Alana Hippensteele, Lead Editor

Abigail Thomas, PharmD, and Lee A. Kral, PharmD, discuss the evolving role of psilocybin-assisted therapy in palliative care, highlighting current evidence, safety concerns, and how pharmacists can guide patient selection, manage drug interactions, and support education as the therapy moves closer to clinical use.

Diana Violanti, PharmD, and Pamela S. Moore, PharmD, BCGP, discuss the nuanced use of anticholinergic agents for managing terminal secretions at end of life, highlighting practical considerations, timing, safety concerns such as delirium, and the limited yet evolving evidence supporting their role in palliative care.

As evidence grows for psilocybin-assisted therapy’s effectiveness in treating mental health and addiction, efforts are increasingly focused on ensuring equitable access—particularly for underserved communities disproportionately affected by systemic barriers and public health crises.

Jonas Congelli, RPh, discusses how limited distribution networks and medically integrated pharmacies can improve access, continuity, and quality of oncology care—particularly in underserved areas—while addressing systemic barriers posed by traditional distribution models and pharmacy benefit managers.

Ravi Parikh, MD, MPP, FACP, discusses how artificial intelligence is transforming oncology pharmacy by accelerating drug development, enhancing clinical decision-making, supporting value-based care, and raising critical questions about ethics, regulation, and data integrity.

Jacinda Abdul-Mutakabbir, PharmD, MPH, AAHIVP, discusses how looming tariffs, vaccine misinformation, and rising drug costs are straining public health pharmacy efforts, while also sparking new opportunities for innovation, collaboration, and community-centered care amid uncertainty.

Liposomal annamycin demonstrates broad synergistic activity with multiple FDA-approved chemotherapies across hematologic and solid tumors in preclinical models, offering a promising and safer combination strategy for resistant and high-risk cancers.

Sasha Watson, PharmD, BCOP, discusses the emerging role of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in colon cancer, highlighting its potential to enhance precision oncology by improving early detection, guiding adjuvant therapy decisions, and monitoring disease recurrence and treatment resistance.

Updates on April 30, 2025, introduce changes to treatment regimens, sequencing flexibility, febrile neutropenia risk assessments, and drug-specific safety and supportive care guidance.

A phase 1b study demonstrated that continuous subcutaneous infusion of low-dose lenalidomide in patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) multiple myeloma achieved promising efficacy with significantly reduced hematologic toxicity compared to conventional oral dosing.

A novel orally bioavailable RIPTAC therapeutic targeting the p53-Y220C mutation demonstrates selective cancer cell killing by inducing proximity between mutant p53 and an essential protein, offering a promising new strategy for treating historically untreatable tumors.

Rising costs of these therapies challenge affordability and access.

The phase 2 ROME trial demonstrated that combining tissue and liquid biopsies to guide tailored therapy in advanced solid tumors significantly improves survival outcomes compared to standard of care or single-biopsy approaches, highlighting the value of dual profiling in precision oncology.

A phase 2 trial showed that using ctDNA to guide adjuvant pembrolizumab therapy after surgery effectively cleared minimal residual disease and reduced recurrence in patients with resected mismatch repair-deficient (dMMR) solid tumors.

Ochsner Children’s Hospital, in partnership with ISMP, has launched a fellowship to advance pediatric medication safety through hands-on training in key competencies, national safety strategies, interdisciplinary collaboration, and innovative tools such as AI and data dashboards.

Certain antibiotics may have a more significant impact on CAR T-cell efficacy and toxicity.

AI may help to accurately classify pediatric sarcoma subtypes using digitized pathology images, potentially improving diagnosis and treatment accessibility across diverse health care settings.

Interim results from the phase 1 SENTI-202-101 trial show that SENTI-202, a logic-gated, off-the-shelf chimeric antigen receptor natural killer (CAR NK) cell therapy, achieved complete remission in 4 patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Pretrained foundation machine learning models significantly improved the accuracy of diagnosing non-melanoma skin cancer from digital pathology images and may offer a practical, resource-efficient solution for cancer diagnosis in underserved settings.

Zoldonrasib, a novel oral KRAS G12D-selective inhibitor, demonstrated promising safety and early antitumor activity in patients with previously treated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), offering a potential new targeted therapy for this underserved population.

NCCN updates colon cancer guidelines, emphasizing testing for DPYD gene variants before initiating fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy.

Ginger Blackmon, PharmD, explains how NCODA’s Positive Quality Interventions (PQIs) help improve oncology care by guiding best practices, supporting teamwork, and streamlining workflows.

The Version 3.2025 update adds tislelizumab-based regimens as preferred first-line treatments and introduces new dosing schedules for PD-L1–positive esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Scott A. Soefje, PharmD, MBA, BCOP, explained how the expanding use of the FDA’s 505(b)(2) drug approval pathway is creating operational and reimbursement challenges for oncology infusion centers.

Christine Barrett, PharmD, BCOP, addressed advances in the treatment of stage III melanoma that provide the potential to improve long-term outcomes by enhancing immune response, tailoring surgical approaches, and refining patient selection strategies.

Mark Zangardi, PharmD, MS, BCOP, and Amber Cipriani, PharmD, BCOP, discuss the growing role of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) testing in oncology, highlighting its applications in early cancer detection, molecular residual disease assessment, and treatment monitoring.

Matthew Lei, PharmD, BCOP, highlights the value of community, collaboration, and innovation at the HOPA Annual Conference.