In my twenty-two years of practicing medicine, I have observed the evolution of genomic testing and its increasing utility in oncology.
Study shows DNA biomarker can be used to predict outcomes for high risk low grade gliomas
In the spring of 2001, I visited a longtime friend and collaborator, Alexandre Barbault, to share with him my vision of using low levels radiofrequency electromagnetic fields for the treatment of cancer.
Historically, oncology drug development has evolved on what may seem to be a different planet, at least relative to mainstream clinical pharmacology.
I remember the day I met Margaret “Peg” Geisler, who has now been living with breast cancer for 40 years, and with metastatic disease for 36 of those years.
In its just-published guideline on screening for colorectal cancer, the American Cancer Society revised its 2008 CRC screening guidelines, recommending that screening begin at age 45 instead of 50.
As I read the latest offering from the US Preventive Services Task Force, this time another encyclical on prostate screening, I felt a recurrence of the extreme irritation left over from the last time they wasted my (and their) time. Borrowing from Molière's “The Imaginary Invalid”, I conceived an Imaginary Interview with an un-named representative of this band of bozo's that seem to have few boundaries, a high level of comfort in wasting taxpayer dollars and editorial space, and who seem set on providing useless homilies that, at best, provide no value. This is couched as a Paul Goldberg-style low-key interview… and so the play begins:
Fourteen years ago, I was recruited to the University of Miami to develop a program in cancer disparities.
Ibrutinib is a selective and irreversible inhibitor of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) that entered phase 1 clinical trials in 2009 based on preclinical efficacy in models of B-cell malignancy and autoimmune disease.[1, 2] The initial phase 1 trial showed clear efficacy in a number of lymphoid malignancies at doses as low as 1.25 mg/kg/d. Furthermore, full receptor occupancy was demonstrated at 2.5 mg/kg/d. Despite these pharmacological and early clinical findings, development of ibrutinib continued at doses of 420 mg qd and 560 mg qd, levels 3-4 fold higher than suggested by the pharmacological data. In addition, the absorption of ibrutinib is enhanced by administration of food, which may explain why even the lowest dose showed efficacy in some patients.
Despite much progress in lung cancer over the last decade, lung cancer is the most frequent cause of cancer death.
