Articles related to Hematology/Oncology

Jacob Laubach, MD, at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute provides a summary of the most recent update from the GRIFFIN trial, assessing daratumumab plus lenalidomide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients. After 24 months of maintenance therapy or treatment discontinuation (median follow-up of 38.6 months), the rate of stringent complete response (sCR) was 66% in the D-RVd treatment arm versus 47.4% in the RVd treatment arm. At the time of data collection, median PFS had not been reached in either arm but is trending towards favoring D-RVd versus RVd. The estimated 36-month PFS rate was 88.9% for D-RVd and 81.2% for RVd.

The GLOW study is a phase 3 clinical trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of ibrutinib plus venetoclax (I+V) in elderly or unfit CLL patients. Patients receiving I+V are compared to patients receiving chlorambucil plus obinutuzumab (C+O). Previously this study reported reduced risk of disease progression with I+V vs C+O. This update, presented at ASH 2021, looked at undetectable minimal residual disease (uMRD) – a surrogate for PFS. uMRD was significantly higher in both peripheral blood and bone marrow in the I+V group.

CheckRare provides a list of the orphaned drugs that dominate the US pharmaceutical industry to start 2022. Orphan drugs are defined as those medications that remain commercially undeveloped because they’ve been deemed to have limited potential for profitability. However, nearly half of all novel medications approved by the FDA are orphan drugs.

An oncologist reflects on his last decade as a physician and what he’s learning through the art of oncology — the daily practice that is outside the latest data and is often not explicitly taught in fellowship — that has become ever more important and gratifying. Age, a changing work environment, a pandemic and telemedicine, reports of physician burnout, and colleagues leaving practice — all part of the daily routine. Here, the oncologist shares a few key rules that that have helped and sustained his practice.

A systematic review identified 204 eligible publications from 2000 through 2017, with much of the evidence consisting of systematic reviews of observational data, consensus guidelines, case series, and case reports. Due to the paucity of high-quality evidence on management of immune-related adverse events, recommendations are based on expert consensus.

Research from 20 years (2000 -2020) of studies (293) inform the evidence base for this guideline from ASCO, which addressed six main clinical questions/subquestions on preoperative evaluations, surgical diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, appropriate radiotherapy techniques, the role of systemic therapy, and follow-up evaluations.