What's coming at ASCO

It's still two weeks from the start of the biggest oncology meeting of the year, but the ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) committee has chosen six abstracts to be released to the public before the start of the meeting in June 4. The abstracts included:

1) A study showed that a four-week gentle yoga program improved fatigue, sleep quality, and general quality of life in women cancer survivors. (Read "Yoga helps fatigue, sleep in cancer survivors.")

2) Two separate studies determined that maintenance treatment is useful in follicular lymphoma and myeloma. Maintenance treatment with Rituxan in follicular lymphoma reduces the risk of recurrence, while treatment with Revlimid delays disease progression in myeloma. (Read "Rituxan halves risk of lymphoma recurrence"; "Celgene's Revlimid positive in maintenance trials.")

3) Scientists found gene variants that increase the risk of heart failure with anthracyclines in childhood cancer patients. The finding could help physicians determine treatment strategies for patients and develop individual survivorship plans that screen for late effects of cardiac toxicity. (Read "Genes predict anthracyclines cardiotoxicity.")

4) A promising screening strategy to detect early-stage ovarian cancer was announced that includes annual CA-125 testing in post-menopausal women at average risk. (Read "New approach to old test may detect ovarian cancer.")

5) A study found that women who are 70 and older may not need radiation therapy after a diagnosis of early-stage breast cancer. (Read "Older patients can skip radiation: study.")They'll be more news from the late-breaking abstracts and plenary sessions, which we will be reporting on from the meeting. We'll have four bloggers at the international conference, including Dr. Debu Tripathy, editor-in-chief, and publisher and cancer survivor, Sue McClure. If you want more updates from ASCO, we'll be featuring the top stories in the Summer issue of CURE and in the ASCO edition of CURExtra. (If you're not yet receiving CURExtra, you can sign up at https://www.curetoday.com/view/enews).