Oncology

FDA removes REMS for CAR T-cell therapies, enhancing patient access while ensuring safety in cancer treatment.

Pulmonary hypertension significantly increases the risk of disease progression and cardiovascular events in patients with myelofibrosis, emphasizing a need for routine screening.

Ropeginterferon alfa-2b shows promising results in treating pre-primary myelofibrosis, enhancing clinical responses and safety in patients.

Christopher Danes, PhD, discusses how discrete choice experiment data reveal key differences in patient and caregiver treatment preferences for ALK-positive (ALK+) non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and how pharmacists can use these insights to guide shared decision-making, optimize supportive care, and personalize adherence strategies.

Gayathri Namasivayam, PhD, discusses how large language models are being used to extract structured oncology data from unstructured electronic health records to improve clinical efficiency, support real-world evidence generation, and enhance oncology pharmacy workflows.

INCB057643 shows promise in treating myelofibrosis, enhancing anemia and symptom relief.

The agent continues to show promising clinical benefit despite being pulled from the market in 2023.

The FDA approved acalabrutinib as a frontline option for untreated mantle cell lymphoma.

Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) use over an extended period in patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) was potentially associated with a reduced incidence of cancer over time, although more research is necessary.

Psychedelic treatments may ease cancer distress at various stages of the care journey.

Combining benmelstobart and anlotinib shows promise for patients with squamous non-small cell lung cancer.

Jaume Capdevila, MD, PhD, discusses phase 1 data showing promising efficacy and manageable safety for obrixtamig in patients with high DLL3-expressing extrapulmonary neuroendocrine carcinomas, along with ongoing trials evaluating its use in both monotherapy and combination settings.

Data from a phase 1b study showed significantly reduced toxicity compared with conventional oral dosing.

Datopotamab deruxtecan gains FDA approval, offering new hope for adults with advanced EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer after prior therapies.

These changes are creating operational challenges for oncology infusion centers.

Manish Agrawal, MD, discusses the expanding influence of his group-based psychedelic therapy model in oncology and beyond, highlighting its adaptation in military posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) research, the sustained benefits of long-term patient integration, and growing institutional interest in psychedelic-assisted therapy.

Oncology pharmacists are increasingly shaping patient care by integrating remote care, medication reconciliation, and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as by addressing drug shortages.

At the 2025 Oncology Pharmacists Connect (OPC) meeting, Kevin Chen, PharmD, MS, BCOP, CPP, reviewed several key studies from the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, highlighting significant advancements in the treatment of small cell and non–small cell lung cancer.

Heidi Finnes, PharmD, BCOP, FHOPA, discusses the evolving landscape of treatment of cutaneous malignancies.

Jolynn Sessions, PharmD, BCOP, FHOPA, shares her experience as a clinical pharmacist and the value of the Oncology Pharmacists Connect meeting.

Staying current across every disease state, drug, and toxicity is burning people out.

At the 2025 Oncology Pharmacists Connect (OPC) meeting, Courtney Cavalieri, PharmD, BCOP, presented clinical trial findings in gastrointestinal (GI) cancers—including colon, gastric, pancreatic, and metastatic colorectal cancer—that highlight the expanding role of immunotherapy and targeted treatments.

At the 2025 Oncology Pharmacists Connect (OPC) meeting, Mya Tran, PharmD, BCOP, highlights the clinical promise, operational challenges, and evolving role of pharmacists in implementing precision medicine and genomics-driven cancer care.

Janet Espirito, PharmD, discusses real-world outcomes from a large community oncology study showing that patients with BRAF-mutated melanoma—including those with brain metastases—experienced similar benefit from frontline immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy.

With robust pipelines, cell therapy remains the major driver for drug development.

Following robust progression-free survival indications in the phase 3 inMIND trial, the FDA granted approval to tafasitamab-cxix in combination with standard-of-care lenalidomide and rituximab for patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma.

The emergence of biomarkers plays a critical role in the growing success of treatment.

In the first half of 2025, the FDA approved 7 novel drugs for oncologic conditions, including for non-small cell lung cancer; ovarian cancer; and metastatic, hormone receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor 2-negative breast cancer.

This abstract will be presented at the Oncology Pharmacists Connect (OPC) meeting in Austin, Texas, from June 19 to 20, 2025.