD-L1.
Go to full article published by OncLive.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
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Friend of a gastric cancer patient
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February 21, 2020
Comprehensive Molecular Testing Needed for Stage IV Lung Cancer
With:A Q&A with David Spigel, MD, Chief Scientific Officer, Director of the Lung Cancer Research Program, and Principal Investigator at Sarah Cannon Research Institute. Email: dspigel@tnonc.com Q: You are an expert medical oncologist with particular interest in lung cancer. The various forms of lung cancer are serious diagnoses, all potentially lethal malignancies. There are theoretical, investigational, and clinical justifications to perform molecular testing of… Read more »
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December 3, 2020
Léon C. van Kempen, PhD, on a Successful Molecular Tumor Board in NSCLCBookmark
George Lundberg, MDThis article from MedPage Today discusses recent study findings demonstrating that patients with complex cases of non-small cell lung cancer can benefit from the insights of a molecular tumor board.
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August 15, 2020
FDA OKs Liquid Biopsy to Identify EGFR-Positive Lung CancerBookmark
George Lundberg, MDArticle from MedPage Today curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a liquid biopsy test (a type of biopsy that uses a blood draw instead of surgery) for detecting whether patients have EGFR mutations in their metastatic lung tumors, which could help guide treatment options.
Go to full article published by MedPage Today.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
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October 22, 2018
Liquid Biopsy IDs More NSCLC Mutations, Yields Patient Therapy Response in Study of Guardant TestBookmark
Emma Shtivelman, PhDExcerpt:
“New data this week has added evidence for the value of blood-based cancer testing in non-small cell lung cancer, demonstrating in a cohort of about 300 that comprehensive liquid biopsy — in this case Guardant Health’s Guardant360 test — can help identify targeted mutations in more patients than tissue sequencing.
“The study also found that patients treated on the basis of blood-based test results respond to treatment similarly to those treated based on tissue test results.”
Go to full article published by GenomeWeb on Oct 12, 2018.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
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August 22, 2018
Study Describes Design, Validation of Foundation Medicine’s Blood-Based TMB TestBookmark
Emma Shtivelman, PhDExcerpt from GenomeWeb:
“Researchers from Genentech, Foundation Medicine, UC Davis, and other medical centers, have published a report on the development and early validation of Foundation’s planned blood-based tumor mutational burden test.
“Appearing today in Nature Medicine, the study describes the development of the test and its characteristics, and its retrospective validation in two cohorts. Investigators demonstrated, by applying the assay to samples from two clinical trials, that blood-based TMB (bTMB) could reproducibly identify lung cancer patients who respond to immunotherapy treatment with Roche/Genentech’s atezolizumab (Tecentriq).”
Go to full article published by GenomeWeb on Aug 4, 2018 (Free registration required).
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
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January 16, 2018
Targetable Mutations in NSCLC: More Testing Needed!
Emma Shtivelman, PhDDiagnosis of adenocarcinoma of the lung, a major subtype of non-small lung cancer (NSCLC), nowadays triggers mandatory testing of tumor tissue for alterations in four genes: EGFR, ALK, ROS1, and more recently, BRAF. If present, these alterations predict sensitivity to specific targeted drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that work better and often longer than standard chemotherapy, and are better… Read more »
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Some of the most promising new treatments for metastatic lung cancer are currently being tested in patients enrolled in clinical trials. We help you stay up to date on the latest results from these studies.
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July 31, 2018
Promising Updates from Clinical Trials for Small Cell Lung Cancer
Emma Shtivelman, PhDTreatment of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) has not changed much in the last 20 years. This cancer is truly one of the most difficult to treat. Even though the response rate to standard first-line chemotherapy with cisplatin and etoposide is relatively high, relapses and recurrences within months of treatment completion are practically universal, and there are no second-line treatments that really work. There… Read more »
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August 15, 2020
Lung cancer at ASCO20 VirtualBookmark
George Lundberg, MDResearch highlight from Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes:
This year’s virtual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology featured presentations on several different targeted therapies that appear to provide improved outcomes for lung cancer patients.
Go to full research highlight published by Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
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June 24, 2019
Regional Delivery of Mesothelin-Targeted CAR T-Cell Therapy Creates a Win for Solid TumorsBookmark
Emma Shtivelman, PhDExcerpt:
“In patients with malignant pleural disease, autologous mesothelin-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy demonstrated clinical benefit with no significant toxicity, outcomes that may be due to the regional delivery of the CAR T cells to the intrapleural cavity rather than conventional systemic delivery. The phase I trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02414269) results were presented at the 2019 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, held March 29–April 3 in Atlanta, Georgia (abstract CT036).”
Go to full article published by Cancer Network on April 10, 2019.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
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December 12, 2018
Aggressive RT, Surgery Doubles OS in NSCLC With Limited MetsBookmark
Emma Shtivelman, PhDExcerpt:
“Aggressive local consolidation in stage IV non-small lung cancer (NSCLC) drastically improved overall survival over standard care in patients with up to three metastatic lesions, a small randomized study found.
“Among 49 patients whose disease had not progressed after initial systemic therapy, overall survival was 41.2 months in those treated with radiotherapy or surgery compared with 17.0 months in those on standard maintenance therapy (P=0.017), reported Daniel Gomez, MD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, at a press briefing here at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) meeting.”
Go to full article published by MedPage Today on Oct 22, 2018.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
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October 22, 2018
Pembrolizumab Plus Chemotherapy Prolongs OS, PFS for Metastatic Lung CancerBookmark
Emma Shtivelman, PhDExcerpt from Healio:
“The addition of pembrolizumab to chemotherapy extended OS and PFS compared with chemotherapy alone among patients with metastatic, squamous, non-small-cell lung cancer, according to results of the randomized phase 3 KEYNOTE-407 trial presented at International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer’s World Conference on Lung Cancer.
“The double-blind study included 559 treatment-naive patients with metastatic, squamous NSCLC. Patients who had symptomatic central nervous system metastases, a history of noninfectious pneumonitis that required the use of glucocorticoids, active autoimmune disease or who were receiving systemic immunosuppressive treatment were excluded.”
Go to full article published by Healio on Oct 1, 2018.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
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October 1, 2018
Repotrectinib Shows Promising Activity in ROS1+ NSCLCBookmark
Emma Shtivelman, PhDExcerpt from OncLive:
“Repotrectinib (TPX-0005) demonstrated a clinically meaningful and durable benefit across multiple doses in patients with ROS1 fusion–positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
“Overall response rates (ORRs) were 80% for tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI)-naïve patients (95% CI, 44-97) and 18% for TKI-refractory patients (95% CI, 4-44), including 33% for those who received a dose of 160 mg once daily, according to findings from the ongoing phase I/II TRIDENT-1 study. Interim analysis results were presented at the 19th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC).”
Go to full article published by OncLive on Sep 24, 2018.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
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Tony Blau, MD
University of Washington
Cancer affects many aspects of life, whether you’re newly diagnosed, in the midst of treatment, or in follow-up care. Learn about ways to maintain quality of life, such as palliative care and managing side effects.
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October 14, 2019
Pediatric Palliative Care: A Specialty Comes of Age
For a child with cancer, palliative care can provide much-needed relief from stress and symptoms—for the patient and their family alike. Palliative care is given alongside cancer treatment, and is not synonymous with “end-of-life” care. In fact, anyone with a serious illness can benefit from palliative care, no matter their long-term outlook. Because of its importance for children with cancer, we are honored to… Read more »
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February 11, 2020
‘Impressed With Impact’ of Ketamine in Cancer Palliative CareBookmark
George Lundberg, MDArticle from Medscape curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes:
Depression is, for obvious reasons, common in patients with advanced cancer. The old, inexpensive drug ketamine—already approved for medical use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—seems rapidly effective, according to small studies.
Go to full article published by Medscape.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
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October 7, 2019
Emphasizing Oncogeriatrics
With:A Q&A with Nicolò Matteo Luca Battisti, MD, Medical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom, and Chair of the Young Interest Group of the International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG); nicolo.battisti@gmail.com Q: Everyone knows that the practice of pediatric oncology is very different from adult oncology. How does the growing field of oncogeriatrics differ from usual adult oncology? A:… Read more »
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December 3, 2018
Best Uses of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in Patients with Cancer
With:A Q&A with Val Jones, MD, Medical Director of Admissions, Saint Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute, Spokane, WA Originally published February 1, 2017 Q: Your principal practice in Spokane, Washington is physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R). What do you find to be the best uses of PM&R in patients with cancer at your facility? A: Rehabilitation medicine is one of the best-kept secrets in healthcare. Although the… Read more »
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September 14, 2018
Huge Progress in Palliative Care
With:A Q&A with Diane E. Meier, MD, FACP, Director, Center to Advance Palliative Care; Professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; New York, NY; diane.meier@mssm.edu Originally published November 8, 2017 Q: You wrote in MedGenMed in 2007 that palliative care was the job of all hospitals. In October 2017 you were honored at the National Academy of Medicine for… Read more »
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July 23, 2018
Cancer Pain and the Opioid Epidemic
George Lundberg, MDA Q&A with Kevin Sevarino, MD, PhD, President-elect of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry and Consulting Psychiatrist at Gaylord Hospital in Wallingford, CT Q: Opioid abuse, addiction, and overdose are huge American problems right now. Many cancer patents experience chronic pain. What is the best way to use opioids to manage chronic pain? [Note: The views expressed below represent the opinion of the author,… Read more »
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Learn more about what’s new in advanced cancer research and treatment, including screening and statistics, using artificial intelligence to improve treatment, and other new horizons in cancer care.
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April 7, 2021
Rankings of Most Common and Deadly Cancer Types Will Shift Over Next Two Decades
In the next two decades, rankings of incidence and death across cancer types will undergo important changes in the U.S., according to new research led by Lola Rahib, PhD, Director of Scientific and Clinical Affairs at Cancer Commons, as well as the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) in collaboration with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Published today in JAMA Network Open,… Read more »
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March 29, 2021
Can Really Big Data Inform Precise Decisions for Individual Patients?
With:New technologies are transforming cancer research. By optimizing research protocols and leveraging data more efficiently and intelligently, these tools hold the promise to improve personalized cancer care. Here, our Curious Dr. George asks Matvey B. Palchuk, MD, MS, FAMIA, VP of Informatics at TriNetX, LLC, about the capabilities of his company’s platform. Curious Dr. George: Translational medicine has evolved to include personalized medicine and… Read more »
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November 10, 2020
How to Learn About Cancer in a Classroom: Shaping Compassionate Doctors
With:The patients and caregivers we serve here at Cancer Commons rely on their doctors to provide expert, compassionate care. Building the skills to give such care can begin early in a doctor’s education. Here, for a change of pace, our Curious Dr. George asks a future doctor about a unique experience that helped her learn how to connect with cancer patients. Marin Langlieb is… Read more »
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September 9, 2020
Is Cancer the Best Way to Die?
With:In 2014, the prestigious medical research journal The BMJ published a controversial piece called “Dying of cancer is the best death.” Here, our Curious Dr. George asks the author of that piece, Richard Smith, CBE, FMedSci, if and how his thoughts on death have since evolved. Dr. Smith was Editor of The BMJ from 1991 to 2004 and is currently Chair of the Lancet Commission… Read more »
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August 21, 2020
The Power of Precision Medicine is Exemplified by Tempus
With:Tempus—a tech company & partner of Cancer Commons—empowers doctors to make data-driven decisions for their patients in real time. Learn how.
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June 29, 2020
Cancer Screening Programs Influence Incidence and Causes of Cancer DeathsBookmark
Lola Rahib, PhDArticle from ASCO Daily News curated by Director of Scientific and Clinical Affairs, Lola Rahib, PhD.
In collaboration with MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, Cancer Commons presented new research at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)’s virtual 2020 meeting. The findings show that, by 2040, we will likely see notable changes in which cancer types are most common and which are most deadly, highlighting the influence of cancer screening programs. This research was led by Dr. Rahib at Cancer Commons.
Go to full article published by ASCO Daily News.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
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The coronavirus pandemic presents unprecedented challenges to cancer patients. We can help you understand how COVID-19 might impact your treatment and other aspects of your cancer care.
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June 10, 2020
How I Cope with the Tsunami of Cancer and COVID-19 Info
With: Kevin Knopf, MD, MPHOncologists worldwide face the challenge of staying on top of the latest treatments, research findings, and other information that could help them treat their patients more effectively. Now, they must do so in the context of COVID-19. Here, our Curious Dr. George asks Kevin Knopf, MD, MPH, Division Chief of Hematology/Oncology at Highland Hospital/Alameda Health Systems in Oakland, California, how he keeps up. Dr.… Read more »
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February 20, 2021
COVID-19 Vaccination: The VOICE for Patients with CancerBookmark
George Lundberg, MDThis piece from the scientific journal Nature Medicine describes a new clinical trial studying vaccination against COVID-19 specifically in patients with cancer.
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February 20, 2021
Patients with Cancer Less Likely to Enroll in Clinical Trials Due to COVID-19Bookmark
George Lundberg, MDFewer patients with cancer may be willing to enter a clinical trial. This Cancer Network article explains why and offers solutions.
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February 20, 2021
NCI-Supported Clinical Trials for CoronavirusBookmark
George Lundberg, MDThis list from the National Cancer Institute outlines many government-supported clinical trials for COVID-19 that may be specifically for cancer survivors.
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February 20, 2021
What Cancer Survivorship Can Teach Us About COVID-19Bookmark
George Lundberg, MDCancer survivors and (especially long) COVID-19 survivors may have a lot in common, as outlined in this opinion piece from STAT.
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August 7, 2020
Clinical Trials Gone VirtualBookmark
George Lundberg, MDArticle from GenomeWeb curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes:
During the COVID-19 pandemic, some clinical trials have gone virtual.
Go to full article published by GenomeWeb.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
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