Maurie Markman, MD

Maurie Markman, MD, discusses the increasing criticism of the phase III randomized trial in oncology.

Maurie Markman, MD, president of Medicine and Science, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, discusses the latest advances in treatment for gynecological malignancies and other tumor types.

Maurie Markman, MD, defines precision medicine in oncology.

The public’s faith in science, particularly in efforts related to health, is crucial for the successful implementation of strategies designed to improve the human condition, says Maurie Markman, MD.

Maurie Markman, MD, discusses the potential to employ germline data and knowledge about the presence of specific common, uncommon, or rare variants to cancer therapy.

Maurie Markman, MD, sheds light on the debate regarding the future direction of clinical investigation.

Maurie Markman, MD, shares his thoughts on the right-to-try bill, which would allow terminally ill patients to receive investigational drugs that have been studied in phase I trials without applying through the FDA’s expanded access program.

Maurie Markman, MD, discusses the cause and impact of the opioid addiction epidemic in the United States.

It is quite difficult for those not directly involved in the complex world of academic medicine to understand fully the process of individual professional advancement and the values that organizations place on the components required for achieving and maintaining tenure.

The impact of staggering increases in the cost of individual antineoplastic agents for patients and the overall healthcare system cannot be overstated, and there appears to be no realistic solution to the current dilemma that is acceptable to the parties involved in this ongoing debate.

One of the cardinal principles of modern medicine, as practiced in the United States, is active participation by patients—and often their families—in the process of clinical decision making.

Although median survival is a reasonable endpoint to highlight, it is only 1 of many relevant outcome factors to discuss, and, most important, this mathematical figure simply does not define the survival of any particular patient.

Decision support is only lightly touched upon in the academic oncology papers that are published almost daily suggesting a potential change in paradigms for management in a particular clinical setting.

Maurie Markman, MD, president of Medicine and Science, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, editor-in-chief, OncologyLive, discusses overall survival as an endpoint in ovarian cancer clinical trials.

The FDA’s recent approvals of novel anti-PARP agents as maintenance therapy for patients with previously treated advanced ovarian cancer highlight an issue that has received inadequate attention in the peer-reviewed oncology literature.

Fewer than 4% of patients with cancer in the United States participate in clinical trials, the elderly and individuals with clinically relevant comorbidities are strikingly underrepresented in the research portfolio.

There is a critically important subject associated with the clinical trial experience that has had inadequate discussion within the medical literature, regarding the role of the patient beyond agreeing to serve as a research subject.

From the perspective of a patient and that patient’s family, it is completely understandable that the single most important goal of an antineoplastic strategy is to prolong survival and, if possible, produce a cure.

Controversy over the FDA’s role in regulating off-label marketing practices of pharmaceutical companies continues to reverberate in the medical community.

In patients with common solid tumors, it is well-established that those with early-stage cancers have a statistically defined superior prognosis compared with those who present with and are required to be treated at later stages of the disease.

There are certain commonly used terms in the realm of oncology that may result in unintended consequences and should be considered carefully before being employed in conversation or in writing.

Maurie Markman, MD, president of Medicine and Science, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, editor-in-chief, OncologyLive, discusses the era of precision medicine in ovarian cancer.

Maurie Markman, MD, president of medicine and science, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, editor-in-chief, OncologyLive, discusses endpoints in clinical trials for ovarian cancer.

Antineoplastic drug therapy has been delivered by the oral route since the earliest days of the modern chemotherapeutic era.

There are many elegant examples of basic laboratory research or mathematical modeling studies that resulted, through the conduct of clinical trials, in major paradigm changes in how cancer is managed.

Oncologists are well aware that by the time a new antineoplastic drug or regimen first enters the pages of a traditional reference textbook, the data supporting its use, including doses, schedules, and clinical indications, may already be considerably out-of-date.

The clinical oncology community, along with patients, families, pharmaceutical companies, investors, and third-party payers, eagerly awaits the plenary session presentations at the ASCO annual meetings as representing the most important and impactful of the thousands of abstracts submitted each year.

The decades-long argument over whether zinc lozenges can shorten the duration of the common cold is far removed from the arena of cancer medicine, yet the studies conducted to settle the debate help illustrate the shortcomings of the clinical trial model that has dominated the oncology sphere.

This commentary from Maurie Markman, MD, highlights a critical required component for the development of effective novel antineoplastic strategies through the process widely known as precision cancer medicine.

In the cancer management arena, the term “clinical benefit” has unfortunately achieved a problematic status.