The March issue of The Oncology Pharmacist (TOP) features the latest medical news, expert perspectives, clinical trial results, and drug updates, as well as important highlights from national and international meetings, including the 2019 ASH annual meeting, the 2019 Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium, the NCCN 2019 Hematologic Malignancies meeting, the ACCC 2019 National Oncology Conference, and the 2019 AVBCC Summit.
In a key presentation at the 2019 Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium, Sarah K. Galloway, PhD, Psychologist, Department of Supportive Oncology, Levine Cancer Institute, Atrium Health, Charlotte, NC, discussed results from a retrospective analysis of nearly 12,000 patients with cancer, which demonstrated the value of social support for reducing anxiety and mitigating pain (see here).
“To my knowledge, this is the largest study to date across all of the different variables in cancer pain. It emphasized the need to evaluate psychological symptoms early when addressing cancer pain, which is something that is not assessed regularly and should be,” Dr Galloway told attendees.
During a presentation at the 2019 ASH annual meeting, Karl M. Kilgore, PhD, Senior Research Scientist, Avalere Health, Bowie, MD, discussed encouraging real-world data supporting the use of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy outside the setting of clinical trials (see here).
“A key take-home is that older patients with multiple comorbidities can be successfully treated with CAR T-cells. Although this is not a randomized clinical trial, the data could make the case for older and sicker patients to get CAR T-cells,” he said.
Additional highlights from ASH 2019 featured in this issue of TOP include results from a trial showing the potential benefit of a novel apamistamab-based lymphodepleting regimen before CAR T-cell therapy (see here); emerging data on the efficacy of mosunetuzumab, a dual-targeted antibody, in patients with treatment-refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma (see here); and results from a study demonstrating the efficacy of single-agent tazemetostat, a first-in-class EZH2 inhibitor, in patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma (see here).
In a presentation at the NCCN 2019 Hematologic Malignancies meeting, Andrew D. Zelenetz, MD, PhD, Medical Oncologist, Division of Hematologic Malignancies, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, discussed the expanding role of biosimilars in the treatment of patients with cancer (see here).
“If we’re going to make room for new innovations, we have to pay a little bit less [for these drugs] than we have been for the last 20 years,” he said.
Other topics of interest in this issue include information on a genetic screening and testing process being implemented at Yuma Regional Medical Center Cancer Center, AZ, which is improving access to these services for underserved patients (see here), and promising results from a trial assessing the use of ceritinib for the treatment of brain metastases in patients with non–small-cell lung cancer (see here).
As always, we hope you will enjoy this issue of TOP, and we invite you to share your feedback about this issue with us or send comments. We look forward to receiving your feedback.