Greetings readers! Today, the goal is to update you on some very exciting data that was recently presented at ESMO, the European Society of Medical Oncology Annual Meeting. In a nutshell, early results from a trial using a type of immune therapy called engineered T cells specific for a protein called MAGE-A4 led to significant tumor shrinkage in patients with … Continue reading Shining the Spotlight on Synovial Sarcoma…
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Updates from ASCO – 2019
Greetings loyal readers! I know it’s been a long time – as many of you may know, a few months ago I made the decision to move from University of Miami to the University of Colorado, and so it has been a busy, stressful, but invigorating process to reestablish myself in a new role! Unfortunately … Continue reading Updates from ASCO – 2019
ASCO 2018 Updates for Sarcomas
Dear readers, Just having returned from a particularly exhilarating annual ASCO meeting, I wanted to quickly share some of the most exciting results from the sarcoma sessions with all of you. Overall, this year revealed exciting advances in treatment of desmoid tumors, as well as PVNS. Additionally, we learned some important information about oral chemotherapy … Continue reading ASCO 2018 Updates for Sarcomas
Leiomyosarcoma in 2018 – where we are and where we need to go.
Good afternoon readers! Having recently teamed up with the National Leiomyosarcoma Foundation as an advisory board member, for this posting I thought we'd focus on leiomyosarcoma, including some of the most common questions coming in from patients, caretakers and providers. What is leiomyosarcoma? Leiomyosarcoma is probably the fourth most common sarcoma behind gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), pleomorphic sarcomas, and liposarcomas. … Continue reading Leiomyosarcoma in 2018 – where we are and where we need to go.
Updates from ASCO 2017 Annual Meeting
Greetings, and humble apologies for the hiatus of this blog - have not forgotten about all of you, but it's been a crazy year in the world of sarcomas. I'm so excited to share with you some of the highlights of ASCO, where nearly 40,000 medical oncologists and other cancer research aficionados gather yearly to present … Continue reading Updates from ASCO 2017 Annual Meeting
Updates from ASCO 2016: Immunotherapy for sarcoma shows a signal!
Greetings from Chicago, where once again, immunotherapy remains the highlight of most ASCO presentations. This year was particularly exciting, as we finally got to see the preliminary results of the first clinical trials of checkpoint inhibitors for sarcomas. So, I will update all of you on the most recent data, explain how we still have more … Continue reading Updates from ASCO 2016: Immunotherapy for sarcoma shows a signal!
Clinical Trials: What you should know to make an informed choice about your therapy.
This is a guinea pig. Greetings readers, My 282 page grant finally went in Monday – and so now I finally have some spare writing quota to return to the blog! Today’s topic – everything you ever needed to know about clinical trials. The goal is to clear up some misconceptions, and also to help … Continue reading Clinical Trials: What you should know to make an informed choice about your therapy.
have we really reached the era of personalized medicine?
Borrowed from Chakma J. Genomic Variation: The Search for our Past and Our Future. Journal of Young Investigators. Vol 16, 2009. The White House Initiative The concept of personalized medicine has received a tremendous amount of media attention as of late, and in this post I thought I would try to outline the various technologies, concepts, … Continue reading have we really reached the era of personalized medicine?
Immunotherapy 101
In honor of the 4th of July holiday, I thought I'd squeeze in one more post - let's talk about IMMUNOTHERAPY, which has created fireworks of its own in the cancer treatment world! In order to talk about the exciting clinical trials and ideas that are out there for sarcoma patients, we need to first … Continue reading Immunotherapy 101
why sarcoma?
A lot of people ask me why I take care of sarcoma patients - no one knows what they are (except for all of you kind readers who are now experts!), there's no good data, certainly no major funding opportunities, and we're still using the same chemotherapy drugs that we have used since 1970s... not … Continue reading why sarcoma?