There is much we don’t know because of weak surveillance methods. For informed decisions, medicine needs a better understanding of what is happening and what is working at any given time. Since even with 100% vaccination, the virus will at minimum continue in circulation, a key goal is to focus on those who are most at risk for severe disease and learn how to strengthen their immunity.

The development of new androgen receptor pathway inhibitors (ARPis) has resulted in a dramatic therapeutic paradigm change for the older adult illness of prostate cancer. Enzalutamide is one of the ARPis that is used more frequently. Darolutamide, apalutamide, and this medication were all first approved for the treatment of metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer, but they are now routinely used in the treatment of metastatic castrate-sensitive and non-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Only older persons with outstanding performance status are included in landmark phase III data demonstrating the effectiveness of ARPi in these patients. However, in the context of a narrative review, its function in older prostate cancer patients who are ineligible has to be investigated.

Researchers studying acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have been able to better characterize the disease, improve risk-stratification methods, and create new treatments thanks to the era of genomic medicine. Despite major advancements, AML’s extremely intricate and plastic cellular architecture means that it is still a fatal malignancy. Because it makes it difficult to pinpoint and then eliminate the cells that cause leukemogenesis and therapy failure, this level of heterogeneity continues to be a significant obstacle. Single-cell genomics has made unheard-of advancements in the study of cellular heterogeneity in recent years, and it shows promise for the investigation of AML.

The authors reasoned that stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) followed by sorafenib would increase overall survival (OS) in advanced HCC compared to sorafenib alone, despite it being the standard of care. Despite immunotherapy replacing chemotherapy as the systemic norm after the trial’s enrollment period ended, the results were in. In the trial, 177 patients were randomly assigned to receive either sorafenib alone or SBRT followed by sorafenib. Prior to sorafenib administration, SBRT treatment markedly increased OS as well as the effectiveness of secondary goals like progression-free survival and time to progression.

The approval is based on the findings of the DESTINY-Breast04 Phase III trial and follows the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use’s favorable recommendation. In the trial, Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) significantly decreased the risk of disease progression or death in patients with HER2-low metastatic breast cancer with hormone receptor (HR)-positive or HR-negative disease by 50% compared to the physician’s choice of chemotherapy. According to a blinded independent central evaluation, Enhertu had a median progression-free survival (PFS) of 9.9 months compared to chemotherapy patients’ PFS of 5.1 months (BICR). When compared to chemotherapy, Enhertu showed a 36% reduction in the risk of death, with a median overall survival (OS) of 23.4 months as opposed to 16.8 months.

Following completion of this CME activity, health-system and specialty pharmacists should be better able to review the transmissibility and clinical severity associated with SARS-CoV-2 variants, analyze the efficacy of vaccines and boosters for the prevention of infection and severe disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 variants, analyze the efficacy of oral antivirals and remdesivir in light of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants, and discuss the efficacy of monoclonal antibodies and convalescent plasma for prevention and treatment in the clinical context of current and evolving SARS-CoV-2 variants.