Oncology

Patient interactions became vastly different during the pandemic, with questions surrounding how to coordinate contact and how to best provide pharmacy services virtually, including counseling, fielding drug information questions, medication reconciliation, and providing home medication sheets to families

Olaparib and niraparib both show promise in the maintenance treatment of ovarian cancer, though they may each be appropriate for different patient populations.

Pharmacokinetic differences in pediatric patients should be considered when administering direct oral anticoagulants, as should potential administration difficulties when pellets or oral solutions are not available.

Selection of any BTK inhibitors for mantle cell lymphoma should consider factors such as cardiovascular or bleeding risks, predisposition for gastrointestinal adverse effects, and potential medication nonadherence.

CLL is the most common leukemia in adult patients in the western world, with 21,040 estimated new cases in 2020.

For unresectable gastrointestinal stromal tumors, the introduction of imatinib revolutionized treatment.

Urothelial carcinoma is the sixth most common cancer diagnosis in the United States, with an estimated 81,400 new diagnoses in 2020 and 17,980 deaths.

Ependymoma is a rare type of tumor that develops in the brain or spinal cord and can occur at any age, but occurs most frequently in young children.

Oral chemotherapies can be effective treatments for children with low-grade gliomas, although clinicians should consider available formulations and administration schedules.

In each trial, overall response rate and median progression-free survival in the novel treatment arm showed significant improvement over the sunitinib treatment arm in patients with renal cell carcinoma.

Lakesha M. Butler, PharmD, BCPS, diversity and inclusion coordinator and clinical professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, discussed causes of health inequity and how pharmacists can prevent and mitigate them to improve patient outcomes.

A drug recycling program can help increase patient access and minimize waste of expensive oral cancer medications.

Promising investigational oncology drugs include oral taxanes, small molecule drugs, and immunotherapies.

Common factors that contributed to reported increased dissatisfaction at work include role conflict, quantity of work, workflow disruptions, organizational culture, and leadership support.

Even while therapeutically anticoagulated, patients with cancer have risk factors for recurring venous thromboembolism and bleeding, according to a session at the Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association 2021 Virtual Annual Conference.

Sacituzumab govitecan (Trodelvy) approved for patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer who previously received a platinum-containing chemotherapy and either a PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitor.

A session at the Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association Virtual Annual Conference provided an overview of how treatment options are changing with potential new therapies in development for patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Because each of these methods targets 1 of 2 subtypes of tumor cell, both methods must be utilized simultaneously in order to kill the majority of the tumor mass, according to the study.

The Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) Oncology Pharmacy Education Network (OPEN) provides resources that are pharmacist driven and developed.

During the initial CAR T-cell therapy period, the total cost of care ranged from $350,000 to more than $2 million.

The safety profile was consistent with the profiles associated with each drug as a monotherapy, with no clinically significant drug-drug interactions observed with the combination.

Pharmacists may provide nutritional counseling regarding dietary adjustments or recommendations for over-the-counter supplements to assist patient with cancer.

A presentation at the Community Oncology Alliance 2021 Virtual Conference focused on the latest developments in gastrointestinal oncology and how the field of gastroesophageal cancer is responding to 3 major, practice-changing trials.

For the future of precision medicine, many health care providers hope to see a flood of new therapies for biomarker testing to be approved in the next few months.

In a presentation at the Community Oncology Alliance 2021 Virtual Conference, Jeff Sharman, MD, summarized the most important developments in care for CLL.

A survey shows that 13% of respondents started or increased substance use to cope with pandemic-related stress or emotions.

Over the past 18 months, the FDA has approved 4 new regimens for HER2-positive metastatic disease.

The data were presented for the first time at the virtual 2021 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, April 10-15, 2021.