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Blogs

ASCOconnection.org is a forum for the exchange of views on topical issues in the field of oncology. The views expressed in the blogs, comments, and forums belong to the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Please read the Commenting Guidelines.

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I have been in the DC area the past three days and am now heading home to Indianapolis. Tuesday I spent at the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, MD, where I was invited to give Grand Rounds at the NCI. Wednesday I took the Metro down to ASCO Headquarters in Alexandria, VA. Today (...
In the practice of Oncology as well as the whole of Medicine, mentoring relationships are essential. Do you recall some of the mentors that have had the most impact on your training? Your clinical practice? I highly suspect there are some good stories out there!
Every year our Society salutes members with at least 20 years of service to our Society with the ASCO Statesman Award. This year’s 20 awardees, who will be honored at the Annual Meeting, are listed on the ASCO Connection...
In early February, my new patient was a middle-aged woman from here in Silicon Valley with a self-discovered 2 cm right breast mass. Her internist was all over this. She quickly had a core needle biopsy, was evaluated by one of our breast surgeons, and was referred to me for an opinion regarding...
Just a brief note on the FLASCO meeting this past weekend. Our Florida colleagues met at the Tampa Airport Marriott for their annual state society meeting and were kind enough to invite me, for which I am grateful. The meeting was an interesting mix of the medical (...
The TCM cable channel is having a retrospective on the career of Elizabeth Taylor, showing several of her best films from the 1950s. It had been many years since I had seen her and Paul Newman in the film version of Tennessee William’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. She and Newman light up the screen, with...
Many oncologists have probably been following Dr. Peter Bach’s moving and beautifully written series, recently concluded in the New York Times, about his wife Ruth's breast cancer...
What is old, is new again. Off-label use of oncology drugs is common; and has long been the focus of controversy. Payers are often confused by the broad use of a therapeutic across seemingly unrelated diagnoses. They look to the FDA label for guidance on the specific use of a drug. Yet the FDA-...
A few nights ago, I had the pleasure of attending Carnegie Hall in New York City, where I heard a concert by the Toronto Orchestra, with a guest solo by the famed violinist Itzhak Perlman. Perlman was magical, a true delight to listen to. My first thought that night was that God puts certain people...
ASCO and its members, whether we recognize it or not, are in the quality business. Our members, because society has an expectation of a high standard of care from physicians; our Society, because we are charged with helping establish the standards by which our members' claims to quality care are...
As an organization of clinical oncologists, ASCO has a special and lasting interest in the fate of the nation's ...
A couple of weeks ago, I was at the Society of Surgical Oncology meeting in San Antonio. This is always a busy meeting for me—between recruiting new talent, meeting with research collaborators, presenting and hearing the latest data, networking with friends and colleagues, and cheering on mentees...
A few months ago I told you about the Education Committee and its important role in developing an educational program for our...
Leora Horwitz and Allan Detsky published a commentary in the March 16, 2011 issue of JAMA about the pitfalls and promise of modern communication modes entitled Physician Communication in the 21st Century: To Talk or to Text...
Discussions of cancer care begin with science and end with economics and politics. This is true within countries, but is particularly the case when we cross borders. While there is much about cancer that is common everywhere — smoking-induced lung cancer has pretty much the same biology in Beijing...
There is an interesting article by Dr. Pauline Chen in the March 3rd New York Times on the ethics of early phase clinical trials. The article discusses in particular the issue of optimism.
I was recently caught off guard by a couple of simply warm and beautiful days here in Boston—they seemed to be some sort of promise that spring must indeed be coming! The concept of renewal has since been on my mind. No, not the usual items that the term renewal conjures up (you know, licenses,...
You could, I think, write the history of our specialty by looking at the history of our Annual Meeting. Certainly some of the great moments that I recall from past meetings—in the past decade think of imatinib for GIST tumors, adjuvant trastuzumab for breast cancer, and last year’s crizotinib trial...

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