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Top Medical News
The risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) appears to be elevated among patients with a history of cancer, particularly those with prostate cancer, according to a study presented at ACC.20.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) appears to be more dangerous among cancer patients, who tend suffer more severe complications and faster disease progression, according to a new study.
Inflammatory biomarkers, such as interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-6 soluble receptor (sR), C-reactive protein (CRP) and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFα), appear to correlate with physical and mental health in elderly patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), a recent study has shown.
The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) may hold prognostic value for mortality in elderly adults with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), a recent study has shown.
The single-agent ibrutinib demonstrates significant and durable survival benefits compared with chlorambucil in the first-line treatment of older patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL)/small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), including those with high-risk prognostic features, according to 5-year data from the RESONATE-2 study.
Men with metastatic prostate cancer (mPCa) present with morbidities and complications that are more common and debilitating than previously thought of, with some requiring immediate palliative treatments while others repeated intervention, according to a study from Singapore.
Cabozantinib plus androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) shows potent clinical activity in hormone-naïve metastatic prostate cancer (HNMPCa), according to the results of a phase II trial.
Special Reports
At the recent National Haematology Expert Meeting 2019, a panel of experts was convened to discuss the role of targeted therapy in the management of haematological malignancies. Highlights of their lectures are summarised below.
The current standard
of care for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), an aggressive primary brain tumour
with a rapid disease course, consists of maximum safe surgical resection
followed by radiotherapy with concomitant temozolomide (TMZ) chemotherapy and
subsequent TMZ maintenance. At the 16th Annual Meeting of the Asian
Society of Neuro-Oncology (ASNO) in Taipei, Taiwan, experts reviewed the
evidence and shared their clinical experience on the use of tumour treating
fields (TTFields), a novel treatment modality for GBM.
Overall survival (OS) is currently the primary criteria in assessing the efficacy of a cancer treatment. Dr Raghav Sundar, a consultant medical oncologist at the National University Hospital, Singapore, details the crucial role played by tumour response in evaluating treatment efficacy, with a focus on the multiple kinase inhibitor lenvatinib in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common primary tumour arising from the kidney, constituting approximately 80–85% of primary renal neoplasms. According to the Malaysian National Cancer Registry Report 2007–2011, RCC accounts for 62.8% of all kidney cancers nationwide. RCC typically occurs approximately 50% more commonly in men compared with women, and predominantly occurs in the sixth to eighth decade of life.
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.
Conference Reports
The addition of the potent triple angiokinase inhibitor nintedanib to a standard chemotherapeutic regimen consisting of gemcitabine and cisplatin generated survival benefit in patients with locally advanced muscle invasive bladder cancer (MIBC), according to the results of the NEO-BLADE* trial presented at ASCO GU 2020. However, the study failed to demonstrate improvement in the primary endpoint of pathologic complete response (CR).
The use of sipuleucel-T significantly prolongs overall survival (OS) in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), regardless of treatment setting, based on real-world data presented at ASCO GU 2020.
A combination therapy of enfortumab vedotin and pembrolizumab shows promising activity, with rapid and durable responses in the first-line setting for patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC) ineligible to receive cisplatin, according to updates from the EV-103* study presented at GUCS 2020.
Patients with previously treated advanced or metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC) appear to derive greater overall survival (OS) benefit with nivolumab compared with everolimus, according to final results of the phase III CheckMate 025* trial presented at ASCO GU 2020.
Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) has shown promising results in primary renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in recent trials and has become a treatment option for patients with inoperable primary RCC or tumours in solitary kidney, said Dr Shankar Siva of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre of Melbourne, Australia, at the Uro-Oncology Asia 2020 conference.
An electronic surveillance tool generated better compliance and satisfaction rates than standard in-person care among men with stage 1 testicular cancer, according to the interim results of the WATChmAN* trial presented at ASCO GU 2020.
The combination therapy of nivolumab (NIVO) and cabozantinib (CABO) with or without ipilimumab (IPI) demonstrates activity in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (aHCC), according to the CheckMate 040* study presented at ASCO GI 2020.
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