Articles related to Oncology, Medical

This is the third edition of the guidelines – the last coming in 2014 – providing a resource and guidance specifically for primary care practitioners about how to plan care for childhood cancer survivors. “A care plan just really encourages coordination, especially if a child has a very complicated post-cancer treatment history with a lot of morbidity,” said Dr. Melissa Hudson, director of the division of cancer survivorship at St. Jude’s and corresponding author of the new guidelines.

Reference Source: JAMA Network OpenDesign: Retrospective study of 8,953 patients from the National Cancer Database; compared the use of definitive treatment between 2004 and 2014 of 1,280 young adults (YAs, aged 18-39 years); 3,937 patients aged 40-64 years; and 3,756 patients age 65+.Results: Amputation – 8.1% (YAs), 5.5% (40-64), 5.3% (65+). Chemotherapy – 39.4% (YAs), 29.5% (40-64), 9.3% (65+). Radiation – 59.3% (YAs), 69.1% (40-64), 63.4% (65+). Unique to young adults, clinical stage II disease vs. stage I disease and positive surgical margins were not associated with the use of radiation.

Despite peripheral blood making up 80% of all of hematopoietic cell transplants, there are similar rates of overall survival, disease-free survival, and transplant-related mortality when comparing marrow and peripheral blood as graft sources. Chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and cytokine release syndrome (CRS) are more significant in those who received peripheral blood, yet the standard of care hasn’t changed. Here, two doctors reflect on the debate.

Publication: The LancetDesign: Open-label, single-arm study of 157 patients who had undergone a median of six previous lines of therapy and who received at least one dose of teclistamab; 40 patients received the recommended phase II dose of teclistamabResults: Of the 40 receiving the phase II dose, 58% achieved a very good partial response or better; 40% achieved a complete response or better

About 75% to 80% of children with pediatric AML have clonal, acquired, somatic cytogenetic abnormalities (CAs) detected. Hematology Advisor briefs the information originally appearing in Genes, which reviews the current knowledge on evaluating pediatric patients based on cytogenetics and molecular subtypes to help match patients to risk-adapted therapies.

Publication: Blood AdvancesStudy Design: Prospective study with unmatched health care workforce control group, receiving either Moderna or Pfizer COVID vaccination.Study Population: 23 patients with CLL (61%), lymphoma (39%) (including DLBCL), MCL (13%) and 4% with less common lymphomas.Outcome: Lymphoma patients had significantly lower anti-S IgG titers 28 days post-vaccination compared with controls. Related Article: Efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine in Patients with B-Cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma