Oct 20th, 2021 - Elacestrant (RAD1901) monotherapy improved progression-free survival over standard-of-care (SOC) treatment in patients with estrogen receptor (ER)–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, including those whose tumors harbored ESR1 mutations, meeting the primary end points of the phase 3 EMERALD trial (NCT03778931).1 Topline results from the trial also showed that the toxicity profile of the sele...

Oct 19th, 2021 - Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO: It’s important for us to understand when patients are at their greatest risk for CIN [cervical intraepithelial neoplasia], which is after they start chemotherapy. That’s something our patients also want to know, in terms of what their risk is if they’re going to travel or work. I don’t know that the guidelines address this and how it’s taken into our clinical decision-m...

Oct 18th, 2021 - Gastroenterology August 2021 How to perform a high-quality endoscopic submucosal dissection Saito Y et al. Gastroenterology.

Oct 15th, 2021 - As of September 30, 2021, there have been more than 231 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 4.7 million COVID-19–related deaths worldwide. Vaccination against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a critical tool to ending the global pandemic. Several vaccines across multiple platforms have already been rolled out in multiple countries, and more than ...

Oct 15th, 2021 - A case report describes the dramatic shrinkage of a tumor to a quarter of its original size in a patient with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had declined conventional treatment, continued smoking, and who later revealed that she was ingesting cannabidiol (CBD) oil. The patient was an 80-year-old woman. At diagnosis, the tumor measured 41 mm, and there was no evidence of local or further...

Oct 15th, 2021 - The diagnosis of lung cancer following symptomatic patient presentation to primary care is inadequate and needs to improve, according to the latest safety investigation report by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB). HSIB research shows that estimated five-year survival rates in the UK are among the lowest in Europe, reflecting the fact that that two thirds of patients are diagnose...

Oct 15th, 2021 - After 18 years at his first and only employer, the Cleveland Clinic, in Ohio, Mikkael Sekeres, MD, decided it was time to move on. Dr Mikkael Sekeres The hematologist-oncologist said that his opportunities for career advancement had plateaued and, with the burden of additional clinic hours in recent years, his work as a researcher and mentor was pinched. So Sekeres set out on a mission to find ...

Oct 15th, 2021 - In Europe, two new cancer drugs have been recommended for approval, and one has had its marketing authorization withdrawn. The opinions were issued by the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) at its meeting this week. New Drug for TNBC The CHMP recommended the granting of a conditional marketing authorization for sacituzumab govitecan (Trodelvy...

Oct 15th, 2021 - As a rising chorus of healthcare experts decries the harmful racial bias in clinical decision support tools (CDSTs), the House Ways and Means Committee has released a report spelling out in detail what the problem is, how it affects health equity, and how healthcare stakeholders can address it. Among the issues described in the report is the widespread practice of applying "racial correction" m...

Oct 15th, 2021 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. Machine learning has come a long way in the quarter-century since a computer nicknamed Deep Blue shocked the world by beating chess champion Garry Kasparov. Today, when our smartphones have far more computing power than Deep Blue, scientists have trained their sights on even bigger opponents, in...

Oct 15th, 2021 - A mainstay of treatment for prostate cancer is to deprive it of androgens, the hormones that make it grow. The testes are the main source of these hormones, so treatment can consist of either surgical removal of these organs or use of drugs to block their hormone production. Over time, some prostate cancers become resistant to these treatments and begin to expand again. As with many cancers tha...

Oct 15th, 2021 - There is a time in a nurse's career when we need to step up, even though we may feel overwhelmed. For me, that day arrived early in my career. I had promised to be available for an IV start for a friend with late-stage breast cancer. She had extreme peripheral lymphedema, which made vein selection impossible. Her port had failed. My IV skills were decent, but I could not fail her. A promise is ...

Oct 14th, 2021 - As a medical oncologist of almost 20 years, I've seen my share of patient-blaming stigma. People are indicted for their cancers in various ways: "They ate too much sugar." "They were obese." "They were a smoker." "It runs in their family." I find the current culture of attributing severe COVID-19 illness and deaths to "preexisting conditions" to be disturbingly similar. Recording and reporting ...

Oct 14th, 2021 - In a perfect world, we would have phase 3 data to guide all of our clinical recommendations. But even if that were possible, phase 3 trials are not able to provide the full range of answers we need in a real-world setting. Do, for instance, the results from a trial of the most fit patients with great organ function apply to our older and somewhat frail patient with poor kidney function? In a wo...

Oct 14th, 2021 - The family of a man who died from a rare and feared complication of head and neck cancer has filed a $34 million lawsuit against the medical center where he was treated, alleging that his death would have been avoided had there been better communication between the surgical oncologist and the treatment team. The patient was a 49-year-old man who was experiencing chronic pain in his right ear. H...

Oct 14th, 2021 - Enhanced delivery of drugs to the brain could improve the outcomes for patients who develop brain metastases: that is the hope from an early proof-of-concept study.   "Failure of promising therapies to cross the blood­­–brain barrier (BBB) is an important cause of poor clinical response for a broad range of brain pathologies including cancer," note the researchers, led by Ying Meng, PhD, Sunnyb...

Oct 14th, 2021 - Takeaway Chronic kidney disease (CKD) diagnosed using estimated glomerular filtration rate cystatin C (eGFRcys) was associated with an increased risk of cancer incidence and cancer death. Why this matters Findings warrant future studies to evaluate the association between kidney function, urinary albumin:creatinine ratio (uACR) and cancer death. Study design This study included 431,263 particip...

Oct 13th, 2021 - Why are Black women dying of endometrial cancer at a much higher rate than White women? Although this survival gap exists across basically every cancer type — breast, prostate, colorectal, non–small cell lung cancer — the numbers for endometrial cancer are particularly alarming. Research shows that Black women have a 90% higher mortality rate than White women. Kemi Doll, MD, MSCR Kemi Doll, MD,...

Oct 13th, 2021 - The CDK4/6 inhibitor abemaciclib (Verzenio) has been approved for use in early breast cancer for certain patients. One expert has described the drug as the first advance for this patient population in 20 years. Abemaciclib had already been approved for use in the treatment of HR+, HER2- advanced or metastatic breast cancer. Now it is also approved for use in HR+, HER2- early breast cancer for p...

Oct 12th, 2021 - Editor's Note: The Case Challenge series includes difficult-to-diagnose conditions, some of which are not frequently encountered by most clinicians but are nonetheless important to accurately recognize. Test your diagnostic and treatment skills using the following patient scenario and corresponding questions. If you have a case that you would like to suggest for a future Case Challenge, please ...