News

With the identification of actionable alterations, precision medicine continues to lead the way in all areas of oncology, but especially in melanoma, according to Jason J. Luke, MD, FACP, who added that, in order to successfully apply personalized therapy, it’s critical to be fluent in the differences between biomarkers.

Recent research found 4 common occurrences that can delay chemotherapy treatment in an outpatient setting.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has become another potential complication for patients with lung cancer, said Mark G. Kris, MD, who added that although the pandemic has disrupted patient care, it has yet to stunt scientific collaboration.

The FDA has granted a priority review designation to the oral FGFR1-3 selective inhibitor infigratinib for the treatment of patients with cholangiocarcinoma.

What was the most noteworthy news in the oncology nursing arena this year? Take our survey and tell us what you think.

The FDA approved pralsetinib (Gavreto) for adults and children aged 12 or older with advanced or metastatic RET-mutant medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) who need systemic therapy or RET fusion-positive thyroid cancer who require systemic therapy and are radioactive iodine-refractory.

The FDA approved Gallium 68 PSMA-11 (Ga 68 PSMA-11), a drug for PET imaging of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positive levels in men with suspected prostate cancer metastasis, who may be curable by surgery or radiation therapy.

Each month, we take a look back at the most popular Oncology Nursing News® stories. Here are the top 5 stories from November 2020.

The FDA has approved the Sonalleve MR-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound (MR-HIFU) system for the treatment of patients with osteoid osteoma in the extremities.

The advent of 3D printing has led to an exciting revolution in limb salvage surgery for patients with bone tumors and soft tissue sarcomas, and have resulted in more precise resection and high-fidelity reconstruction, according to R. Lor Randall, MD, FACS.

Nurses are much more than “doctors’ helpers,” and now the world is starting to see that.

The FDA has granted an accelerated approval to naxitamab-gqgk (Danyelza) for use in combination with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor as a treatment for pediatric patients 1 year of age and older and adult patients with relapsed/refractory high-risk neuroblastoma in the bone or bone marrow who have demonstrated a partial response, minor response, or stable disease to prior treatment.

The clinical trial planned to evaluate the targeted agent will focus on patients with relapsed/refractory clear cell sarcoma.

Tebentafusp (IMCgp100) showed superiority in overall survival (OS) compared with investigator’s choice of therapy in patients with previously untreated metastatic uveal melanoma, according to results of a preplanned interim analysis of the phase 3 IMCgp100-202 trial (NCT03070392).

To understand the impact of the pandemic, I asked clinical nurses to describe the 2020 The Year of the Nurse and Midwife in a few words. Everyone was eager to give a statement and many, many were very prideful for the nursing care done in 2020.

With additional JAK inhibitors under exploration in the myelofibrosis pipeline, such as momelotinib and pacritinib, FDA-approved options continue to be utilized heavily in the paradigm, explained John O. Mascarenhas, MD.

Some states are allowing nurse practitioners to practice without physician oversight – an act that is long overdue, according to the AANP president.

Patients from Asian countries with hormone receptor (HR)–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer may have a higher risk of disease recurrence than those from non-Asian countries, suggesting that this population may benefit from additional adjuvant treatment with abemaciclib (Verzenio).

Pathology is the cornerstone of precision medicine, explained Marilyn M. Bui, MD, PhD, who added that, as a whole, the health care specialty needs to step it up in the diagnosis of sarcomas and the differentiation between the various histological subtypes.

The combination of plinabulin and pegfilgrastim (Neulasta) showed a statistically significant improvement in the rate of prevention of grade 4 neutropenia versus pegfilgrastim alone in patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy.

Nurses are signing an online petition for a nurse to be a member of the COVID-19 task force.

The FDA has granted a fast track designation and an orphan drug designation to the orally bioavailable small molecule tubulin-binding agent PTC596 for potential use in patients with leiomyosarcoma; the agent also received a rare pediatric disease designation and an orphan drug designation for potential use in patients with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG).

November 18, 2020 - The FDA has granted a fast track designation to the BTK inhibitor rilzabrutinib for the treatment of patients with immune thrombocytopenia.

AV-GBM-1, a personalized cancer vaccine, demonstrated an improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma, according to data from a phase 2 trial (NCT03400917).

Cemiplimab (Libtayo) demonstrated clinically meaningful antitumor activity, including durable responses, and acceptable safety in patients with metastatic basal cell carcinoma (mBCC) after progression on or intolerance to hedgehog inhibitors.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) treatment has entered an era that is both exciting and challenging, according to Nilofer S. Azad, MD, who emphasized that as new strategies continue to be explored, treatment decisions should be informed by tumor location, the alterations present, and tolerability.

The combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) elicited an objective response rate (ORR) of 25% and was found to be well tolerated in patients with advanced or unresectable angiosarcoma, according to cohort findings of the phase 2 DART trial (NCT02834013) that were presented during the virtual SITC 2020 Annual Meeting.

Patients on active therapy during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, as well as oncology care providers, have increased levels of perceived and posttraumatic stress, according to preliminary data from the COVIPACT study. These data highlight a gap in psychosocial support resources that help promote emotional resilience and reduce the risk of posttraumatic stress in patients on active therapy.