The September issue of The Oncology Pharmacist (TOP) features important information for today’s oncology pharmacist, including highlights from presentations made during the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2021 virtual meeting and other key oncology conferences. Topics include recent advances in the treatment of several types of malignancies and ongoing efforts by stakeholders to address social and healthcare policy issues affecting the clinical outcomes of patients with cancer.
In an important presentation at ASCO 2021, Ferdinandos Skoulidis, MD, PhD, MRCP, discussed encouraging results from the CodeBreaK 100 clinical trial, which evaluated sotorasib in previously treated patients with non−small-cell lung cancer (see here).
“After nearly 4 decades of research, we now have an effective and well tolerated oral therapy against mutant KRAS—the most common driver oncogene in lung cancer,” he said.
In a separate session at ASCO 2021, Giuseppe Curigliano, MD, PhD, discussed updated results from the HER2CLIMB trial, which showed a survival benefit with the addition of tucatinib to trastuzumab and capecitabine in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (see here).
“These data further support that treatment with the tucatinib regimen helps patients live longer compared with trastuzumab and capecitabine alone,” he stated.
During the 2021 Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association conference, experts identified disparities in cancer care that are associated with higher mortality rates and poorer clinical outcomes and discussed strategies for addressing and eliminating these disparities (see here).
“Instead of race, I propose that we push ourselves to ask, what is the difference [in cancer outcomes] stemming from?” said Benyam Muluneh, PharmD, BCOP, CPP. “Is it stemming from truly genetic differences, or is it stemming from racism?”
Additional topics in this issue of TOP include promising results from a trial evaluating tebentafusp in patients with metastatic uveal melanoma (see here), an in-depth review of infigratinib, which was recently approved by the FDA for the treatment of advanced or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma (see here), and the detrimental effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the management of patients with cancer, including the implications for patients with lung cancer (see here).
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