ASCO’s 2018 Clinical Cancer Advances Report Details Key Advances in Cancer Care

January 30, 2018

World Cancer Day is This Sunday, February 4th

John V. Heymach, MD, Co-Executive Editor of Clinical Cancer Advances 2018

(Alexandria, VA, Tuesday, January 30, 2018) – In the lead up to World Cancer Day, which takes place on Sunday, February 4, 2018, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is releasing its annual report on progress against cancer, Clinical Cancer Advances 2018, on Tuesday, January 30.    

Immunotherapy has revolutionized care for several types of cancer, including advanced lung cancer, which is notoriously difficult to treat. The report highlights a new estimate from ASCO that 250,000 years of life would be saved in the United States with the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (a type of immunotherapy) for lung cancer. One in four patients with newly diagnosed lung cancer and one in 10 with previously treated disease may live 10 years or more beyond diagnosis.

In the report, ASCO names another type of immunotherapy, CAR T-cell therapy as the Advance of the Year. This innovative treatment uses a patient’s own white blood cells, which have been genetically reprogrammed in the lab to fight cancer. In clinical trials, CAR T-cell therapies have sent otherwise incurable blood cancers into remission.  Two such therapies were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2017, marking the first approvals of a gene therapy for cancer.

It is estimated that half of all cancers in the United States could be prevented if people adopted healthy lifestyle choices, including avoiding tobacco and alcohol, exercising and maintaining a healthy weight. The report draws attention to two behaviors that increase cancer risk, particularly among young people: e-cigarette use and indoor tanning.  

Finally, the report highlights key policy issues and developments that will impact the future of U.S. cancer research and the pace of progress.  ASCO urges Congress to give hope to millions of Americans with cancer by continuing to build on its investment in cancer research.  

John V. Heymach, MD, co-executive editor of the report and lung cancer expert, can help listeners understand how the nation’s investment in cancer research has led to decreased cancer rates and better patient care, as well as:

  • How cancer immunotherapies are changing treatment paradigms for lung, bladder and other cancers, and transforming the outlook for patients.
  • New research on cancer risk factors, including the link between alcohol and cancer
  • How new online tools help improve patient care
  • Why federal funding is so important and how it helps make research advances, like many of those featured in the Clinical Cancer Advances report, possible.

Now in its 13th year, Clinical Cancer Advances 2018 is available at:

https://www.asco.org/research-progress/reports-studies/clinical-cancer-advances-2018

It will also be published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

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