Surgery still offers the best chance of cure for patients with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). However, for locally advanced or metastatic well-differentiated tumors, medical therapy including theranostics, targeted therapies, and chemotherapy can all play a role. Clinical Advances in Hematology & Oncology reviews the diagnosis and management of these tumors.

Curious about the long-term impacts of COVID-19? A new study that involved 2,433 hospitalized patients found that the most common symptoms after one year were fatigue, sweating, chest tightness, anxiety, and myalgia. The study, conducted in Wuhan, China, one of the global epicenters of the pandemic, also found that patients with severe disease had more serious long-term issues, including a high incidence of COPD.

Evidence is mounting that much of the concern about waning immunity to COVID-19 is overstated and that vaccines provide high levels of protection against the respiratory disease and its variants over the long-term. Immunologically, plasmablast and B-cell response after mRNA vaccination is long-lived and memory B cells increase over at least six months. And in the field, the evidence is that vaccination is doing what it is intended to do: reduce the severity and spread of the infection.

Our understanding of lipid pathology is shifting from what might be called the “LDL hypothesis” to the “atherogenic lipoprotein hypothesis.” LDL is just a surrogate of the actual process of lipoprotein interaction with the arterial wall. This shift in understanding is driving a host of budding therapies with novel approaches to targeting key atherogenesis players like lipoprotein(a) and triglycerides.

In this series from Blood that tackles four cases studies, the outcomes of AML pediatric patients compared to children with ALL is explored, focusing on the emerging new treatments venetoclax (Venclexta; AbbVie/Genentech), CD33- and CD123-directed CAR T-cell therapy, CD123-directed antibody therapy, and menin inhibitors.

The FDA has required that Amgen compare its approved KRAS-targeted therapy sotorasib (Lumakras) 960-mg dose with a 240-mg dose as one of its accelerated approval post-marketing requirements, a paradigm-shifting event that signals new scrutiny around determining the labeled dose for targeted oncology drugs, which still follow outdated maximum tolerated dose (MTD) principles in cytotoxic agents.