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Oncology

Robotic cystectomy safer than open cystectomy

Tristan Manalac, 2 hours ago

Robot-assisted radical cystectomy with intracorporeal urinary diversion comes with lower perioperative blood loss and a shorter recovery period than open cystectomy, according to a recent Singapore study.

Add-on lenalidomide makes no difference in older acute myeloid leukaemia patients

6 hours ago

The addition of lenalidomide shows no clear benefit for older patients with acute myeloid leukaemia receiving treatment with standard remission induction chemotherapy, according to data from a phase II trial.

TTFields plus TMZ effective for newly diagnosed GBM in elderly

Natalia Reoutova, 12 hours ago

Consistent with the overall outcome of the phase III EF-14 study, elderly patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) treated with tumour-treating fields (TTFields) and temozolomide (TMZ) showed significantly better overall survival (OS) vs patients on TMZ alone, according to a post-hoc analysis presented at the American Association for cancer Research (AACR) 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting II.

Trastuzumab deruxtecan improves treatment outcomes in HER2-positive gastric cancer

Elaine Soliven, 12 hours ago

Treatment with trastuzumab deruxtecan significantly improves objective response rate (ORR) and overall survival (OS) among patients with HER2-positive advanced gastric cancer, according to the DESTINY-Gastric01* study.

Vitamin D protective against advanced cancer?

Pearl Toh, 17 hours ago

Vitamin D supplementation can reduce the incidence of advanced cancer among older adults, in particular those with a normal BMI but not those who are overweight or obese, suggests the large VITAL* randomized study presented during the ASCO 2020 Meeting.

Stereotactic body radiation therapy superior to RFA for hepatocellular carcinoma

2 days ago

Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) may offer an effective alternative to radiofrequency ablation (RFA) in unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), particularly in patients with larger tumours at the subphrenic location, a new study has shown.

Ribociclib offers survival benefit in premenopausal women with HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer

12 Jun 2020

Drawing from experience as a key investigator in landmark clinical trials (including PALOMA, MONALEESA and MONARCH), and his clinical experience with CDK4/6 inhibitors, Dr Rafael Villanueva Vázquez shares his insights into the current evidence of using CDK4/6 inhibitors to treat HR+/HER2- ABC.

Targeted therapy for haematological malignancies

13 Feb 2020

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.

Role of tumour treating fields in the management of glioblastoma

Dr. Jay Zhu, Dr. Lai Fung Li, Prof. Chae-Yong Kim, 27 Nov 2019

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.

Relationship between tumour response to systemic therapy and overall survival in unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma

Dr Raghav Sundar, 09 Sep 2019

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).

Optimizing Treatment Adherence in Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma: A Case Study

14 Aug 2019

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.

Excerpts from the MY-COMPASSION Expert Meeting

30 Jan 2019

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 in oncology – from vision to reality

Dr. Jeffrey Ross, Dr. Rohit Lal, Prof. Alwin Krämer, Dr. Rebecca Dent, Prof. Rafal Dziadziuszko, 24 Jan 2019

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.

TTFields plus TMZ effective for newly diagnosed GBM in elderly

Natalia Reoutova, 10 Jul 2020

Vitamin D protective against advanced cancer?

Pearl Toh, 09 Jul 2020

JAVELIN ushers paradigm shifts in maintenance for advanced bladder cancer

Pearl Toh, 02 Jul 2020

Adding the PD-L1 inhibitor avelumab to best supportive care in the maintenance setting yields significant survival benefit compared with best supporting care alone for patients with advanced bladder cancer who have stable disease following first-line platinum-based chemotherapy, an interim analysis of the JAVELIN Bladder 100 study shows.

Pembrolizumab + chemo improves PFS in previously untreated, advanced TNBC

Christina Lau, 02 Jul 2020

Pembrolizumab in combination with chemotherapy significantly improves progression-free survival (PFS) vs chemotherapy alone in patients with previously untreated, locally recurrent inoperable or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), results of the KEYNOTE-355 study have shown.

Veliparib-carboplatin-paclitaxel combo improves PFS in HR+ or TNBC

Roshini Claire Anthony, 01 Jul 2020

Adding veliparib to a carboplatin-paclitaxel combination improved progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with BRCA1/2 hormone receptor-positive (HR+) or triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), subgroup analysis of the phase III BROCADE3* trial showed.

Longer imatinib use confers survival benefit for GI stromal tumours

Audrey Abella, 30 Jun 2020

Three years of adjuvant imatinib treatment is superior in efficacy vs 1-year use in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST) at high risk of recurrence post-surgery, according to the secondary analysis of the SSGXVIII/AIO* trial.

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