Tuesday, July 9, 2019

#CANCERSM Chat topic 11-Jul-2019: Basics of Biomarker Testing

A number of cancer Twitter communities( #gyncsm, #bcsm, #btsm,#lcsm etc) are joining together for a chat on Biomarkers on Thursday, July 11, 2019 I hope some of my followers will join that chat at 8pm ET. pPathologist Dr. Timothy Craig Allen (@TimAllenMDJD) will be moderating the chat.Learn more by reading the post below by Janet Freeeman-Daily.

#CANCERSM Chat topic 11-Jul-2019: Basics of Biomarker Testing
Until just a few years ago, chemotherapy was often the only option for some cancer patients. In just a
few short years, molecular therapies and immunotherapies have become commonplace as treatments
for cancer patients. But determining whether a particular cancer patient is a candidate for these new,
often very expensive, molecular and immunotherapies requires molecular biomarker testing. For manycancer patients and their families, the role of molecular biomarker testing in their diagnosis is a
unfamiliar and confusing. How is testing performed? How is the test result analyzed? What is involvedin getting helpful answers from biomarker testing? Does liquid biopsy have a role?
Pathologists are specialized doctors responsible for answering these questions. They identify any cancercells in the biopsied specimen, and guide the patient’s biomarker testing. Unfortunately, pathologists donot typically speak with patients, so patients and families–and even some doctors–often do not have aclear understanding of the role of molecular biomarker testing in the diagnosis and treatment ofcancers. Learning more about the basics of biomarker testing can help patients and families cut throughthe hype about biomarker testing, understand the patient’s specific disease more thoroughly, and learn what biomarker test results mean to the patient’s cancer treatment.

Please join moderator and pathologist Dr. Timothy Craig Allen (@TimAllenMDJD) at 8 PM Eastern Time
on Thursday, July 11, 2019, for a discussion about the basics of biomarker testing, a subject potentially
affecting all cancer patients and doctors. We will cover the following topics:
• T1: What is a biomarker and how is it identified?
• T2: What is biomarker testing and what is it used for?
• T3: What treatment options can be identified through biomarker testing?
• T4: What biomarker tests should be run for which types of cancers? What is a liquid
biopsy and when is useful?
• T5: Can and should patients pursue biomarker testing for treatment options if their
doctor does not offer it?

Please remember to include #cancersm in ALL your tweets so the other chat participants can see them.
If you need a refresher, read the #LCSM primer on participating in a Twitter chat (the hashtag in your
tweets will be #cancersm, not #LCSM). Note that some tweetchat apps (like tchat.io) will not display
tweets longer than 140 characters. Hope you’ll join us!


Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!
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Saturday, July 6, 2019

Hashtag Collections and Communities - JCOCCI Article

I am so pleased to have co-authored and to have the #gyncsm community and chat be a part of a newly published article in the JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics journal.

Organizing Online Health Content: Developing Hashtag Collections for Healthier Internet-Based People and Communities  

"Cancer tag ontology evolved from patient-centered, disease-specific, Twitter-based chats as a cooperatively designed system that has grown in use from 2011 to 2017. This article provides guidelines, challenges, and opportunities for using hashtags to develop online communities of interest."

Thank you Matt Katz, MD for spearheading this important work for physicians, patients and health care providers. 

Dee                                                                                                                                                      Every Day is a Blessing! 

 

 

 

 

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Saturday, June 8, 2019

#ASCO19 Opening Session - Focus on Patients

The theme of this year's ASCO Annual meeting was
Caring For Every Patient, Learning From Every Patient

This theme was exhibited in many sessions I attended and highlighted in the Opening Session starting with Dr Bertagnolli, in her President's Address.You may read her complete speech at
https://connection.asco.org/blogs/2019-presidential-address-caring-every-patient-learning-every-patient?cid=DM1990&bid=15208062

Dr Ang, a medical oncologist from Aukland, New Zealand spoke next.

Having read two books Dr Atul Gawande wrote,  I was thrilled to be able to hear him in person.

 As I heard these next words I thought of how it matched with what I would be saying later that afternoon in the Fireside Chat with Dr Dickson.


It was a privilege to speak at this year's ASCO meeting and Tweet from the meeting.
I was moved by the dedication of the over 40,000 health care providers -surgeons, oncologists, nurses, social workers, and researchers from around the globe who attended the meeting to learn how to improve cancer patient care. Thank you to each and every one of them.


Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!
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Friday, June 7, 2019

Oral Abstracts at #ASCO19

The Oral Abstract session took place on Monday June 3.
I was able to listen the first three abstracts presented before I left for the airport.

You may search the abstracts available online at https://abstracts.asco.org/239/IndexView_239.html
for information on the other studies presented during that session. 
5503 NACT compared to chemoradiation in cervical cancer
5504 Recurrence rates in cervical cancer abdominal vs minimally invasive surgery
5505 Niraparib and Bev vs niraparib alone in recurrent plat sensitive OC
5506 Olaparib monotherapy vs chemo for germline BRCA plat sensitive relapsed OC
5507 CLIO study on olaparib monotherapy vs chemo in plat sensitive OC
5508 EWOC-1 Three different first line chemo regimens for vulnerable elderly women with OC


5500 Powell -  Ph 3 Paclitaxel + carbo vs Paclitaxel + ifosfamidein chem naive patientswith carincosarcomea of the uterus or ovary
5501 Antill - Duralumab in adv endometrial cancer accroding to mismatch repare status PHAEDRA Study
5502 Konstantinopoulos  Ph2 avelumab in patients with microsatellite stable(MSS)  ,microsatellite instable (MSI) and polymerase epsilon mutated  (POLE)recurent endometrial cancer





My last post on ASCO19 will be about the Opening session.

Dee
Every Day is a Blessing! 

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Thursday, June 6, 2019

Education Sessions related to Communication at #ASCO19

I chose to attend two education sessions that dealt with communication. One Professional Development education session on Friday titled Tweets Chats and Posts: Using Social Media to Transcend Boundaries and Create Opportunities for Patients and the other a Pediatric Education session on Monday titled Navigating a New Cancer Diagnosis : Guiding Communication and Education. Below are some tweets and comments on each session

5/31/2019 Tweets Chats and Posts: Using Social Media to Transcend Boundaries and Create Opportunities for Patients 

Dr Subbiah, A Big World Made Small Using Social Media to Optimize Patient Care
I have followed Dr Subbiah on Twitter for a few years now so it was very nice to meet her in person.Dr Subbiah spoke on how to use Social Media effectively.




Dr Meisel, Using Social Media to Improve Clinical Trial Access and Opportunities
Dr Meisel mentioned how some health care providers may see social media as one more thing to do in their already busy day but went on to show the benefits of participating in social media such as recruiting for clinical trials. 
Dr Hamilton, The Metastatic Breast Cancer Project

 Dr Knoll, The Patient Perspective : Improving Patient Engagement in Clinical trials

6/3/2019 Navigating a New Cancer Diagnosis : Guiding Communication and Education

Dr Dobrozi Multidisciplinary Communication and Education Milestones Following a Cancer Diagnosis
Dr Mack Communication a New Cancer Diagnosis : From the Lense of the Patient and Caregiver


Dr Rosenberg Novel Approaches to Enhance the Educational Process and IMprove Patient Engagement

Some of the best advice to health care providers I heard at ASCO. 

Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!
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Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Gyn Cancer Education Sessions at #ASCO19

Here is a short summary( Tweets) and notes from the Gyn Cancer Education Sessions I attended at this year's ASCO Annual Meeting. Please note these sessions were not necessarily only ovarian cancer sessions.
Abstracts are available online at https://abstracts.asco.org/239/IndexView_239.html

6/1/2019 Pharma to Table
Levinson  - Immunotherapy in Gyn Cancers


Rubin- Recognizing and Managing Immun-related Toxicities
irAE = immun-related Adverse Events
Events could include - cough, colitis, endocrine issues, pneumonitis
With adverse events is was recommended to not reduce the dose but rather hold the dose

Moore - Response Predictions and Signatures for Immuntherapy
Tumor Burden is number of mutations in a tumor.


Dorigo - The Future of Immunotherapy in Gyn Cancers
TIL - Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes
Trials ongoing with HPV positive ovarian cancer ( yes , HPV can cause more than cervical and head and neck cancers. ) , CAR-T cells and vaccines
Trials like this one opening soon.
6/2/2019 Are We Hitting the Bull's -eye with Targeted Therapy
Clinical Science Symposium
This session reviewed a number of Abstracts.
Abstract 5509 - Sex hormone, Insulin and insulin-like growth factors in High stage endometrial cancers
Drs Huang, Bae-Jump


Abstract 5010 - Phase 2 trial ribociclib and letrozole in ER positive ovarian and endometrial cancers Drs  Colon-Otero and Mackay


Abstract 5011 - Phase 2 avelumab plus entinostat or placebo in epithelial ovarian cancer
Drs. Cadoo and Hays



6/2/2019 Wanna Get Away - Continuous treatment vs Treatment Holidays in Gyn Cancers
Dr Buckanovich - Successful Maintenance?

Dr  Oza - Maintenance Standard of Care


 Dr Rustin - Maintenance - Not Ready for Prime Time

Dr. Trent - Sarcoma Perspective

6/2/2019 Gyn Cancers is it Time to Put Away the Knife? 
For this session I did not have a good view of the screen so here are the high points from my notes.

Dr. Duska  - Adv OC -Time to Put Away the Knife?
NACT ( Neoadjuvent chemotherapy) is a viable option for a certain population of patients with ovarian cancer

Dr Pfisterer  We need a sharper smarter knife
Residual Tumor is an independent prognostic indicator. The Goal is R0 ( no visible disease left) . What prevents R0 . Factors that influence R0 are Inoperability (sugery not tolerated), Insufficiency (surgeon not capable of performing surgery . Patient survival better when surgery is done by a gyn onc.) Irresectability ( surgery not possible due to location of tumor.)

Dr Ramirez Has Laparoscopy Sung its Final Song in Cervix Cancer
Reported on LACC Study (https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1806395)  Study found that radical hysterectomy by MIS (minimally invasive survery ) lead to lower rates of disease free survival compared to open hysterectomy.

Dr Boggess - There is still a Role of MIS in Cervical Cancer 

6/3/2019 The More Things Change the Ovarian Cancer Edition
Monk - Is It Time to Change Upfront Chemotherapy For Ovarian Cancer

Dr Randall HIPEC: Standard of Care or Hype



Dr. Grisham - Low Grade Ovarian Carcinoma: Fitting the Square Peg in the Round Hold



 Tomorrow  I will share information from sessions dealing with communication ( Tweets Chats & Posts and Navigating a New Cancer Diagnosis).


Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!

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Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Reporting On This Year's ASCO Annual Meeting

I returned recently from the ASCO 2019 Annual Meeting. This meeting was one of the best I have attended. I had the opportunity to met in person for the first time advocates, physicians and nurses I had interacted with online - Facebook or Twitter.  I also met a number of advocates and health care providers from around the world - Australia, Canada, England, and Nigeria to name a few.

Dr Dickson and I - #ASCO19
I was invited to speak during a ticketed session titled A Fireside Chat What Patients Want From Providers in Gynecologic Cancer on Saturday afternoon.  My partner was Elizabeth Dickson-Michelson, a gynecologic oncologist. I shared what the gyn cancer patient needs and how to advocate for yourself and others while Dr Dickson focused on how health care professionals could provide the services both emotional and physical that patients need. We also shared the results of two studies, The WOCC Every Women Study and the Needs of Women Treated for Ovarian Cancer : Results from a #gyncsm Chat . I am extremely appreciative of the support provided to me by Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey which allowed my attendance at this meeting.

Before and after my presentation I was able to attend a number of very informative sessions in gynecologic cancer, communication and social media. If you didn't catch my live tweets from the meeting, over the next few days I will share information I learned on this blog. I will cover the Gyn Cancer Education Sessions  (Pharma to Table, Are We Hitting the Bulls Eye with Targeted Therapy,Wanna Get Away -Continuous vs Treatment Holidays, The More things Change OC Edition and Gyn Cancers: Is It Time to Put Away the Knife ) and two sessions dealing with communication ( Tweets Chats & Posts and Navigating a New Cancer Diagnosis), as well as an overview of the Gyn Cancer Oral Abstract Sessions and the Poster Discussion sessions. 

So Stand by --- or sit ---  more info is on its way.

Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!

  

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