Ot Broadcast News

Welcome to the Oncology Times Podcast. Today on the Pod - Why do relatively few leaders live good values consistently? Why are so many people, especially in academic medicine, consumed with values that are emotion-based? We will discuss these ideas and more with Dr. Brian J. Bolwell, the Chairman of the Taussig Cancer Institute and Professor of Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner School of Medicine.  Today Dr. Bolwell revisits his Oncology Times column on “Values” and outlines how to grow from an individual-focused, emotion-based values system to living with more positive values.

In his recurring Oncology Times column “Straight Talk: Today's Cancer Centers,” Brian J. Bolwell, MD dispenses wisdom on how to be a better leader. In this episode, Dr. Bolwell revisits his column “Moments,” and discusses how to foster vulnerability, create psychological safety on a team, and embrace joy.

Audio-reports and interviews done in collaboration with Audio Medica and its founding Editor Peter Goodwin. Audio Medica's Audio Journal of Oncology has been bringing lively listen-in shows to members of the cancer care team in various audio formats since 1992. Scientific Editors are George Canellos, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; J. Gordon McVie, MD, of the European Institute of Oncology and Chair of the Editorial Board of OT's UK Edition; Pat Price, MD, of Christie Hospital, also on the OTUK Editorial Board; and Gianni Bonadonna, MD, of Istituto Nazionale Tumori.

Evangelos Terpos, speaking at the European Hematology Association 2010 Congress in Barcelona, discusses his group's encouraging findings based on 10 years of experience with thalidomide, lenalidomide, and bortezomib.

Speaking at the meeting in Barcelona, Gilles Salles of the University of Lyon discusses the results showing that patients who had achieved remissions after immunochemotherapy had only half the risk of recurrence if they also received rituximab maintenance therapy for two years compared with patients who did not.

Dr. Sekeres, Director of the Leukemia Program at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute and Chair of the Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy & Therapeutics Committee, discusses his particular research interests of myelodysplastic syndromes and acute myelogenous leukemia, including the overlaps between the two in older adults, new opportunities to better define MDS epidemiologically in the US, and new treatment approaches.

Dr. Govindan, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Thoracic Medical Oncology Program at Washington University Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center, elaborates on his article in the April 10 issue about the promise and excitement of the new advances in technology that are now making possible a “panoramic view of the rugged genomic landscape of the cancer cell,” transforming cancer research and treatment.

Lori Pierce on breast-conserving therapy + adjuvant chemotherapy for BRCA 1 & 2 carriers; Annette Heemskerk-Gerritsen on the relationship between contralateral mastectomy & survival; and a recommendation by Ajay Sahu for a "cooling off" period for low-risk patients thinking of having prophylactic contralateral mastectomy.

Oncology Times  Hatem Azim on how pregnancy after breast cancer is safe and possibly protective; Angela Ives on why recent -- but not current -- pregnancy worsens breast cancer prognosis; and Sibylle Loibl on how chemotherapy is not generally hazardous to the fetus. Martine Piccart adds commentary & perspective

John Burn talking at ECCO15-ESMO34 in Berlin about his international study showing that aspirin prevented the development of Hereditary Non-Polyposis Colon Cancer in people genetically at risk for the disease.

Norman Wolmark on the study's frustrating but unequivocal results showing that bevacizumab did not extend disease-free survival in adjuvant therapy for early colon cancer at 3 years, even though there had been a benefit at 1 year. Also weighing in: Nicholas Petrelli

Cornelis van de Velde at ECCO15-ESMO34 on the largest comparison of an aromatase inhibitor with tamoxifen as initial adjuvant therapy for patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer--analysis of results from the TEAM (Tamoxifen Exemestane Adjuvant Multinational) study reported at ECCO15-ESMO34.

Richard Sullivan at ECCO15-ESMO34 on the need for research that is more “trans-national” and funded globally to shift priorities to prevention, surgical innovation and technological development, and creative, “outward branching” thinking. The need, he says, is not just for more investment but for a radical change in thinking and culture.

Mieke Van Hemelrijck at ECCO15-ESMO34 on findings that cardiovascular mortality from heart failure and arrhythmia in addition to ischemic heart disease and myocardial infarction increased among patients treated with endocrine therapy—of whatever type—for their prostate cancer.

Éveline Boucher of Centre Eugene Marquis in France on the encouraging preliminary results of her Phase II open-label study of 101 patients reported at the ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer

Michel Ducreux, Head of the GI Service at Institut Gustave Roussy, talks about the new evidence and its clinical implications, as reported in his Phase II study at the ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer.

Eric Raymond of Beaujon University Hospital in France discusses his study reported at the ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer

Interviewed at the Palm Beach Cancer Symposium, John Macdonald, Chief Medical Officer of Aptium Oncology in Los Angeles, talks about his latest data on the relevance of KRAS tumor status—i.e., whether the gene is wild-type or mutant determines the sensitivity of the tumor to anti-EGF or anti-VEGF receptor therapy. He also discusses the disappointing finding that blocking both of these proliferation pathways does not lead to improved efficacy when two targeted drugs are used in combination.

Also: (1) Feasibility of patients becoming pregnant while having TKI treatment after having stable disease for at least two years; and (2) Decreased need for allogeneic transplant.

Marshall Posner, MD, talking from Palm Beach Cancer Symposium: Increased prevalence of HPV-related oropharyngeal cancers, more responsive to treatment with induction docetaxel, cisplatin, & 5-FU prior to standard chemoradiotherapy.