News and Perspective

• Treating Metastatic TNBC: Where Are We Now? New antibody-drug conjugates are a step in the right direction, but the key to developing effective therapies hinges on identifying the best molecular targets.
  Medscape Oncology, March 29, 2021
• ENDO 2021 Denosumab Now Dominant Therapy for Cancer-Associated Osteoporosis In changing patterns of osteoporosis drug prescriptions, denosumab has risen to the top of cancer indications.
  Medscape Medical News, March 26, 2021
• Vitamin D for All Over 50s to Prevent Cancer Deaths? Growing evidence from three meta-analyses and a large prospective trial suggests that vitamin D significantly reduces cancer mortality.
  Medscape Medical News, March 17, 2021
• Treatment of Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Sacituzumab Govitecan   Dr Linda Vahdat provides an update on the ASCENT trial and recent progress for the antibody drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan in the treatment of metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.
  March 05, 2021
• A Patient Insisted on a Trial. Docs Listened and Saved Lives Now considered a landmark trial, a seemingly modest study surprisingly improved overall survival in a rare and incurable blood cancer.
  Medscape Medical News, March 03, 2021
• How Has COVID-19 Affected MBC Treatment Decisions? Oncologists discuss how they've modified their pre-pandemic practices based on local COVID conditions in an effort to sustain patient care.
  Medscape Oncology, February 26, 2021
• Obesity 'Clearly' Not Tied to Worse Survival in MBC For the first time, a large multicenter study explores the effects of obesity on outcomes among patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC).
  Medscape Medical News, January 29, 2021
• Finally, ALS Patients Gain Faster Access to Disability Payments In December, then-President Donald Trump signed the bill into law. It eliminates for ALS patients the waiting period to begin receiving benefits under the Social Security Disability Insurance program.
  Kaiser Health News, January 21, 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
• Margetuximab for HER2+ Metastatic Breast Cancer Falls Short   With such a small improvement in progression-free survival, margetuximab is 'simply not enough' for advanced HER2+ breast cancer, says Dr Kathy Miller.
  Medscape Oncology, January 07, 2021
• CONTESSA: Oral Taxane Meets Primary Endpoint   FDA is likely to approve this formulation, says Dr Kathy Miller.
  Medscape Oncology, January 06, 2021
• Social Media for Cancer Trial Recruitment? 'Not at This Time.' Are the investigators of a major US-funded cancer clinical trials group out of step or appropriately cautious?
  Medscape Medical News, January 06, 2021
• Advances in HER2+ MBC From SABCS 2020   From SABCS 2020, Dr Harold Burstein reports on advances for patients with HER2+ metastatic breast cancer, including gains in progression-free survival in patients with brain metastases.
  Medscape, December 31, 2020
• Highlights in Metastatic Breast Cancer From SABCS 2020   From SABCS 2020, Dr Harold Burstein reports on advances for patients with HER2- metastatic breast cancer, including updates on immunotherapy and promising results for a novel oral taxane.
  Medscape, December 30, 2020
• Alert Margetuximab Approved for HER2+ Metastatic Breast Cancer A new monoclonal antibody targeting HER2 in breast cancer, margetuximab-cmkb, has shown superiority over trastuzumab in improving progression-free survival in heavily pretreated women.
  FDA Approvals, December 17, 2020
• SABCS 2020 A Disappointment in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer The oral AKT inhibitor ipatasertib does not seem to offer any clinical benefit when added to paclitaxel for women with gene-altered advanced triple- negative breast cancer, indicate phase 3 trial data.
  Medscape Medical News, December 16, 2020
• Alert EMA Panel Endorses Approval of Five New Cancer Drugs The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency has recommended marketing authorization or has given a positive opinion regarding several cancer therapies.
  International Approvals, December 14, 2020
• SABCS 2020 CTCs Predict Overall Survival in Metastatic Breast Cancer It's an appealing idea: a blood test to assess whether or not a breast cancer drug is working. New study data show potential usefulness, but the results are not authoritative.
  Medscape Medical News, December 09, 2020
• SABCS 2020 SABCS 2020: What's Hot, Including a Major Chemotherapy Trial The world's largest breast cancer meeting starts this Tuesday online and, for the first time, features a community-based oncologist as a session chair.
  Medscape Medical News, December 04, 2020
• Should CTCs Guide Treatment Choice in HR+, HER2– Breast Cancer? Trial results suggest circulating tumor cell (CTC) counts may be a reliable biomarker for guidingfirst-line treatment in patients with HR+, HER2– metastatic breast cancer.
  Medscape Medical News, December 03, 2020