Dec 5th, 2022 - (Reuters) - U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co hopes to patent a new formulation of its $20 billion cancer immunotherapy Keytruda that can be injected under the skin, allowing it to protect its best-selling drug from competition expected as soon as 2028. For years Merck has relied on Keytruda to fuel its growth. The treatment, approved in 2014, harnesses the body's own immune system to fight cancers wit...

Dec 5th, 2022 - NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc is investing more than $2.5 billion at its drug making plants in Belgium and Ireland, gearing up to launch new products it hopes can replace lost revenue as patents expire and COVID-19 vaccine sales decline. The drugmaker said on Friday it plans to spend more than 1.2 billion euros ($1.26 billion) to expand its Puurs, Belgium, manufacturing site, matching the inv...

Dec 5th, 2022 - Here are Medscape editors' top 5 breast cancer articles from past month. Managing T-DXd Adverse Events in the Real World: Now that breast cancer indications for trastuzumab deruxtecan have expanded, oncologists have been prescribing the drug more frequently. But with this greater use is a growing awareness of trastuzumab's toxicities, which include nausea, vomiting, neutropenia, and interstitia...

Dec 5th, 2022 - Maintaining a diet rich in healthy plant foods and low in unhealthy plant foods is associated with a lower risk for colorectal cancer (CRC) in men, although the strength of the association may vary by race and ethnicity and tumor site, new research shows. The "take-home message is that improving the quality of plant foods and reducing animal food consumption can help prevent colorectal cancer i...

Dec 5th, 2022 - The early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic caused an average treatment delay of 3.2 months for 53% of patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL), results from a retrospective study of nine international centers showed. However, among patients with CTCL diagnosed with COVID-19 during that time, no cases were acquired from outpatient visits. "Delays in therapy for patients with cutaneous lymph...

Dec 5th, 2022 - Healthcare access is not an issue only for patients. In a recent Medscape report, more than a third of doctors surveyed said access to quality, affordable healthcare had affected them or their families. "Access affects even the highest earnings," noted one survey respondent, an ob/gyn. And about half of respondents in the Physicians Rate Healthcare Access Report: Ongoing Problem for Patients ch...

Dec 2nd, 2022 - Roche/Genentech will voluntarily withdraw accelerated approval of atezolizumab (Tecentriq) for advanced bladder cancer. The move follows the failure of a phase III trial to show a benefit in overall survival. Cryotherapy proved more effective than thermal ablation of small renal tumors, according to a retrospective comparison of the two strategies. (Journal of Urology) A survey of 3,865 U.S. ad...

Dec 2nd, 2022 - The FDA approved the IDH1 inhibitor olutasidenib (Rezlidhia) for relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The approved indication stipulates use of olutasidenib in relapsed/refractory AML associated with an IDH1 mutation. The FDA also approved the Abbott RealTime IDH1 Assay as a companion diagnostic to select patients for olutasidenib. "Rezlidhia is a novel, non-intensive monotherap...

Dec 2nd, 2022 - (Reuters) - The U.S. health regulator on Thursday declined to approve a treatment from Y-mAbs Therapeutics for a rare form of nerve cancer in pediatric patients, dragging the company's shares down 16% in extended trading. Y-mAbs said it is assessing the implications of the Food and Drug Administration's complete response letter (CRL) and the company's plans for the drug's development program. T...

Dec 2nd, 2022 - BEIJING (Reuters) - Further easing of COVID-19 testing requirements and quarantine rules in some Chinese cities was met with a mix of relief and worry on Friday, as hundreds of millions await an expected shift in national virus policies after widespread social unrest. The looser measures were welcomed by workers frustrated by three years of economically damaging curbs but have jolted others who...

Dec 2nd, 2022 - The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved olutasidenib (Rezlidhia) for use in certain patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Specifically, the drug is approved for use in patients who have R/R AML with a susceptible isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) mutation as detected by an FDA-approved test. The FDA also approved the Abbott RealTime IDH1 Assay t...

Dec 2nd, 2022 - CHICAGO ― A single chest x-ray could predict a patient's 10-year risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke, say researchers who presented the results of their deep-learning model at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2022 Annual Meeting. Current American College of Cardiologists (ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines recommend estimating 10-year risk of major adve...

Dec 2nd, 2022 - Sitting across from a patient explaining a complicated treatment proposal, protocol, or medication may be one of the most complex yet crucial tasks you have as a physician. Although informed consent is at the forefront of shared decisions between you and your patient, there's a fine line between providing enough information on the risks and benefits of a particular treatment and knowing you've ...

Dec 2nd, 2022 - Sharing data and code in medical research helps ensure the reliability and reproducibility of the findings, but this sharing occurs infrequently in oncology, a new study suggests. Even when researchers declared that their data and code were available, the information was rarely readily accessible. Specifically, fewer than 20% of cancer-related articles that were analyzed stated that their study...

Dec 2nd, 2022 - Neurologic manifestations such as headache, neuropathy, seizures, and cell infiltration are common in pediatric patients with acute leukemia and are associated with a higher mortality rate, according to a retrospective, analytic, longitudinal study carried out in Mexico. "Acute [lymphoblastic] leukemia occurs in one-third of children with cancer and is the most common type at this age," write t...

Dec 2nd, 2022 - CDC to Test Wastewater for Polio in MI, PA The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will expand wastewater testing for polioviruses to more communities in Philadelphia and Michigan. The new testing will take place in counties with "potentially low polio vaccination coverage" or places linked to the single case of paralytic polio discovered in Rockland County, New York, in July — the...

Dec 2nd, 2022 - The study covered in this summary was published on researchsquare.com as a preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed. Key Takeaway The risk for febrile neutropenia from second-line docetaxel (Taxotere) is high in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, particularly for men older than age 75 years and those with multiple comorbidities. Given the risk, the authors suggest...

Dec 2nd, 2022 - As fentanyl-related overdose deaths continue to increase, clinicians should take note of important differences that set the drug apart from the other drugs of misuse — and the troubling reality that fentanyl now contaminates most of them. "It would be fair to tell patients, if you're buying any illicit drugs — pills, powder, liquid, whatever it is, you've got to assume it's either contaminated ...

Dec 2nd, 2022 - Being on an advisory board of a pharmaceutical company gives oncologists a chance to influence clinical trials and drug commercialization and to "inform decisions that affect the oncology community," say the authors of a new analysis, which found few women in such roles. The authors emphasize that women oncologists are missing out. "These opportunities literally and figuratively give experts a ...

Dec 2nd, 2022 - Developments in non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2022 were punctuated by new indications for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies, the FDA's crackdown on PI3K inhibitors, and a new warning about breast implant-related lymphomas. Indications Come and Indications Go The FDA stayed busy in 2022, with three different CAR T-cell therapies gaining new indications in non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Lisocabta...