Malaysia
Search
Sign In
Change Password
Points
Sign Out
Top Medical News
Use of the triplet regimen containing encorafenib, cetuximab and binimetinib, or a doublet regimen containing the first two, confers significant benefits for overall survival and response as compared with standard therapy in the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) harbouring the BRAF V600E mutation, according to the initial results of the phase III, open-label BEACON CRC trial.
Concentrations of hepatitis B core-related antigen may help predict the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infections, a new study has shown.
Using a humanized antidisialoganglioside mAb (hu14.18K322A) in combination with induction chemotherapy appears to yield favourable outcomes in children with high-risk neuroblastoma, including induction of an early response, improvement of Curie scores (CSs) and a 2-year event-free survival (EFS), according to the results of a phase II trial.
Treatment with the (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor olaparib led to a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in radiological progression-free survival (rPFS) vs physician’s choice of new hormonal agent (NHA) enzalutamide or abiraterone + prednisone in men with advanced prostate cancer harbouring certain gene mutations that were identified through genetic testing, the PROfound* trial has shown.
Light to moderate alcohol consumption confers survival gains in colorectal cancer patients, according to the results of a meta-analysis.
A significant association exists between bladder cancer and worse clinical outcomes following radical nephroureterectomy of upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma, a study has found.
While douching is not associated with the risk of ovarian cancer, the combination of talc and commercially available douches contributes to a modest increase in the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer beyond that conferred by talc use alone, as shown in a recent study.
Special Reports
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.
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.
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.
Conference Reports
Treatment with the (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor olaparib led to a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in radiological progression-free survival (rPFS) vs physician’s choice of new hormonal agent (NHA) enzalutamide or abiraterone + prednisone in men with advanced prostate cancer harbouring certain gene mutations that were identified through genetic testing, the PROfound* trial has shown.
Circulating miR-155 may be potentially used as a diagnostic and therapeutic monitoring marker in breast cancer, suggests an Indonesian study presented at the 2019 Asia Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO Asia 2019).
First-line treatment with durvalumab + platinum-etoposide (EP)* improves overall survival (OS) in Asian patients with extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC), according to the CASPIAN** study.
In breast cancer, especially hormone-negative tumours, an ultrasound-guided core biopsy (CNB) is useful for predicting pathologic complete response (pCR) to chemotherapy and may thus help to avoid surgery for some patients, a study has found.
There appears to be no significant survival difference between first-line immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) and carboplatin-based chemotherapy in cisplatin-ineligible metastatic urothelial carcinoma patients, according to a Taiwan study presented at the recent 2019 Asia Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO Asia 2019).
C-reactive protein/albumin ratio (CAR) can provide prognostic information on survival in pancreatic cancer, such that patients with high pretreatment CAR may have poorer overall survival, according to a study presented at the ESMO Asia 2019 Congress.
The trastuzumab biosimilar HLX02 was equivalent to the reference trastuzumab in terms of overall response rate (ORR) in women with HER2*-positive (HER2+) breast cancer, along with similar safety profile, reveals a study presented at ESMO Asia 2019.
Multimedia
