News

Waun Ki Hong, MD, a pioneering medical oncologist recognized for his practice-changing research in head and neck cancer, died at his home in California on January 2.

Axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel) elicited a 2-year overall survival (OS) rate of 51% in patients with refractory large B cell lymphoma, representing a clear plateau in the survival curve.

Women who took part in a supervised exercise program during adjuvant treatment for breast cancer had better cardiovascular function than women who did not participate in the program, according to the findings of a study presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS).

In the minds of Americans, there is no more trusted profession than nursing, according to a global analytics company called Gallup, which recently announced that for the 17th year in a row, nurses topped the list by a landslide.

Combining the BCL-2 inhibitor venetoclax (Venclexta) with endocrine therapy elicited notable activity with a tolerable safety profile in patients with estrogen receptor (ER)–positive and BCL-2–positive metastatic breast cancer.

The ongoing dialogue regarding healthcare payment reform that attempts to incentivize high-value care by linking reimbursement to quality rather than quantity has largely ignored the ultimate consumer/buyer—the patient.

Oncology nurses must acknowledge patients’ concerns about financial toxicity and help address them.

Younger patients with breast cancer who had lumpectomies reported higher quality of life (QOL) than those who underwent mastectomies, according to results of a survey of 560 women.

The FDA has approved dasatinib (Sprycel) tablets in combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of pediatric patients ≥1 year of age with newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

The median overall survival for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia has more than tripled since the 1970s, primarily due to an ever-expanding armamentarium of novel agents and earlier diagnosis.

Here are the top 5 Oncology Nursing News stories for December 2018.

The anti-BCMA CAR T-cell therapy bb21217 demonstrated an objective response rate of 83.3%, with a very good partial response or better rate of 75% in patients with heavily pretreated relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, according to initial results from a phase I study presented at the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting.

Chemotherapy for breast cancer caused significantly more acute symptoms as compared with endocrine therapy, although the adverse effects of endocrine therapy increased over time, according to an updated analysis of the phase III TAILORx trial.

A large pivotal phase III trial has been initiated to evaluate the potential for the first-line combination of cabozantinib (Cabometyx) and atezolizumab (Tecentriq) in comparison with standard-of-care sorafenib (Nexavar) for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

U3-1402, an investigational antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting HER3, induced objective response in more than 40% of heavily pretreated patients with HER3-expressing breast cancer, according to results presented at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Treatment with rivaroxaban (Xarelto) may reduce the risk for developing blood clots during active treatment with a systemic therapy like chemotherapy, according to results from the CASSINI trial.

The FDA has approved ravulizumab-cwvz (Ultomiris) as an injection treatment of adult patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), a rare blood disorder that leads to hemolysis.

CT-P6, a proposed biosimilar to trastuzumab, exhibited long-term disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) similar to the reference product in the treatment of patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer.

In patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), high doses of curcumin and vitamin D could help stabilize the disease, according to new research presented at the 2018 American Society of Hematology’s Annual Meeting in San Diego.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells targeting the tyrosine kinase receptor ROR1 can be transferred into patients safely and the cells expand in vivo, according to first in-human study of CAR T cells in patients with solid tumors.

Women between the ages of 30 and 39 who have at least 1 of 3 breast cancer risk factors may benefit from starting their annual mammography screening at age 30, according to results from a large-scale study that was presented at the 2018 Radiological Society of North America Annual Meeting.

Early-stage breast cancer survivors who completed a telephone-based lifestyle intervention program tended to have higher rates of disease-free survival (DFS), according to recent research presented at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS).

The FDA approved tagraxofusp-erzs (Elzonris) infusion for the treatment of blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN) in adults and in pediatric patients aged 2 or older.

The Food and Drug Administration approved calaspargase pegol-mknl (Asparlas) as a component of a chemotherapy regimen to treat adult and pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, according to the agency.

The FDA has approved olaparib (Lynparza) as a maintenance treatment for patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline or somatic BRCA-mutated advanced epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who are in complete or partial response to frontline platinum-based chemotherapy, as approved by an FDA-approved companion diagnostic assay.

The FDA has granted an accelerated approval to pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for the treatment of recurrent locally advanced or metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma in adult and children.

Improvements observed in progression-free survival and overall survival with the addition of first-line atezolizumab (Tecentriq) to nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane) in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) or inoperable locally advanced TNBC are exclusive to those patients with PD-L1 expression ≥1% in immune cells, according to a biomarker subgroup analysis of the phase III IMpassion130 study.1

Julie Pederson, BSW, RN, OCN, CBCN, provides an overview of developments in research on lymphedema treatments.

The FDA has approved trastuzumab-pkrb (Herzuma, Celltrion) as a biosimilar to trastuzumab (Herceptin, Genentech).