#LCSM Chat Topic 9/8: You’ve Been Diagnosed With Lung Cancer…Now What?

Our topic for the next #LCSM Chat on Thursday, September 8, 2016, at 5 PM Pacific (8 PM Eastern) is “You’ve Been Diagnosed with Lung Cancer…Now What?” Our moderator will be Laronica Conway (@louisianagirl91). Have you (or someone you know) been recently diagnosed with lung cancer? What happens next? Just getting past the shock of the diagnosis can be challenging and emotionally draining, but knowing the next steps can possibly help remove some of the uncertainty. This week we’ll open up the discussion and seek advice from health care providers and from… Read More

#LCSM Chat 07/14: The Spectrum of Progression: What Would YOU Do?

The Many Faces of PD: Should We Consider Progression in a More Nuanced Way? Historically, cancer treatments have been graded in large part by the “response rate” they produce, the reflection of the proportion of patients whose cancers demonstrate significant tumor shrinkage on imaging scans. While stable disease, which at least reflects no disease growth, is considered a reasonable, relative victory compared to evidence of the cancer growing, we consider a treatment as failing when the cancer grows. At the same time, in patients who are being monitored off of therapy, evidence… Read More

How Much Evidence Do We Really Need to Change Treatment Recommendations? – October 10

By Dr. H. Jack West One ongoing controversy in the world of managing cancer, especially one in which cures are elusive, is how high the bar should be to guide treatment recommendations. The “gold standard” to change treatment is a significant improvement in the primary endpoint, ideally overall survival, in a prospective, randomized phase III trial with several hundred or even several thousand people. In some settings, treatment recommendations may not even change until a few randomized phase III trials show the same significant improvement with a new treatment approach. But the reality is that sometimes we want… Read More