The May issue of The Oncology Pharmacist (TOP) contains important updates for today’s oncology pharmacist. These include highlights from recent national and international conferences, which explore recent advances in cancer treatment, as well as ongoing efforts to address social, economic, and policy issues affecting the delivery of healthcare.
We begin this issue with encouraging early data on the use of belzutifan, a novel inhibitor of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-2α, in patients with clear-cell, renal-cell carcinoma. These results were discussed during a presentation at the virtual 2021 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (see here).
“With this drug, we don’t see quick drops in tumor volume, but we often see small tumor shrinkage with each successive scan, and we see great clinical benefit,” said Todd Michael Bauer, MD, lead investigator of the phase 1/2 trial that evaluated belzutifan as monotherapy in patients with metastatic disease.
In noteworthy sessions at the virtual 2021 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer meeting, experts discussed strategies for addressing screening disparities in the LGBT population (see here), as well as the need for more in-depth genomic analysis in never-smokers with lung cancer (see here).
“While it appears that the number of these patients is on the rise, very little is known about the biology and risk factors associated with lung cancer in never-smokers,” said Sitapriya Moorthi, PhD, who presented the results of a mutational analysis of the Women’s Health Initiative Cohort.
Additional articles in this issue of TOP cover the latest safety and efficacy data on investigational and FDA-approved therapies being used to improve outcomes in patients with breast, bladder, hematologic, and gastrointestinal malignancies.
As always, we hope you will enjoy this issue of TOP, and we invite you to visit www.TheOncologyPharmacist.com to share your feedback about this issue with us or send comments to