In July 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved decitabine and cedazuridine (Inqovi^®) tablets for the treatment of adults with myelodysplastic syndromes. 

Marianne, an oncology nurse navigator, is preparing a cancer treatment summary and survivorship care plan for Sylvia, who finished breast cancer treatment six weeks ago. Sylvia was treated with neoadjuvant therapy followed by mastectomy, reconstruction, and radiation. Her tumor was characterized as multifocal invasive ductal carcinoma, grade 2, estrogen and progesterone positive, and HER2/neu negative. Sylvia has no family history of breast cancer. Marianne notices that the oncologist recorded Sylvia’s cancer as a stage IB. Marianne wonders if the stage was determined before or after chemotherapy and surgery.

On February 9, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved cemiplimab-rwlc (Libtayo^®) for use in patients with locally advanced basal cell carcinoma previously treated with a hedgehog pathway inhibitor (HHI) or for whom an HHI is not appropriate. FDA also granted accelerated approval to cemiplimab-rwlc for patients with metastatic BCC previously treated with an HHI or for whom an HHI is not appropriate. 

On February 5, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved lisocabtagene maraleucel (Breyanzi^®) for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy, including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma not otherwise specified—including DLBCL arising from indolent lymphoma—high-grade B-cell lymphoma, primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma, and follicular lymphoma grade 3B.

On February 5, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to umbralisib (Ukoniq™), a kinase inhibitor including PI3K-delta and casein kinase CK1-epsilon, for adult patients with relapsed or refractory marginal zone lymphoma who have received at least one prior anti-CD20-based regimen and adult patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma who have received at least three prior lines of systemic therapy.

On February 3, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to tepotinib (Tepmetko^®) for adult patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring mesenchymal-epithelial transition exon 14 skipping alterations.

Tafasitamab-cxix (Monjuvi^®) received accelerated approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in July 2020 in combination with lenalidomide for adults with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

On January 22, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved nivolumab (Opdivo^®) in combination with cabozantinib (Cabometyx^®) as first-line treatment for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.

On January 15, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (Enhertu^®) for adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic HER2-positive gastric or gastroesophageal (GEJ) adenocarcinoma who have received a prior trastuzumab-based regimen.

On January 14, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved crizotinib (Xalkori^®) for pediatric patients aged one year or older and young adults with relapsed or refractory, systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) that is anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) positive. The safety and efficacy of crizotinib have not been established in older adults with relapsed or refractory, systemic ALK-positive ALCL. 

Patients with cancer who experience unexpected and long-lasting treatment outcomes are considered exceptional responders, but researchers and clinicians had no insight as to why the patients did so well with treatment. Results of a new study now show that genomic characterizations of cancer can uncover genetic alterations that may contribute to the phenomenon, researchers reported in Cancer Cell.

First-line therapy combining nivolumab with chemotherapy improved median overall survival rates in patients with PD-L1-expressing gastric cancer by 3.3 months in a large international, multicenter trial. The findings were reported during the 2020 European Society for Medical Oncology virtual meeting.

When used in combination with fulvestrant, alpelisib (Piqray^®) produced complete or partial responses in 29% of patients with PIK3CA-altered, estrogen receptor-positive advanced breast cancer in clinical trials. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved it for use in 2019.

Turning on the body’s inflammasome with epigenetic therapy may improve the efficacy of PARP inhibitors across multiple tumor types, possibly expanding the therapy’s application to new cancers, researchers reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

On December 18, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved selinexor (Xpovio^®) in combination with bortezomib and dexamethasone for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refectory multiple myeloma who have received at least one prior therapy. 

On December 18, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first oral gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptor antagonist, relugolix, (Orgovyx™) for adult patients with advanced prostate cancer. 

On December 16, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved margetuximab-cmkb (Margenza™) in combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer who previously received two or more anti-HER2 regimens, at least one of which was for metastatic disease.

Pancreatic cancer is the ninth most common cancer in the United States, accounting for 3% of all cancers but causing 7% of cancer-related deaths, which equates to about 57,500 diagnoses and 47,050 deaths each year. The average person’s risk for pancreatic cancer is about 1 in 64.

On December 1, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pralsetinib for patients aged 12 years and older with advanced or metastatic RET-mutant medullary thyroid cancer who require systemic therapy or RET fusion-positive therapy and who are refractory to radioactive iodine (if radioactive iodine is appropriate).

When genetically modified with a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), natural killer T (NKT) cells eliminated 50% of metastases in a patient with heavily pretreated, relapsed or refractory metastatic neuroblastoma, according to interim findings from an ongoing study that were published in Nature Medicine.

On November 25, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to naxitamab (Danyelza^®) in combination with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor for pediatric patients one year of age and older and adult patients with relapsed or refractory high-risk neuroblastoma in the bone or bone marrow who demonstrate a partial response, minor response, or stable disease to prior therapy.

Each year more than 50,000 stem cell transplantations are completed worldwide. The stimulation, harvesting, and therapeutic use of patient and donor cells has evolved as a treatment for diverse cancer diagnoses, and specially trained nurses are at the heart of the clinical trials and care delivery to propel cell transplant therapy across practice settings.

Radiation therapy (RT) has been used as a safe and effective treatment option for patients with cancer for more than a century. Like any cancer therapy, it does carry risks and side effects, but RT has improved drastically over the past 20 years and has even been shown to enhance the effectiveness of immunotherapy.

Included in the treatment plan for approximately 50% of all patients with cancer, radiotherapy (RT) is a significant component of cancer care. RT is a technology-driven oncology modality, which means it has continually evolved since being introduced in cancer care in the early 20th century.

On October 2, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved nivolumab in combination with ipilimumab for the first-line treatment of adults with malignant pleural mesothelioma that cannot be removed by surgery. This is the first drug regimen approved for mesothelioma in 16 years and the second FDA-approved systemic therapy for mesothelioma. 

Lymphomas are hematologic malignancies, specifically of the lymphatic system. They are classified into two types: Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin (NHL). NHL is the seventh most common cancer in the United States and Hodgkin seen much less frequently as the 26th, but new treatment options have improved survival rates.

Turning off an enzyme that glioblastoma cells use to store the fatty acids they feed on as energy for rapid cell division may offer a new treatment option for the deadly cancer, researchers reported in Cell Metabolism.

On September 8, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it did not approve atezolizumab (Tecentriq^®) in combination with paclitaxel for treatment of breast cancer after a clinical trial studying the use of atezolizumab and paclitaxel in patients with previously untreated inoperable locally advanced or metastatic triple negative breast cancer (mTNBC) showed the drug combination did not work to treat the disease.   

Rucaparib (Rubraca^®) has U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for both maintenance and treatment indications in gynecologic cancers. It originally received accelerated approval in 2016 for the treatment of deleterious, BRCA variant–associated advanced ovarian cancer that has failed two or more chemotherapies. In 2018, it was approved for maintenance therapy of various gynecologic malignancies. Most recently, rucaparib received approval for BRCA-positive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer treatment after androgen-directed and chemotherapy.

Users of two common antihistamines—desloratadine and loratadine—have lower mortality rates from cutaneous malignant melanoma than patients who use other antihistamines, researchers reported in Allergy.

Enfortumab vedotin-ejfv (Padcev™) was granted accelerated approval in December 2019 for adults with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer who previously received an immune checkpoint inhibitor (PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitor) and platinum-containing therapy.

Myeloproliferative neoplasms are a group of blood cancers that start with a small mutation in the stem cells of the bone marrow. Although MPNs are quite rare, essential thrombocythemia, polycythemia vera, and myelofibrosis are the most common types. Each represents a mutation of a different source of stem cell.

Patients approach genetic testing, either for germline (inherited) or somatic (tumor) alterations, hoping it will provide valuable information about their cancer risk, prognosis, or treatment options. Next-generation sequencing makes it possible to test for panels of 40 or more genes simultaneously. By testing more genes, the possibility of finding an actionable, informative result improves, but so does the chance of having a result with one or more variants of unknown clinical significance.

On June 10, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved nivolumab (Opdivo^®) for patients with unresectable advanced, recurrent or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) after prior fluoropyrimidine- and platinum-based chemotherapy.

A new drug is extending both remission and survival in adults with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to findings reported at the American Society of Hematology annual meeting in December 2019. The study was funded by Celgene, the drug’s manufacturer.

Many factors can affect the way patients access their care. But one thing is certain: if patients don’t get the care they need, their chances for success decline. To address barriers to cancer care, the American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer (CoC) outlined specific, measurable actions that institutions must take.

A new type of remodeled CAR T-cell treatment is just as effective as the original therapy but may result in fewer neurologic side effects, researchers reported in Nature Medicine.

The abscopal effect is a unique phenomenon in cancer treatment that occurs when radiation shrinks untreated tumors found elsewhere in the body in addition to the targeted tumor. The effect has a long history, dating back to the 1950s, but it doesn’t commonly occur in practice and the mechanisms are not fully understood. Research has shown that combining immunotherapy with radiation increases the rate at which the abscopal effect occurs. Understanding how it appears in practice could potentially lead to new cancer treatments and a novel approach to combining immunotherapies with radiation.

Immunotherapies have revolutionized the approach to cancer treatment by leveraging patients’ own immune systems to fight the disease. But the novel therapies have also brought an evolution in traditional treatment regimens through their combination with chemotherapy, radiation, targeted therapy, or even other immunotherapy drugs.

On May 1, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved daratumumab and hyaluronidase-fihj (Darzalex Faspro™) for adult patients with newly diagnosed or relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. The product allows for subcutaneous dosing of daratumumab. 

While the world is in the throes of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, cancer research marshals forward with a focus on CAR T-cell therapy. 

Daratumumab (Darzalex^®) was originally approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2015 with additional indications added since. The most recent new indication was approved in September 2019 for newly diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma who are eligible for autologous stem cell transplantation. In May 2020, daratumumab and hyaluronidase-fihj (Darzalex Faspro™), a subcutaneous (SQ) formulation, was approved.

Approximately 53,000 cases of oral and oropharyngeal cancer are diagnosed in the United States each year. Men are twice as likely to develop the disease, and it typically affects people older than 55.  

Two new drugs in clinical trials are extending survival for women with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer that had progressed with previous treatment. One of the drugs was effective for brain metastasis, which is particularly difficult to treat. Results from both studies were reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. 

Tocilizumab was approved in August 2017 for the treatment of chimeric antigen receptor T cell–induced cytokine release syndrome. In March 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase III clinical trial to assess the safety and efficacy of tocilizumab plus standard of care in patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 pneumonia.

Janice is 32 years old and was recently diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer. She is receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide, followed by weekly paclitaxel. Janice is a nationally recognized performer (vocal and piano) and is distraught over the possibility of losing her hair or developing chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy and mouth sores. She asks the nurse what can be done to prevent those unwanted side effects.  

Adding atezolizumab to treatment with bevacizumab, carboplatin, and paclitaxel as first-line therapy for metastatic, nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is associated with survival benefit—but it comes at a cost, researchers said in study results published in JAMA Network Open. In comparison, pembrolizumab offers a more cost-effective survival benefit. 

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer affecting men and women in the United States. When CRC is found at an early stage before it has spread, the five-year relative survival rate is about 90%, yet it remains a leading cause of cancer-related death among both genders. 

A new type of dual-function oncolytic virus that simultaneously kills cancer cells while increasing levels of leptin to support T cells is showing promise in melanoma mouse models, researchers reported in Immunity.   

Convenience. Flexibility. Normalcy. Ambulatory oncology clinics deliver on those three crucially important aspects of treatment to many patients with cancer, offering expert care without a hospital stay or traveling far from home.