2020    Andrew Davies, MB BS, MSc, MD, FRCP, took office as MASCC's new President in June, succeeding Rajesh Lalla, DDS, PhD, who has served as President since June 2018. Andrew is a Consultant in Palliative Medicine at the Royal Surrey County Hospital (St. Luke’s Cancer Centre) in Guildford in the United Kingdom. He is a longstanding member of MASCC and has served as a Board Member, the Chair of the Palliative Care study group, and Chair of the Annual Meeting in San Francisco (2019) and Seville (2020/2021).

2020    MASCC’s Survivorship Study Group invites healthcare professionals involved in the care of cancer patients to share their experiences and perceptions regarding patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in a 10-minute online survey. The Study Group is investigating oncology practitioners' current strategies and experiences in applying PROs in clinical practice, performance measurement, and research. The aims are (1) to explore practitioners’ experiences and perceptions on the use of PROs in routine clinical care at the patient level and (2) to assess the value of PROs as a performance or quality-of-care indicator at the system level. This study has been approved by the Institutional Review Boards of Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Edith Cowan University, Western Australia.

2020    MASCC announces the Study Group Leadership changes for 2020/2022. For the full roster of study group leaders, visit individual study groups on the MASCC website.  Be sure to stay in touch with your Study Groups and get involved in their projects. It's the best way to take full advantage of your MASCC membership and work with like-minded colleagues around the world. Contact Study Group Coordinator Leslie Johnson for more information.

2020    This month, we are sharing a recent article published by MASCC members in the MASCC journal Supportive Care in Cancer. With the rapidly changing and evolving practice in managing COVID-19, MASCC would like to share information on our members’ professional experiences amongst our community. If you are interested and able to share your professional experiences, advice and advancements during this time of international crisis, we will find a convenient time in your schedule for a brief 30-minute interview. Please contact Angela Perez today at [email protected].

2020    As I write these words, there are 3 million cases of COVID-19 infections around the world and every MASCC member has been directly or indirectly affected by the pandemic.  Labs have closed, elective surgical lists were stopped, and work from home began as did home schooling of small children. Cancer work never really stops, not even in the time of the pandemic.  That work evolves rapidly and the pandemic has presented us, the cancer clinicians and researchers, with urgent and significant challenges.  And with many questions: “How do we deliver care safely?” “Whose treatment is no longer safe?” “What research can continue and how?”

2020    Digital health — the use of technology to improve health and healthcare — is a simple concept, but a broad field that encompasses telehealth and telemedicine, health information technology, mobile health, and personalized medicine. One of its prime aims and benefits is the empowerment of all individuals to make better-informed health decisions by providing accurate and appropriate information as well as options for prevention, early diagnosis, and disease management outside traditional healthcare settings. Digital health products include mobile medical apps, decision support software, wearable devices, and more.

2019    Karen Mustian, PhD, MS, MPH, ACSM, FSBM, received this year’s Debra Sivesind Career Award at the 23rd Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Supportive Care, Hospice and Palliative Medicine, held October 18-19, 2019 at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. The Debra Sivesind Career Award recognizes outstanding contributions to palliative care, and Dr. Mustian was recognized for her numerous contributions to symptom management in cancer patients and survivors. Eduardo Bruera, MD, introduced the Award and Dr. Mustian delivered the Award Lecture, “Treatment of Cancer-Related Fatigue in Advanced Patients: What Can We Do Now?”

2019    MASCC’s Pediatrics Study Group, led by Chair Andrea Orsey, MD, MSCE and Vice-Chair Jason Freedman, MD, MSCE, aims to promote and improve supportive care for pediatric cancer patients and survivors and to ensure that pediatric supportive care is considered in all practice guidelines, research, and clinical endeavors.

2019    MASCC’s Survivorship Study Group invites healthcare professionals involved in the care of cancer patients to share their experiences and perceptions regarding patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in a 10-minute online survey. The Study Group is investigating oncology practitioners' current strategies and experiences in applying PROs in clinical practice, performance measurement, and research. The aims are (1) to explore practitioners’ experiences and perceptions on the use of PROs in routine clinical care at the patient level and (2) to assess the value of PROs as a performance or quality-of-care indicator at the system level. This study has been approved by the Institutional Review Boards of Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Edith Cowan University, Western Australia.
If you are interested in participating, please follow this link for more information and the online survey by July 31, 2020: Patient-Reported Outcomes (PRO) Data Collection in Routine Care: An International Survey of Oncology Practitioners.

2019    The 2019 Annual Cancer Treatment-Related Adverse Events Symposium will be held on Friday, October 25, 2019 and Saturday, October 26, 2019 at the Rockefeller Research Laboratories, 430 East 67th Street, New York, NY. The course is directed by MASCC member Mario E. Lacouture, MD, who is the Director of the Oncodermatology Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

2019    Constipation is a common problem among patients with advanced cancer, with a reported prevalence of 32–87% in this group, in whom it also causes significant morbidity. Opioid-induced constipation appears to be a chronic side effect and is more common in patients with cancer pain than in those with nonmalignant pain. It may be influenced by the type of opioid involved, as well as by genetic factors, but does not appear to be particularly influenced by the dose of opioid.

2019    MASCC’s Mucositis Study Group (MSG) has announced the latest update of the MASCC/ISOO Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Mucositis Secondary to Cancer Therapy. An editorial by MSG Chair Sharon Elad, DMD, MSc, and seven articles have just been published (July 2019) in a Special Section of Supportive Care in Cancer (SCC). This is the first set of papers generated as part of this guideline update and it represents several types of interventions for oral mucositis: anti-inflammatory agents; photobiomodulation; vitamins, minerals, and nutritional supplements; and protocols categorized as basic oral care.

2019    Chair Maryam B. Lustberg, MD, MPH, is a Medical Oncologist and tenured Associate Professor in the College of Medicine at The Ohio State University and a member of the Cancer Control Program at The Ohio State University’s James Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC). She has specialized in breast cancer and works as a medical oncologist at the Stefanie Spielman Comprehensive Breast Center. She is the Director of Breast Cancer Survivorship and the Medical Director of Cancer Supportive Care Services at OSUCCC and physician champion for the Adolescent and Young Adult Program. She has led numerous clinical trials, including research on the early detection of heart damage in patients treated with chemotherapy. She was recently awarded an R01 from the National Cancer Institute on focused on targeted therapies for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced neuropathy. Maryam has authored or co-authored of numerous research papers on such topics as physicians’ perspectives on survivorship care for older breast cancer survivors, prevention of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, and early detection of chemotherapy induced cardiotoxicity in breast cancer survivors. She is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Neuropathy Task Force and the ASCO Survivorship Education Track, and member of Alliance and Southwest Oncology Group Cooperative Group Networks in the USA. In addition to the Neurological Complications Study Group, Maryam is a member of MASCC Study Groups on Nutrition and Cachexia and Survivorship.

2019    At the 2019 MASCC/ISOO Annual Meeting, seven Study Groups recognized high-quality work by junior investigators in their disciplines. The Fatigue Study Group was the first to honor outstanding young investigators with junior faculty and trainee awards as a means of professional recognition and a way to showcase cutting-edge work by up-and-coming researchers. The awards are based on the quality of abstracts submitted to the Annual Meeting. This year, junior investigator awards were conferred by the Study Groups on Fatigue, Geriatrics, Mucositis, Neurological Complications, Pediatrics, Psychosocial Issues, and Survivorship. In addition, the Fatigue Study Group recognized Debra L. Barton, PhD, FAAN, RN, as Distinguished Scientific Laureate.

2019    In February 2019, the MASCC Nutrition and Cachexia Study Group offered a webinar, “The Cachexia Clinic — Building a Supportive Care Necessity.” The webinar, featuring speakers Liz Isenring, PhD, Egidio Del Fabbro, MD, and Rony Dev, MD, provided information and practical considerations for establishing and operating a cachexia clinic within a cancer center. Topics concerned service and team composition, assessment, management, and outcome measures. A detailed description of the webinar is available here. A replay of the webinar is available at Cachexia Clinic Webinar.

2017    Carme Font is one of a large group of investigators who have collaborated on a study of differences in the clinical course of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in relation to specific cancer sites (breast, prostate, colorectal, and lung). The study was based on data from an international registry of patients with VTE,* and included almost 4000 adult patients with active cancer.

2017    MASCC members Paul Jacobsen (Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, Florida) and Irma Verdonck-de Leeuw (VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) were among the many collaborators on a large-scale meta-analysis (Buffart et al., 2017) designed to evaluate the effects of exercise on quality of life and physical function in adult cancer patients.¹ The study also aimed to determine the extent to which demographic, clinical, exercise, and other intervention-related variables moderated the main effects. The analysis included 34 randomized controlled trials that involved more than 4,500 adult cancer patients and that evaluated the effects of exercise on quality of life and physical function. Exercise was found to significantly improve both quality of life and physical function. These effects were unaffected by differences in demographic, clinical, and exercise variables, such as age, sex, education level, marital status, BMI, cancer type, metastatic stage, and treatment. Also, exercise was equally effective during and following cancer treatment.

2016    Kord Kober, PhD, is this year’s winner of the Fatigue Study Group’s Junior Investigator Award for his research on gene expression profiling of inflammation and immune response pathways in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. In July, Kord and his colleagues, including MASCC members Christine Miaskowski and Judy Mastick, published their paper, “Gene Expression Profiling of Evening Fatigue in Women Undergoing Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer,” in Biological Research for Nursing. The report contains extensive details regarding methodology and gene expression analyses that we cannot include here, but the paper is available for free download.*

Many national and international professional organizations have called for increased integration of oncology and palliative care in order to meet the supportive care needs of cancer patients, but to date, there has been a lack of a global consensus on an acceptable level of integration of oncology and palliative care. Study Group members initiated a Delphi survey (three iterations) to develop an international consensus on indicators for the integration of specialty palliative care and oncology programs for hospitalized advanced cancer patients. Respondents, mostly from North America and Europe, reached consensus on 13 major and 30 minor indicators. Major indicators were related to clinical structure (e.g., presence of palliative care inpatient team), processes (e.g., early palliative care referral), outcomes (e.g., median time from diagnosis to palliative care consultation), and education (e.g., routine rotation of oncology fellows to palliative care). The indicators can be used to identify centers with a high level of integration and to facilitate benchmarking, quality improvement, and research.

2016    The MASCC/ESMO Antiemetic Guidelines have been updated as of March, 2016. The guidelines are based on the Copenhagen Consensus Conference on Antiemetic Therapy, June 2015, and have been endorsed by both MASCC and ESMO. This set of evidence-based guidelines represents several important changes and first-time inclusions. This is the first time that recommendations about management of nausea and vomiting in advanced cancer have been included — as opposed to only nausea and vomiting induced by chemotherapy or radiotherapy — and in this respect, the new MASCC/ESMO guidelines differ from those of NCCN and ASCO. The new guidelines contain recommendations for two new NK1 receptor antagonists, rolapitant and netupitant, the latter given in combination with palonosetron (NEPA), and also discuss the use of olanzapine. The combination of an anthracycline with cyclophosphamide, previously considered of medium emetogenic risk (30-90% risk of vomiting) is now considered a high-risk combination (>90% risk of vomiting). However, this remains a special case, since recommendations for the delayed phase differ from those of other chemotherapies of highly emetogenic risk. In addition, carboplatin is now considered a special case with an indication for triple preventative therapy in the acute phase.