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Top Medical News
Breast cancer patients experience consistent levels of anxiety and depression within the first year after surgery, a new study has found. Moreover, pessimism at baseline predicts changes in both anxiety and depression 5 years after diagnosis.
A family history of testicular cancer (TC), carcinoma, mesothelioma, sarcoma, malignant melanoma and malignant neuroepithelial tumours appears to increase the risk of paediatric and young adults’ TC, suggests a recent study.
Extended treatment with intermittent administration of letrozole among postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer results in less symptom worsening during the first year compared with continuous endocrine therapy, results of the SOLE quality of life (QOL) sub-study have shown.
Vitamin D supplementation does not appear to improve relapse-free survival in patients with digestive tract cancers who have undergone surgery, according to a recent study.
Decision making in men with newly diagnosed favourable-risk prostate cancer is driven by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and post-MRI biopsy, according to a study, noting that post-MRI biopsy is a stronger driver of decision making than MRI alone.
Age appears to change the pattern, extent and timing of metastasis in patients with melanoma, a recent study has found.
In vitro fertilization (IVF) appears to only minimally increase the rate of childhood cancers, according to a new study.
Special Reports
In March 2018, sublingual fentanyl citrate (SLF; Abstral®, Menarini) was made available in Malaysia. SLF is a rapid-onset opioid (ROO) indicated for the management of breakthrough cancer pain (BTcP) episodes in patients that are opioid-tolerant. In July 2018, Menarini organized an expert meeting, aptly named Malaysian Collaborative Meeting of Pain Specialists to Improve Oncology Management (MY-COMPASSION), comprising of key figures in anaesthesiology, palliative care and oncology to discuss current insights into local BTcP management. Below are highlights from the meeting.
Comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) has emerged as a key driving force behind personalized cancer care. With the wealth of data available with CGP, medical oncologists now have in their armamentarium a tool that could enable them to provide patients with the optimum treatment. At a Roche Foundation Medicine-sponsored symposium held at the 2018 European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Munich, Germany, a panel of experts reviewed key data on CGP, with a focus on the treatment of advanced cancers.
Recently, a Roche-sponsored dinner symposium was held in conjunction with the launch of atezolizumab (Tecentriq®, Roche) at Royale Chulan, Kuala Lumpur. Important insights into the evolving treatment landscape of anticancer treatment, and the increasingly prominent role of immunotherapy were gathered from a distinguished panel, including Dato’ Dr Mohamed Ibrahim, Professor Dr Rolf A. Stahel, Dr Voon Pei Jye, and Associate Professor Dr Tho Lye Mun. Here are the highlights of the meeting.
In advanced-stage, newly diagnosed classical, CD30-positive Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), front-line therapy has resulted in durable remission rates in up to 70–90% of patients, although approximately 25–30% of advanced stage HL patients are refractory or relapse following first-line treatment with ABVD (adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine, dacarbazine) chemotherapy.1–3 The standard of care for patients with relapsed or refractory (r/r) classical HL is salvage therapy using second-line high-dose chemotherapy (HDCT), followed by autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplant (ASCT) in eligible patients, which can induce a complete remission (CR) in about 50% of patients.4 Nevertheless, the prognosis of patients who relapse after the salvage HDCT/ASCT is exceedingly poor, with a median survival duration of approximately 1.2 years.5
At a recent dinner symposium held during the Abstral® Grand Launch at Le Meridien Putrajaya, Dr Michael Überall spoke on the management of breakthrough cancer pain (BTcP) and highlighted the role of sublingual fentanyl ([SLF], Abstral®; A. Menarini Pte Ltd) in the optimization of BTcP in cancer patients.
At the recent American Society of Haematology Annual Meeting 2017, Professor François-Xavier Mahon reviewed recent studies related to tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) cessation in patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) who have achieved sustained deep molecular response (DMR).
ABSTRAL - Fentanyl citrate 100 mcg, 200 mcg and 400 mcg SL tab - A. Menarini
Conference Reports
Tumour treating fields (TTFields), alternating electric fields delivered via transducer arrays placed on the scalp, have emerged as a new modality of treatment for glioblastoma (GBM), with studies showing improved survival in patients with newly diagnosed or recurrent disease. New data presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2019 held in Atlanta, Georgia, US, provide insights into its use in GBM treatment.
Patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) who received the first-line combination of avelumab and axitinib had longer progression-free survival (PFS) compared with those who received sunitinib, particularly those with PD-L1–positive tumours, according to findings of the phase III JAVELIN Renal 101* trial.
Adjuvant chemotherapy using S-1 plus oxaliplatin (SOX) or tegafur-uracil/leucovorin (UFT/LV) led to similar disease-free survival (DFS) rates in patients with high-risk stage III colon cancer, according to updated results of the ACTS-CC 02* presented at ASCO GI 2019.
Men with nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (nmCRPC) more than halved their risk of dying or developing distant metastasis when treated with darolutamide in addition to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), according to findings of the phase III ARAMIS* trial.
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) followed by surgery was significantly associated with better disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients with LAPC* compared with upfront surgery, according to a study presented at the ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium 2019 (ASCO GI 2019).
Sacituzumab govitecan, a novel investigational antibody-drug conjugate, showed clinical activity in patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC) who had progressed following standard therapy, including treatment with checkpoint inhibitors, according to an early study presented at GUCS 2019.
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The future of poly(adenosine diphosphate–ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors in the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) is promising in light of encouraging results from recent clinical studies.
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