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Rethinking When to Say 'Cancer'

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Rethinking When to Say 'Cancer' ] ] [ News ] Analysis ] Commentary ] Controversy ] September 10, 2013 Vol. 35 No. 17 oncology-times.com ONCOLOGY e 5 Y ars 3 of g P in u t b a l r i s b h e i l n e g IMES C 35 TThe Independent Hem/Onc News Source Rethinking When to Say ‘Cancer’ BY ERIC T. ROSENTHAL aura Esserman, Ian Thompson, Barry Kramer, Richard Schilsky, Otis Brawley, L Robert Mayer, Lynn Schuchter, Mikkael Sekeres, and Ramaswamy Govindan weigh in on the much-discussed JAMA article suggesting that the word “cancer” be eliminated from some diagnoses. Page 16 Large Study Documents: Post-Academia, Mace In Children with Cancer, Central No Increased Risk for Rothenberg Reflects Line Blood Infections More ‘A Fascinating & Lucid Pregnant Women with on His Five Years in Common in Ambulatory vs. Gem of a Book on the New Breast Cancer p.8 Industry p.22 Hospitalized Patients p.23 Biotechnology’ p.36 [ALSO]SHOP TALK ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������3 DANIEL MORGENSZTERN: How I Treat Patients with Metastatic SQCC Lung Cancer ..... 6 Careful Monitoring Urged for Renal Function in Prostate Cancer Patients Receiving ADT .... 20 JAMIE VON ROENN Joins ASCO Staff .......................................... 26 Surveys: Treatment Costs Concern Patients, Burden Practices ........................... 28 Breast Cancer: New Data on Zoledronate & Jaw Osteonecrosis Risk ..................... 29 Lung Cancer Salvage: Added Ganetespib Shows Survival Extension ...................... 32 Richard Wender Becomes ACS’s First ‘Chief Cancer Control Officer’ ..................... 34 Profiles in Oncology Social Media: David L. Graham, MD............................. 37 @OncologyTimes /OncologyTimesNews PERIODICALS ID Statement on page 4 21 ASH Names 2013 Honorific Awardees oncology times he American Society of at Duke University, an attending physician at the Children’s Hematology will present the fol- for her accomplish- Hospital of Philadelphia, for her work in lowing 2013 Honorific Awards ments in the research identify the molecular basis of hemophilia • at the Annual Meeting and of iron homeostasis; and developing novel genetic therapies to TExposition, to be held in December in and to Elaine Jaffe, treat it. She will also present the accompa- september 10, 2013 New Orleans: MD, Head of the nying award lecture, which she has titled • Sir David Weatherall, MD, Hematopathology “Sailing to Ithaca: Gene Therapy’s Odyssey Professor at the University of Oxford, will Section of the from Investigational Agent to Therapeutic receive the Wallace H. Coulter Award for Laboratory of NANCY Product.” Lifetime Achievement in Hematology— Pathology in the ANDREWS, MD, • And, the Ernest Beutler Prize will be the Society’s highest honor—for his more Intramural Program PHD awarded to Kenneth Kaushansky, MD, than 50-year hematology career in research, of the National Senior Vice President leadership, and global health initiatives. Cancer Institute, of Health Sciences With colleagues, Weatherall identified im- for her accomplish- and Dean of the • balanced globin chain production as the ments in lymphoma School of Medicine oncology-times.com cause of thalassemia (essential for improv- research, specifically at Stony Brook ing treatments and prevention strategies). in understanding the University, for his Additional research improved prenatal pathophysiology and advances in hemato- diagnoses and iron chelation therapy. In prognosis of malig- poiesis research, in- ELAINE JAFFE, 2002, Weatherall wrote a report on the nant lymphomas cluding the discovery KENNETH MD application of genomics to global health and how they re- of thrombopoietin; KAUSHANSKY, MD for the World Health Organization. spond to treatment. and to David J. In addition, in 1989, Weatherall es- • The William Kuter, MD, DPhil, tablished the Institute of Molecular Dameshek Prize Director of the Mass Medicine at Oxford (which became the will be awarded to General Cancer MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Andrew S. Weyrich, Hospital Center for Medicine in 2011—following his retire- PhD, Professor Hematology and ment and the University’s partnership with of Pathology and Professor of the Medical Research Council). He was a Internal Medicine Medicine at Harvard founding member of the Nuffield Council at the University ANDREW Medical School, for DAVID J. KUTER, on Bioethics, and in 1992 became the of Utah, for his re- WEYRICH, PHD his work in translat- MD, DPHIL Regius Professor of Medicine Emeritus at search on the cel- ing the understand- the University of Oxford. lular and molecular causes of blood clots. ing of cytokine signaling in “His transformative work unveiling the His work focuses on the role of platelets megakaryopoiesis into clinical practice, molecular basis of inherited hematologic in inflammation and thrombosis, and his which included the discovery of how disorders has established him as a role research identified the mRNA splicing and thrombopoietin increases platelet numbers. model with a legacy that will endure for translational mechanisms that allow plate- Kaushansky and Kuter will also present the future generations of hematologists,” ASH lets to respond to environmental changes. award lecture, titled “Thrombopoietin: President Janis L. Abkowitz, MD, said in • The E. Donnall Thomas Prize will From Molecule to Medicine,” which they a news release. be awarded to Katherine A. High, MD, note will cover the basic biology of throm- • The Henry M. Stratton Medal will a Howard Hughes Medical Institute bopoietin and its effect on stem cells and be awarded to: Nancy Andrews, MD, Investigator, the William H. Bennett megakaryocytes, as well as the clinical de- PhD, Dean of the School of Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics at the University velopment of the recombinant thrombo- O Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs both of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and poietin and its newer receptor agonists. T ➞ADT advanced disease, it is increasingly being December 31, 2008, were followed un- continued from page 20 used in men with less severe forms of til the end of 2009. Patients with acute the cancer, such as in patients with bio- kidney injury were randomly matched equally prone to confounding bias as chemical relapse who have no evidence with up to 20 controls on age, calendar with any observational study. “It is for of metastatic disease. year of prostate cancer diagnosis, and this reason that our models were ad- “Androgen deprivation is often used duration of follow-up. justed for a wide range of potential when indications for its use are not very Odds ratios were adjusted for a wide well defined,” Brooks said. “Men and variety of confounders, including exces- “Given the rarity of their clinicians should take a closer look sive alcohol use, smoking status, obesity, at whether or not they want to head prostate-specific antigen, hypertension, acute kidney injury from down the path of androgen-deprivation coronary artery disease, diabetes, rhythm therapy. disorders, congestive heart failure, and ADT seen in the study, “And, given that the combined therapy number of hospitalizations. it is not surprising that was associated in this study with the high- Azoulay and colleagues previously est risk of kidney injury, that may make reported on ADT and the risk of stroke the connection was not some clinicians a little more cautious in patients with prostate cancer (Eur Urol about moving into combined therapy—in 2011;60:1244-1250), and others have seen earlier.” particular in instances where a clear benefit investigated diabetes and cardiovascular has not been proven.” disease during ADT (Keating et al: JNCI confounders. Overall, we found the ad- 2010;102:39-46 ). justment of potential confounders had a UK Data Used Since these and other studies support an minimal effect on the odds ratios, sug- Medical information for the study was association between the use of ADT and an gesting that confounding did not play a taken from the UK Clinical Practice increased risk of metabolic syndrome and substantial role.” Research Datalink. Men newly diag- cardiovascular diseases, a similar rationale While ADT has generally been re- nosed with nonmetastatic prostate can be postulated for the risk of acute kid- O served for prostate cancer patients with cancer between January 1, 1997, and ney injury, the authors stated. T.
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