In the July issue of The Oncology Pharmacist (TOP), we feature the latest news and updates relevant to pharmacy professionals working in the field of oncology. This issue begins with highlights from the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, where experts from around the world discussed breakthroughs in cancer care, including emerging data from clinical trials investigating novel agents and combination regimens.
In a noteworthy session at this meeting, Andrea Cercek, MD, Section Head, Colorectal Cancer, and Co-Director, Center for Young Onset Colorectal and Gastrointestinal Cancers, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, discussed compelling results from a small ongoing phase 2 trial of dostarlimab-gxly (Jemperli), an anti–PD-1 monoclonal antibody, in patients with locally advanced mismatch repair-deficient (dMMR) rectal cancer, reporting that 6 months of treatment led to an unprecedented 100% complete response rate in the first 14 patients enrolled in the study (see here).
“Treatment of the tumor-agnostic dMMR population of early-stage disease has the potential to eliminate the need for chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery in 3% to 4% of all cancers,” Dr Cercek asserted, acknowledging the importance of longer follow-up to determine the durability of the therapy.
In a separate session, Michael Wang, MD, Professor, Lymphoma & Myeloma, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, presented findings from the phase 3 SHINE trial, which showed a significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) when ibrutinib (Imbruvica) was added to standard-of-care treatment in older patients with newly diagnosed mantle-cell lymphoma (MCL; see here).
“The median PFS of 6.7 years [in the ibrutinib arm] is one of the highest ever published in the literature. This study should set a new benchmark for first-line therapy of older patients with MCL or those unsuitable for stem-cell transplantation,” Dr Wang said.
This issue of TOP also includes highlights from other premier oncology meetings, including the 2021 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network 2022 Annual Conference.
At the AACR meeting, Kevin Oeffinger, MD, Founding Director, Duke Cancer Institute Center for Onco-Primary Care, and Director, Duke Cancer Institute Supportive Care and Survivorship Center, Durham, NC, spoke on the importance of including primary care physicians (PCPs) in the development and execution of survivorship care programs, and discussed a shared-care survivorship model being used at his institution (see here).
“A multidisciplinary approach is essential for a program like this. It is a partnership between PCPs and oncologists. It is not a top-down approach,” he said.
We also provide readers with an overview of recent FDA approvals for a variety of anticancer drugs (see here), and strategies for ensuring a more equitable, inclusive approach to designing, recruiting for, and implementing clinical trials (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