Oncology News

• GICS 2021 New Standard for Borderline Resectable Pancreatic Cancer Neoadjuvant mFOLFIRINOX was associated with favorable overall survival compared to historical data, but the addition of hypofractionated radiotherapy did not improve outcomes.
  Medscape Medical News, January 20, 2021
• Alert FDA Approves First and Only Treatment for AL Amyloidosis Accelerated approval has been granted to daratumumab in combination with bortezomib, cyclophosphamide, and dexamethasone for treatment of newly diagnosed light chain amyloidosis.
  FDA Approvals, January 20, 2021
• Bemarituzumab FIGHTs Gastric/GEJ Cancers, Improving Survival Adding bemarituzumab to chemotherapy as first-line treatment for advanced gastric and gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancers improved survival over chemotherapy alone in the phase 2 FIGHT trial.
  Medscape Medical News, January 19, 2021
• Many ED Visits May Be Preventable for Patients With NSCLC The authors of a study in JCO Oncology Practice note that unplanned hospital visits are among the largest drivers of increased spending in advanced cancer care, accounting for 48% of spending.
  Medscape Medical News, January 19, 2021
• Nulliparity, Not ART, Likely Raises Risk of Ovarian Cancer Women who receive ovarian stimulation for assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedures don't have an increased risk of developing ovarian cancer, according to a new study.
  Medscape Medical News, January 19, 2021
• Cancer Surgery Mortality Down, but Racial Disparities Persist In recent years, deaths after cancer surgery have decreased for all types of cancer except among Black patients undergoing prostate cancer surgery, but racial disparity gaps persist.
  Medscape Medical News, January 19, 2021
• Unexpectedly, Immunotherapy Response Linked to Low TMB in rGMB In contrast to what has been seen in other tumor types, recurrent glioblastoma (rGMB) appears to respond better to immunotherapy when tumor mutational burden (TMB) is low.
  Medscape Medical News, January 19, 2021
• GICS 2021 Better Survival With S-1/Docetaxel in Stage III Gastric Cancer Postoperative adjuvant S-1/docetaxel after D2 gastrectomy significantly improved survival in comparison with S-1 alone for patients with stage III gastric cancer.
  Medscape Medical News, January 18, 2021
• GICS 2021 Gut Microbiome Predicts Nivolumab Efficacy in Gastric Cancer? Preliminary data suggest that the diversity of the gut microbiome could potentially predict nivolumab response for patients with gastric cancer.
  Medscape Medical News, January 18, 2021
• Baby Gets Cancer From Mother During Birth: First Report For the first time, transmission of cancer via the birth canal has been documented: the mothers had cervical cancer, the infants later developed lung cancer.
  Medscape Medical News, January 15, 2021
• Eliminating Hepatitis by 2030: HHS Releases New Strategic Plan In an effort to counteract alarming trends in rising hepatitis infections, the HHS has developed and released its Viral Hepatitis National Strategic Plan 2021-2025.
  Medscape Medical News, January 15, 2021
• Long-COVID Cases Rise as Stigma of Chronic Fatigue Taunts An estimated 5 million people could be headed toward a long-COVID diagnosis and their care is unclear. Investigators studying viral infection and chronic fatigue have ideas for rehabilitation.
  Medscape Medical News, January 14, 2021
• Does Screening for Skin Cancer Result in Melanoma Overdiagnosis? Screening for skin cancer should stop, as it is contributing to an overdiagnosis of melanoma, say NEJM authors, but the issue is nuanced, retort melanoma experts.
  Medscape Medical News, January 14, 2021
• What the Blood Supply Shows About COVID-19's Spread Labs and blood banks collect millions of blood samples each month, offering a distinctive source of data on Covid-19.
  Undark, January 13, 2021
• US Cancer Death Rates Drop for Second Year in a Row Mortality from cancer continues to decline in the US, driven largely by major reductions in death rates from non-small cell lung cancer in men and women.
  Medscape Medical News, January 13, 2021
• Diabetes Drug Reduces Acute GVHD After Stem Cell Transplant Adding the diabetes drug sitaliptin to immunosuppression therapies for patients undergoing stem cell transplant reduced the risk of developing acute graft-vs-host disease (GVHD).
  Medscape Medical News, January 13, 2021
• Entinostat Doesn't Overcome Endocrine Resistance in Breast Cancer The histone deacetylase inhibitor entinostat failed to overcome resistance to endocrine therapy in hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, advanced breast cancer in a phase 3 trial.
  Medscape Medical News, January 13, 2021
• Conjunctival Melanoma May Be Attributed to UV Radiation According to a new study published in Nature Communications, exposure to ultraviolet radiation can lead to a rare type of eye cancer called conjunctival melanoma.
  Medscape News UK, January 13, 2021
• Should People Be Paid to Get a COVID-19 Vaccine? Some people have suggested paying US adults $1000 or more to complete the vaccinations to speed herd immunity. Others say that idea has ethical and practical flaws.
  Medscape Medical News, January 12, 2021
• Color-Imaging Endoscopy Improves Detection of Upper GI Cancer Color imaging with endoscopy improved the detection rate for upper gastrointestinal cancers in comparison with conventional white-light imaging in a randomized trial.
  Medscape Medical News, January 12, 2021