Healing Hope and Survivorship

Last weekend, I attended the 2018 Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey's Survivor's Day. Over the past 10 years, I have attended a number of Survivor Day events and heard many wonderful advocate/speakers from Valisia LeKae to C Vivian Stringer to Bruce Feiler.

This year the keynote speaker was survivor, physician and cancer advocate Wendy S. Harpham (http://www.wendyharpham.com/). During her keynote speech I found myself shaking my head in agreement. You see she was talking about hope - Healing Hope in particular - an  how we can be healthy survivors. 

Many of the points she made were part of her latest book- Healing Hope Through and Beyond Cancer. As part of the day, we were each given a copy of the book to take home. The book includes graphics to describe each topic.

Over the past few days I have been working my way through the book. This page, Don't Wait and See ... Live and See, is one that I felt really spoke to those of us survivors who worry as we wait for scan results.

"I have today.While waiting for news or anything else I'll live and see"

Great advice!

If you are a survivor or a caregiver I strongly recommend that you purchase a copy. You can find it on Amazon by visiting here.

Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!

#ASCO18 Twitter Highlights June 4, 2018

Many gyn cancer research topics as well as survivorship issue  were covered on Monday at the ASCO Annual Meeting.

If you were at the meeting and think I missed any important developments please share a link to it in my comments section below.

Genetics / Genetics Counseling

Excellent overview by Dr. Walsh on genetic counseling and testing of gyn cancer patients #ASC018 #GynCSM pic.twitter.com/cwUN4TUA5u

— Annie Ellis (@Stigetta) June 4, 2018

C. Walsh - Detection of variants of uncertain significance increases with the use of panel #genetictesting - important to continue study to indentify if these are benign or malignant #gyncsm #ASCO18 pic.twitter.com/qF8Anr5tUU

— Shannon Westin (@ShannonWestin) June 4, 2018

Do you know the difference between germline and somatic mutation? Dr. Shannon Westin (@MDAndersonNews) describes it here #ASCO18 pic.twitter.com/Za33XoVy8U

— Rivkin Center (@RivkinCenter) June 3, 2018

C. Walsh - Detection of variants of uncertain significance increases with the use of panel #genetictesting - important to continue study to indentify if these are benign or malignant #gyncsm #ASCO18 pic.twitter.com/qF8Anr5tUU

— Shannon Westin (@ShannonWestin) June 4, 2018

It’s all relative. In those patients with BRCA mutations, how do you counsel—what is the weight of 1-3% risk? #gyncsm #ASCO18 pic.twitter.com/FKGimKJOTu

— Elizabeth L. Dickson, MD, FACOG (@edicksonMD) June 4, 2018

Risk Reducing Surgery

Kauff presentation on prophylactic risk reducing surgery. #ASC018 #GynCSM pic.twitter.com/cfWhu9h60W

— Annie Ellis (@Stigetta) June 4, 2018

Dr. Noah Kauff suggests consideration of when risk reducing surgery is performed for #OvarianCancer depending on the gene mutation -#BRCA or other Gene's #ASCO18 #gyncsm pic.twitter.com/7epWkyWaEA

— Rivkin Center (@RivkinCenter) June 4, 2018

#ASCO2018 Dr Noah Kauff recommends delayed risk-reducing surgery in the more moderate penetrance genes for #BreastCancer and #OvarianCancer. This allows pts to complete childbearing and avoid early #menopause #gyncsm pic.twitter.com/SaQWcdJ6az

— Shannon Westin (@ShannonWestin) June 4, 2018

CA-125

CA 125 in high risk women—It is really about trends over time, rather than a snapshot. #gyncsm #ASCO18 pic.twitter.com/wtZhY55MdU

— Elizabeth L. Dickson, MD, FACOG (@edicksonMD) June 4, 2018

Endometriosis and Cannibis Treatment

Fascinating presentation by Dr. Spirtos on history, politics and research of medical cannabis. Interesting research on endometriosis. #ASC018 #GynCSM pic.twitter.com/061D9b416h

— Annie Ellis (@Stigetta) June 4, 2018

Mindfulness

Wonderful presentation on Mindfulness by Deanna Teoh! Potential to increase ability to cope and reduce stress. More studies needed. #ASCO18 #GynCSM pic.twitter.com/0aChLrP3SK

— Annie Ellis (@Stigetta) June 4, 2018

Neuropathy

Fantastic presentation by Thomas Smith on ongoing research and strategies to prevent and treat neuropathy. #ASC018 #GynCSM pic.twitter.com/mXRAcoGImz

— Annie Ellis (@Stigetta) June 4, 2018

Chemotherapy induced neuropathy....we need to find better support for patients #gyncsm #ASCO18 pic.twitter.com/fJgD17LPUV

— Elizabeth L. Dickson, MD, FACOG (@edicksonMD) June 4, 2018

Patient Reported Outcomes- Pain

Thomas Smith: well-managed pain and symptoms increase survival. #ASC018 #GynCSM pic.twitter.com/dWTkLTfTjo

— Annie Ellis (@Stigetta) June 4, 2018

Enodmetrial Cancer- Posters

Endometrial cancer posters from #ASC018 #GynCSM pic.twitter.com/fWJJNYXTcz

— Annie Ellis (@Stigetta) June 4, 2018

Ovarian Cancer - Posters

Here are a couple of ovarian cancer posters from #ASCO18 #GynCSM pic.twitter.com/q527sOfdmm

— Annie Ellis (@Stigetta) June 4, 2018

Fertility Preservation

Full ASCO guideline on fertility preservation in patients with cancer available at https://t.co/8dT4UXd7W4 #ASCO18 https://t.co/Pne3F41UCO

— Brittany Harvey (@BrittanyEHarvey) June 4, 2018

Metformin in Cancer Treatment

Understanding why metformin could be useful in obesity related cancers #ASCO18 pic.twitter.com/iyMiN1Hypz

— Elizabeth L. Dickson, MD, FACOG (@edicksonMD) June 4, 2018

HIPEC

Shout out to @drleslie214 presenting her #ASCO/AACR vail project #HIPEC dose escalation for primary treatment of #OvarianCancer at #ASC018 pic.twitter.com/KeIpN27AK5

— Alpa Nick (@AlpaNick) June 4, 2018

Palliative Care

Early Palliative care interventions improve survival. Need to take away the stigma of the word “Palliative”. It is NOT just end of life care!! #gyncsm #ASCO18 pic.twitter.com/uObYcdjAMk

— Elizabeth L. Dickson, MD, FACOG (@edicksonMD) June 4, 2018

Recurrent Ovarian Cancer

What should the algorithm for recurrent #ovariancancer treatment be? BRCA mutation status very important. Cost may be too—stay tuned for tomorrow’s plenary! #gyncsm #ASCO18 pic.twitter.com/9tVgmEULRj

— Elizabeth L. Dickson, MD, FACOG (@edicksonMD) June 4, 2018

Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy - OC

SCORPION trial @ASCO shows equivalency btwn primary surgery and neoadjuvant chemo for advanced bulky ovarian cancer both with good outcomes (PFS,OS)

— Douglas Levine MD (@levinemd) June 4, 2018

 Further details may be found at 

https://meetinglibrary.asco.org/record/160515/abstract

Cediranib and Olaparib for recurrent OC

Dr. Joyce Liu presented exciting data today on combined cediranib and olaparib for recurrent ovarian cancer at #ASCO18. Very promising responses in both platinum sensitive and resistant cancers.

— Ursula Matulonis, MD (@DrMatulonis) June 4, 2018

Further info may be found at

https://meetinglibrary.asco.org/record/160525/abstract

Thank you to all the researchers , advocates, and cancer centers who tweeted from this year's Annual Meeting.

Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!


 
-->

#ASCO18 Twitter Highlights June 3, 2018

What do you do on a windy, cloudy, raining Sunday in NJ?
Follow tweets from the ASCO of course.

My Twitter news stream was filled with comments on these two non-gyn cancer studies.

Breast Cancer -
The Adjuvant Chemo and 21 Gene Expression Assay study reported at ASCO by Dr J Sparano may be found in this NJEM article https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa1804710.
"Investigators “found that gene tests on tumor samples were able to identify women who could safely skip chemotherapy and take only a drug that blocks the hormone estrogen or stops the body from making it.” From the ASCO Cancer in the News e-mail  .

Lung Cancer - Keytruda Study (Pembroluzimab)
Keytruda "boosts the immune system outperforms chemotherapy in fighting advanced lung cancer, a new trial shows. Keytruda (pembrolizumab) extended life four to eight months longer than chemotherapy in lung cancer patients whose immune systems had been duped by their cancer cells.
"This trial shows that pembrolizumab used alone improves survival as opposed to chemotherapy," said lead researcher Dr. Gilberto Lopes, a medical oncologist with the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Health System." From HealthDay / ASCO Cancer in the News e-mail.
https://consumer.healthday.com/cancer-information-5/lung-cancer-news-100/cancer-drug-keytruda-a-new-weapon-against-advanced-lung-tumors-734492.html

Lopes: KN-042 ph3 of pembro alone v doublet chemo for 1st line squam or non-squam NSCLC w/PD-L1 1% or higher. OS signif better w/pembro, though HR for OS in PD-L1 1-49% no better w/pembro. Better tolerability w/pembro. Debate will be pembro + or - chemo for most. #ASCO18 #LCSM pic.twitter.com/UlatgRtpqc

— H. Jack West, MD (@JackWestMD) June 3, 2018

Now on to the gyn Tweets/ Studies.
OVARIAN CANCER :

Keynote - niraparib and pembrolizumab

TOPACIO/Keynote results: niraparib and pembrolizumab in recurrent platinum resistant ovarian cancer #ASCO18 #GynCSM pic.twitter.com/Zeumhr8q98

— Annie Ellis (@Stigetta) June 3, 2018

(Median duration response rate of 9.3 months)
 

Vaccine Trial

Exciting early results from Dendritic cell vaccine trial in #ovariancancer #gyncsm #ASCO18 @Aurora_Cancer pic.twitter.com/UhhvSV4LeR

— Elizabeth L. Dickson, MD, FACOG (@edicksonMD) June 3, 2018

Things to think about with cancer vaccines #ASCO18 #gyncsm pic.twitter.com/qpeuEIlbUs

— Elizabeth L. Dickson, MD, FACOG (@edicksonMD) June 3, 2018

Genetic Testing

@ShannonWestin Why we haven’t seen as many “home runs” in Gyn cancers—much more complexity and heterogeneity #gyncsm #ASCO18 pic.twitter.com/0ej005Iisa

— Elizabeth L. Dickson, MD, FACOG (@edicksonMD) June 3, 2018

Dr. Elise Kohn on which patients should receive genetic testing #ASCO18 #GynCSM pic.twitter.com/wINaKGGeHA

— Rivkin Center (@RivkinCenter) June 3, 2018

HPV / Cervical Cancer

Could a single dose of an HPV vaccine confer enduring protection against #cervicalcancer, helping to address US & global health disparity? @NCIDrDoug thinks so & lrg RCT underway by @theNCI & @gatesfoundation to test hypothesis. #ASCO18 #gyncsm

— Tatiana Prowell, MD (@tmprowell) June 3, 2018

Immune environment

More and more need to understand the immune environment around tumor cells #ASCO18 #gyncsm pic.twitter.com/Vg3GDkDZtP

— Elizabeth L. Dickson, MD, FACOG (@edicksonMD) June 3, 2018

Trial Design

Dr. Amit Oza lays out the opportunities for precision therapy and challenges that exist for trial design #ASCO18 pic.twitter.com/mXRwlNcOFK

— Rivkin Center (@RivkinCenter) June 3, 2018

 Communication

How well do patients and their oncologists agree on overall goals of #cancer care? Unfortunately, there's marked discordance about 33% of the time! Need to collectively raise our #communication skills as a field: https://t.co/FaxKSdtzSP #ASCO18 #pallonc #hpm @vitaltalk

— Thomas LeBlanc, MD (@tomleblancMD) June 3, 2018

Cancer Prevention

Strong evidence to counsel patients to avoid alcohol, tanning beds, dietary fat and sedentary lifestyles. Excellent cancer prevention educational session! #ASCO18 @loconte pic.twitter.com/nsm9U1gFat

— Jessica Hwang, MD (@viralreact) June 3, 2018

Will check into the #gyncsm and #ASCO18 tweet streams a few times today to catch more news from the meeting. If you are there feel free to use those hashtags or tag me @womenofteal in your posts.

Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!

#ASCO18 Twitter Highlights June 1 & 2, 2018

What does the first weekend in June mean for oncologists and cancer researchers throughout the world? It means it is time for the  ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago. I was not able to attend the ASCO Annual Meeting in person this year so I am following the tweets my friends who are attending are sharing.  I was able to take part in a Guideline meeting held at the Meeting on Saturday afterbiib via Webex. So I was there in a sense.
As i the past I will be following the meeting via tweets by doctors , researchers and advocates who are attending. It is not as much fun or exhausting as being there in person but it allows me to keep up to date on the latest results. I'll share the Tweets I found most interesting in the next few blog posts.

I also have been getting e-mail updates from ASCO regarding breaking news and important topics from the meeting. Below the tweets you will find some articles from the ASCO Daily News and ASCO Post that you may find of interest.

First the Tweets:

MATCH TRIAL

MATCH trial results at #ASCO18: sobering reality of precision guided trial enrollment—not always a home run. pic.twitter.com/Pt0XkHSXGj

— Michael Fisch (@fischmd) June 1, 2018

Lynch Syndrome:

Lynch syndrome is common among patient with MSI-high tumors. Via @ASCOPost #ASC018 https://t.co/lJdGKBXvqU pic.twitter.com/bm7JeSxZ7z

— Dr Muin J. Khoury (@MuinJKhoury) June 2, 2018

A genomic study of more than 15,000 #tumor samples presented at #ASCO18 showed that people w/ tumors w/ MSI-H are more likely to have #LynchSyndrome & thus have an increased risk of developing certain types of #cancer . More @ASCOPost https://t.co/lrr0adtMU6 pic.twitter.com/cYQb1yjpKY

— Gil Morgan (@weoncologists) June 2, 2018

Survivorship

Excited to share our survivorship research at #ASCO2018, now published in @JAMAOnc. @AnilSoodMD @MDAndersonNews https://t.co/C0ua5g6rQ4

— Dr. Robert Dood (@DrRobDood) June 2, 2018

Endometrial Cancer

Important finding regarding the importance of weight and #cancer development - High BMI OR gaining large amounts of weight can increase risk of obesity-related cancers like #endometrialcancer #breastcancer #kidneycancer #gyncsm #ASCO18

— Shannon Westin (@ShannonWestin) June 1, 2018

#lcsm #gyncsm #hancsm #asco18 https://t.co/tgyvCJN979

— Danielle Pardue (@Actorielle) June 1, 2018

Clinical Trial Participation:

This highlights one of the many frustrating reasons why clinicians often cannot enroll their patients in #clinicaltrials despite trying, and wanting to! Eligibility criteria need to be more thoughtful, rather than reflexive, standard, or automatic #ASCO18
https://t.co/AL3lbQlmKp

— Thomas LeBlanc, MD (@tomleblancMD) June 2, 2018

ASCO POST or DAILY News Articles:

Lynch Syndrome:
www.ascopost.com/News/58898

Patient Communication:
https://am.asco.org/addressing-patient-communication-challenges

Patient Survivorship Care:
https://am.asco.org/patients-moderate-severe-anxiety-or-depression-symptoms-recognizing-assessing-referring-and

IMPACT Trial :
http://www.ascopost.com/News/58897?email=865aa94a58f0b27b9edd2aa71d80e9a99b924971f7ce90316a0d742b2e9c9b1c

Patient Education and Quality of Care:
https://am.asco.org/patient-education-essential-element-quality-cancer-care
Economics and Value Discussion:
https://am.asco.org/bringing-economics-back-value-discussions

I'm looking forward to the next few days when there will be a greater emphasis on Gynecologic Cancers.

Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!