TOP - May 2020, Vol 13, No 3

The May issue of The Oncology Pharmacist (TOP) is filled with important news and insights for today’s oncology pharmacist. We begin our coverage with highlights of a recent webinar from the Association for Value-Based Cancer Care (AVBCC), in which healthcare experts addressed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on oncology delivery systems and the management of patients with cancer. Read More ›

On April 3, 2020, the Association for Value-Based Cancer Care (AVBCC) held a webcast with healthcare experts representing major industry stakeholders to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on oncology delivery systems and the management of patients with cancer. Read More ›

San Francisco, CA—De-escalating chemotherapy based on a negative positron-emission tomography (PET) scan after 2 cycles of treatment is safe and feasible in most patients with low-volume metastatic seminoma, the most common type of testicular cancer, according to results presented at the 2020 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium. Read More ›

San Francisco, CA—Platinum-based therapy represents a new standard of care in patients with pancreatic cancer and germline BRCA or PALB2 mutation, based on data reported at the 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. Read More ›

Although medical cannabis has been used successfully as a palliative therapy in patients with cancer, it is still stigmatized because of its illicit scheduling. Read More ›

San Francisco, CA—The combination of encorafenib (Braftovi) plus cetuximab (Erbitux), with or without binimetinib (Mektovi), improved the quality of life based on patient-reported assessments better than current standard of care in the treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) and BRAF V600E mutation, according to the BEACON CRC study, which was presented at the 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. Read More ›

This section provides a brief overview of new cancer drugs or new indications approved by the FDA between March 2 and March 27, 2020. Read More ›

San Francisco, CA—Second-line treatment with a 3-drug regimen that included the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo), the VEGF receptor antagonist ramucirumab (Cyramza), and chemotherapy with the taxane paclitaxel, showed durable and impressive response rates, regardless of PD-L1 expression, in patients with advanced gastric cancers. Read More ›

San Francisco, CA—Delivering the keynote address at the 2020 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, David F. Penson, MD, MPH, MMHC, Hamilton and Howd Chair in Urologic Oncology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, highlighted the need to move toward patient-centered decisions beyond survival, focusing on patient-centered outcomes by integrating quality of life (QOL) and financial toxicity into the shared, treatment-related, decision-making process. Read More ›

San Francisco, CA—The combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) plus the investigational drug sitravatinib improved progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with pretreated metastatic clear-cell renal-cell carcinoma (RCC) and the historical disease control rates compared with nivolumab alone, according to the results of a phase 1/2 clinical trial reported at the 2020 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium. Read More ›