Articles

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.

Belzutifan, an oral, novel hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-2α inhibitor, showed encouraging activity as a single agent in heavily pretreated patients with advanced clear-cell renal-cell carcinoma (RCC) associated with von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease, as well as impressive tumor shrinkage when used in combination with cabozantinib (Cabometyx) in separate studies presented at the virtual 2021 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.

The HER2-targeted bispecific investigational antibody zanidatamab, either as monotherapy or in combination with chemotherapy, has shown promising antitumor activity in an ongoing phase 1 study of patients with HER2-expressing biliary tract cancer or gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma, reported Funda Meric-Bernstam, MD, Chair, Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, at the 2021 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Sexual orientation and assigned sex at birth are significant determinants in the utilization of lung cancer screening, according to an analysis from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) 2018, a cross-sectional, nationally representative database, that looked at screening among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) populations.