Latest news with #PaulOberstein
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
I attended the world's biggest cancer conference. Doctors gave standing ovations to 2 major breakthroughs.
The biggest cancer conference in the world — ASCO — wrapped up earlier this month in Chicago. Stunning new data suggested exercise, if done the right way, can be a colon cancer treatment. AstraZeneca was a perennial star, with new uses for its drugs in early-stage disease. Recently, I landed on what felt like another planet. Planet cancer research. Technically, this planet was within the city of Chicago, inside the biggest convention center in North America, McCormick Place, which straddles two sides of a highway. It was filled to the brim with premier cancer experts from around the world. At the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, 44,000 doctors, drugmakers, scientists, and patients, gathered both in person and online, spent four days collecting, sharing, and debating the best ways to prevent, treat, and attack cancer. There were two big announcements that rose above the rest and brought attendees to their feet, cheering and clapping in appreciation. Doctors were buzzing afterwards, with a few telling me they were inspired to think about new ways to treat their cancer patients. Both breakthroughs pave the way towards a smarter, more targeted future for treating and preventing all kinds of cancer. There was one talk at ASCO this year that stunned, invigorated, and even angered some doctors. A team of Canadian scientists showed that a methodically-prescribed exercise routine, performed consistently three to four times per week, could outperform ongoing chemotherapy treatments for patients who'd had colon cancer and gone through initial treatment. "This is so new and different and really incredible," Dr. Paul Oberstein, a medical oncologist specializing in gastrointestinal cancers at NYU Langone, told Business Insider. Doctors routinely recommend exercise to their cancer patients, but there hasn't been a rigorous scientific trial studying the effects. Until now. The researchers, from Queens University in Ontario, studied nearly 900 colon cancer patients in a gold-standard randomized trial. Each patient's cancer had been removed, and they'd gone through chemotherapy. The goal of the exercise program was to prevent high-risk stage 2 and stage 3 colon cancer from coming back, and to keep the patients alive. Half of the patients, a control group, were given the same exercise advice that cancer patients often hear from their doctors. The other half were written an exercise prescription. They were given a trainer or physical therapist who designed a personalized exercise regimen that each patient liked, and that they were likely to stick with for the three-year study. Some kayaked, others biked or swam, but most of the patients (median age of 61) embarked on just a few more walks each week — 45 to 60 minutes at a brisk pace. After three years of prescribed, sustained exercise, patients saw results that were just as good as — in some cases better than — disease-free survival rates for the chemotherapy drugs that are typically used to treat cancer in this same context, to prevent recurrence. Oxaliplatin is a common colon cancer chemotherapy drug which costs $3,000 to $6,000 per treatment — cheap in the context of cancer care. The drug delivers an overall 10-year survival boost of 5%. The exercise program? 7% survival boost after eight years. Patients who were just given the fitness advice had significantly more cancer recurrence, and more deaths than the exercise group. "For every 16 patients exercising, exercise prevented one case of cancer," Chris Booth, a medical oncologist and the lead researcher of the study, said while presenting his results at ASCO. "For every 14 people that were on the exercise program, exercise prevented one person from dying." Doctors attending ASCO were stunned. After Booth's presentation, a surge of excitement simmered through the crowd of oncologists. A standing ovation began slowly, then swelled to thunderous and enthusiastic sustained applause. Some of the attendees wondered if this strategy could ever work for their own patients. Could they ever really be motivated to make this kind of change? For Booth, the study provides a powerful lesson. "Knowledge alone is likely to be insufficient to allow most people to make meaningful and sustained change," Booth said. Exercise needs to be treated like a drug, he said. A prescription needs to be filled out, a trainer allotted, and a schedule adhered to. Oberstein, the NYU Langone oncologist, told Business Insider that the panel had a profound impact on him. He's already talking internally about how his cancer center could implement this kind of program, perhaps with grants from major cancer philanthropy groups or patient support groups who would be willing to pay for tools like wearable trackers and virtual trainer sessions. "It's a lot easier to get a drug that costs $200,000 a year," Oberstein said. "Than to get insurance or someone to pay for a trainer to help someone do exercise." The other big insight in cancer treatment that shone through at ASCO was in immunotherapy. Doctors and drugmakers are starting to use these drugs to harness the immune system against earlier-stage cancers, with promising results. The star of the show was drugmaker AstraZeneca, which had an impressive slate of top-level plenary talks geared toward using drugs earlier on for breast, gastric, and lung cancer survival. The biggest splash I saw was from AstraZeneca's drug Imfinzi (durvalumab), which trains a patient's body to attack a protein in their cancer. Imfinzi's already routinely used in some late-stage, recurrent and metastatic cancers (in the treatment of solid lung and liver tumors, for example), but it hasn't been a go-to treatment for earlier-stage cancers. In results from the company's late-stage phase-3 "Matterhorn" trial presented at the conference, Imfinzi, taken with chemo after surgery, boosted gastric cancer patients' two-year survival rates from 70% (without the immunotherapy) to nearly 76% — a significant jump. The news — just one of AstraZeneca's big wins at the conference — highlights a growing trend in cancer treatment. Increasingly, drugmakers are pursuing early immune therapy treatments. These treatments can either complement — or even, in rare cases, completely replace — radiation and chemotherapy. The goal is to minimize the lifelong side effects of toxic cancer treatment (like lifelong organ damage and fertility issues) while also improving treatment outcomes. In April, doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering published results showing a monoclonal antibody treatment that's typically reserved for advanced-stage mismatch repair-deficient rectal tumors can completely replace chemo in earlier stages of disease. "What was amazing, and is still amazing, is that all the patients in the rectal group had a complete response to just immunotherapy," Dr. Andrea Cercek, a medical oncologist at MSK, told BI during ASCO. "Everyone's organs were completely preserved — very minimal toxicity." AstraZeneca senior vice president Mohit Manrao, head of the company's US oncology program, told BI that he envisions immunotherapy treatment as a great complement to traditional cancer treatment. Old-school treatments like chemotherapy and radiation go after cancer directly, aiming to kill cancer cells, while the newer drugs "engage the immune system to do better work." "We cannot just keep treating metastatic cancer patients," Manrao told BI. "We've got to ensure, yes, we serve them, but we need to start getting into early disease where the possibility to cure is really, really high." Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Health
- Business Insider
I attended the world's biggest cancer conference. Doctors gave standing ovations to 2 major breakthroughs.
The biggest cancer conference in the world — ASCO — wrapped up earlier this month in Chicago. Stunning new data suggested exercise, if done the right way, can be a colon cancer treatment. AstraZeneca was a perennial star, with new uses for its drugs in early-stage disease. Recently, I landed on what felt like another planet. Planet cancer research. Technically, this planet was within the city of Chicago, inside the biggest convention center in North America, McCormick Place, which straddles two sides of a highway. It was filled to the brim with premier cancer experts from around the world. At the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, 44,000 doctors, drugmakers, scientists, and patients, gathered both in person and online, spent four days collecting, sharing, and debating the best ways to prevent, treat, and attack cancer. There were two big announcements that rose above the rest and brought attendees to their feet, cheering and clapping in appreciation. Doctors were buzzing afterwards, with a few telling me they were inspired to think about new ways to treat their cancer patients. Both breakthroughs pave the way towards a smarter, more targeted future for treating and preventing all kinds of cancer. 1. Exercise outperformed expensive chemo in a groundbreaking trial There was one talk at ASCO this year that stunned, invigorated, and even angered some doctors. A team of Canadian scientists showed that a methodically-prescribed exercise routine, performed consistently three to four times per week, could outperform ongoing chemotherapy treatments for patients who'd had colon cancer and gone through initial treatment. "This is so new and different and really incredible," Dr. Paul Oberstein, a medical oncologist specializing in gastrointestinal cancers at NYU Langone, told Business Insider at the conference. Doctors routinely recommend exercise to their cancer patients, but there hasn't been a rigorous scientific trial studying the effects. Until now. The researchers, from Queens University in Ontario, studied nearly 900 colon cancer patients in a gold-standard randomized trial. Each patient's cancer had been removed, and they'd gone through chemotherapy. The goal of the exercise program was to prevent high-risk stage 2 and stage 3 colon cancer from coming back, and to keep the patients alive. Half of the patients, a control group, were given the same exercise advice that cancer patients often hear from their doctors. The other half were written an exercise prescription. They were given a trainer or physical therapist who designed a personalized exercise regimen that each patient liked, and that they were likely to stick with for the three-year study. Some kayaked, others biked or swam, but most of the patients (median age of 61) embarked on just a few more walks each week — 45 to 60 minutes at a brisk pace. After three years of prescribed, sustained exercise, patients saw results that were just as good as — in some cases better than — disease-free survival rates for the chemotherapy drugs that are typically used to treat cancer in this same context, to prevent recurrence. Oxaliplatin is a common colon cancer chemotherapy drug which costs $3,000 to $6,000 per treatment — cheap in the context of cancer care. The drug delivers an overall 10-year survival boost of 5%. The exercise program? 7% survival boost after eight years. Patients who were just given the fitness advice had significantly more cancer recurrence, and more deaths than the exercise group. "For every 16 patients exercising, exercise prevented one case of cancer," Chris Booth, a medical oncologist and the lead researcher of the study, said while presenting his results at ASCO. "For every 14 people that were on the exercise program, exercise prevented one person from dying." Doctors attending ASCO were stunned. After Booth's presentation, a surge of excitement simmered through the crowd of oncologists. A standing ovation began slowly, then swelled to thunderous and enthusiastic sustained applause. Some of the attendees wondered if this strategy could ever work for their own patients. Could they ever really be motivated to make this kind of change? For Booth, the study provides a powerful lesson. "Knowledge alone is likely to be insufficient to allow most people to make meaningful and sustained change," Booth said. Exercise needs to be treated like a drug, he said. A prescription needs to be filled out, a trainer allotted, and a schedule adhered to. Oberstein, the NYU Langone oncologist, told Business Insider that the panel had a profound impact on him. He's already talking internally about how his cancer center could implement this kind of program, perhaps with grants from major cancer philanthropy groups or patient support groups who would be willing to pay for tools like wearable trackers and virtual trainer sessions. "It's a lot easier to get a drug that costs $200,000 a year," Oberstein said. "Than to get insurance or someone to pay for a trainer to help someone do exercise." 2. AstraZeneca's new immunotherapy drug stole the show The other big insight in cancer treatment that shone through at ASCO was in immunotherapy. Doctors and drugmakers are starting to use these drugs to harness the immune system against earlier-stage cancers, with promising results. The star of the show was drugmaker AstraZeneca, which had an impressive slate of top-level plenary talks geared toward using drugs earlier on for breast, gastric, and lung cancer survival. The biggest splash I saw was from AstraZeneca's drug Imfinzi (durvalumab), which trains a patient's body to attack a protein in their cancer. Imfinzi's already routinely used in some late-stage, recurrent and metastatic cancers (in the treatment of solid lung and liver tumors, for example), but it hasn't been a go-to treatment for earlier-stage cancers. In results from the company's late-stage phase-3 "Matterhorn" trial presented at the conference, Imfinzi, taken with chemo after surgery, boosted gastric cancer patients' two-year survival rates from 70% (without the immunotherapy) to nearly 76% — a significant jump. The news — just one of AstraZeneca's big wins at the conference — highlights a growing trend in cancer treatment. Increasingly, drugmakers are pursuing early immune therapy treatments. These treatments can either complement — or even, in rare cases, completely replace — radiation and chemotherapy. The goal is to minimize the lifelong side effects of toxic cancer treatment (like lifelong organ damage and fertility issues) while also improving treatment outcomes. In April, doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering published results showing a monoclonal antibody treatment that's typically reserved for advanced-stage mismatch repair-deficient rectal tumors can completely replace chemo in earlier stages of disease. "What was amazing, and is still amazing, is that all the patients in the rectal group had a complete response to just immunotherapy," Dr. Andrea Cercek, a medical oncologist at MSK, told BI during ASCO. "Everyone's organs were completely preserved — very minimal toxicity." AstraZeneca senior vice president Mohit Manrao, head of the company's US oncology program, told BI that he envisions immunotherapy treatment as a great complement to traditional cancer treatment. Old-school treatments like chemotherapy and radiation go after cancer directly, aiming to kill cancer cells, while the newer drugs "engage the immune system to do better work." "We cannot just keep treating metastatic cancer patients," Manrao told BI. "We've got to ensure, yes, we serve them, but we need to start getting into early disease where the possibility to cure is really, really high."
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
4 troubling cancer trends you must know about in 2025
The American Cancer Society's annual cancer trends report revealed a mix of news and statistics for 2025. Cancer death rates have dropped 34% between 1991 and 2022, which the ACS attributes to early detection, smoking reduction and improvements in treatment. While these numbers are encouraging, oncologists and cancer specialists still have concerns about some other factors. Cancer Death Rates Decline Yet New Diagnoses Spike For Some Groups, Says Report While the report shows continued progress on many fronts, certain areas remain of "significant concern," Dr. Joshua Strauss, an attending hematologist and medical oncologist at Advanced Care Oncology and Hematology Associates of the Atlantic Medical Group in Morristown, New Jersey, shared with Fox News Digital. Below are some of the most concerning trends, according to experts. Read On The Fox News App Cancer prevalence in younger individuals and adolescents has continued to rise, according to the report, with rates in teens slowly increasing by 0.7% each year. Cancer is the leading disease-related cause of death among children and adolescents — most commonly leukemia, brain cancer and lymphoma. In 2025, the ACS estimates that 9,550 kids up to 14 years old and 5,140 adolescents aged 15 to 19 will be diagnosed with cancer, and that 1,050 children and 600 adolescents will die. Dr. Paul Oberstein, a gastrointestinal medical oncologist and section chief of GI Medical Oncology at NYU Langone Perlmutter Cancer Center, reiterated that people below age 50 are seeing higher rates of cancer deaths. "It's shown in multiple cancers," he told Fox News Digital. "I would say the biggest finding is in young women with breast cancer." Pancreatic Cancer Patient Survival Doubled With High Dose Of Common Vitamin, Study Finds The prevalence of GI (gastrointestinal) cancers is also increasing among younger adults, including pancreatic and colon cancer. Experts have varying hypotheses on why young people are being diagnosed more often, including diet, exposure to microplastics or other environmental triggers, according to Oberstein. "We don't have a good explanation, and we need to invest in discovering why this might be the case so that we can change it," he said. Cervical cancer is one of the few cancers that can be prevented, yet thousands of women are still at risk. While cervical cancer incidence rates decreased by more than half from the mid-1970s to the mid-2000s due to screening uptake, these numbers have since stabilized, according to the report. Alcohol Linked To Cancer Risk In Us Surgeon General's New Advisory A projected 13,000 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2025 and 4,000 will die, according to Dr. Jessica Shepherd, a board-certified obstetrician gynecologist in Dallas, Texas. "Cervical cancer in women from 30 to 44 is increasing," she told Fox News Digital. "But also, this is a cancer that has the potential to be eradicated, if not eliminated, because of us knowing the understanding of HPV and its prevalence in the disease." HPV (human papillomavirus infection), the most common cause of cervical cancer, can be detected through testing. Experimental Vaccine For Common Cancer Shows Potential In Clinical Trial "We have innovation and technology that should be decreasing certain cervical cancer rates," Shepherd said. The ACS report found that Native Americans and Black people continue to die at higher rates than White people for several different cancers. Among cervical cancer patients, the death rate in Black women and Native American women is 50% and 70% higher than in white women. The five-year relative survival rate for cervical cancer in Black women is 58% compared to 67% of White women, the report found. This discrepancy in mortality rate is most likely due to lack of access to doctors and regular screenings, added Shepherd, who pushed for more research, awareness and public education. "Cervical cancer is preventable through screening with the Pap plus HPV and co-testing," she said. "If we had the ability to have more potential early detection, then we could see abnormalities in cells … before it actually gets to cancer and could take the time to address it." Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers, such as pancreatic, liver, colorectal and stomach cancers, are all considered highly deadly. The ACS report noted that colorectal diagnoses in men and women under the age of 65 have continued to increase. Between 2012 and 2021, colorectal cancer incidence rates increased by 2.4% each year in people younger than 50 and by 0.4% per year in adults 50 to 64. Progress against pancreatic cancer is also trailing other cancers, according to the report, as incidence and mortality rates increase by 1% each year in men and women. The ACS noted that in 2025, an estimated 67,440 new cases of pancreatic cancer will be diagnosed in the U.S. and 51,980 people will die from it. For more Health articles, visit The death rate for pancreatic cancer has increased by 0.2% to 0.3% each year in men and women, and the five-year relative survival rate is 13%, which Strauss described as "dismal." Oberstein, a GI specialist, noted that these types of cancers "often have very poor outcomes," although there have been some improvements in early detection and treatment over the last few decades. "The biggest benefit we've seen in terms of mortality comes from earlier detection of GI cancers," he told Fox News Digital, adding that colon cancer has the best outcomes when detected early. Click Here To Sign Up For Our Health Newsletter "But we really need to double down on trying to detect stomach cancer, liver cancer and especially pancreatic cancer earlier in order to make a big difference," Oberstein said. Fox News Digital's Melissa Rudy contributed to this article source: 4 troubling cancer trends you must know about in 2025
Fox News
17-03-2025
- Health
- Fox News
4 troubling cancer trends you must know about in 2025
The American Cancer Society's annual cancer trends report revealed a mix of news and statistics for 2025. Cancer death rates have dropped 34% between 1991 and 2022, which the ACS attributes to early detection, smoking reduction and improvements in treatment. While these numbers are encouraging, oncologists and cancer specialists still have concerns about some other factors. While the report shows continued progress on many fronts, certain areas remain of "significant concern," Dr. Joshua Strauss, an attending hematologist and medical oncologist at Advanced Care Oncology and Hematology Associates of the Atlantic Medical Group in Morristown, New Jersey, shared with Fox News Digital. Below are some of the most concerning trends, according to experts. Cancer prevalence in younger individuals and adolescents has continued to rise, according to the report, with rates in teens slowly increasing by 0.7% each year. Cancer is the leading disease-related cause of death among children and adolescents — most commonly leukemia, brain cancer and lymphoma. In 2025, the ACS estimates that 9,550 kids up to 14 years old and 5,140 adolescents aged 15 to 19 will be diagnosed with cancer, and that 1,050 children and 600 adolescents will die. Dr. Paul Oberstein, a gastrointestinal medical oncologist and section chief of GI Medical Oncology at NYU Langone Perlmutter Cancer Center, reiterated that people below age 50 are seeing higher rates of cancer deaths. "It's shown in multiple cancers," he told Fox News Digital. "I would say the biggest finding is in young women with breast cancer." The prevalence of GI (gastrointestinal) cancers is also increasing among younger adults, including pancreatic and colon cancer. Experts have varying hypotheses on why young people are being diagnosed more often, including diet, exposure to microplastics or other environmental triggers, according to Oberstein. "We don't have a good explanation, and we need to invest in discovering why this might be the case so that we can change it," he said. Cervical cancer is one of the few cancers that can be prevented, yet thousands of women are still at risk. While cervical cancer incidence rates decreased by more than half from the mid-1970s to the mid-2000s due to screening uptake, these numbers have since stabilized, according to the report. A projected 13,000 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2025 and 4,000 will die, according to Dr. Jessica Shepherd, a board-certified obstetrician gynecologist in Dallas, Texas. "Cervical cancer in women from 30 to 44 is increasing," she told Fox News Digital. "But also, this is a cancer that has the potential to be eradicated, if not eliminated, because of us knowing the understanding of HPV and its prevalence in the disease." HPV (human papillomavirus infection), the most common cause of cervical cancer, can be detected through testing. "We have innovation and technology that should be decreasing certain cervical cancer rates," Shepherd said. The ACS report found that Native Americans and Black people continue to die at higher rates than White people for several different cancers. Among cervical cancer patients, the death rate in Black women and Native American women is 50% and 70% higher than in white women. The five-year relative survival rate for cervical cancer in Black women is 58% compared to 67% of White women, the report found. This discrepancy in mortality rate is most likely due to lack of access to doctors and regular screenings, added Shepherd, who pushed for more research, awareness and public education. "Cervical cancer is preventable through screening with the Pap plus HPV and co-testing," she said. "If we had the ability to have more potential early detection, then we could see abnormalities in cells … before it actually gets to cancer and could take the time to address it." Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers, such as pancreatic, liver, colorectal and stomach cancers, are all considered highly deadly. The ACS report noted that colorectal diagnoses in men and women under the age of 65 have continued to increase. Between 2012 and 2021, colorectal cancer incidence rates increased by 2.4% each year in people younger than 50 and by 0.4% per year in adults 50 to 64. Progress against pancreatic cancer is also trailing other cancers, according to the report, as incidence and mortality rates increase by 1% each year in men and women. The ACS noted that in 2025, an estimated 67,440 new cases of pancreatic cancer will be diagnosed in the U.S. and 51,980 people will die from it. For more Health articles, visit The death rate for pancreatic cancer has increased by 0.2% to 0.3% each year in men and women, and the five-year relative survival rate is 13%, which Strauss described as "dismal." Oberstein, a GI specialist, noted that these types of cancers "often have very poor outcomes," although there have been some improvements in early detection and treatment over the last few decades. "The biggest benefit we've seen in terms of mortality comes from earlier detection of GI cancers," he told Fox News Digital, adding that colon cancer has the best outcomes when detected early. "But we really need to double down on trying to detect stomach cancer, liver cancer and especially pancreatic cancer earlier in order to make a big difference," Oberstein said.
