Studies Question Role of CDK4/6 Inhibitors in First-Line Advanced Breast Cancer
CHICAGO — Upfront CDK4/6 inhibition or second-line use in advanced hormone receptor (HR)-positive/HER2-negative breast cancer led to similar cumulative progression-free survival (PFS) in a large randomized trial. Patients who received a CDK4/6 inhibitor plus an aromatase inhibitor (AI) as initial therapy and fulvestrant in the second line had a median PFS of 31.0 months at […]
Upfront Systemic Therapy, Deferred Surgery Pass Muster in Advanced Kidney Cancer
CHICAGO — Perioperative immunotherapy for advanced kidney cancer did not adversely affect outcomes with cytoreductive nephrectomy and appeared to have several beneficial effects, a small multicenter study showed. Primary immunotherapy significantly reduced median tumor size and thrombus length and improved tumor thrombus level and mean RENAL score. Immunotherapy led to pathologic downstaging in 25 of […]
APRNs: Get Your X-Waiver to Help in the Opioid Abuse Public Health Crisis
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Healthcare providers with advanced practice credentials should consider getting federal waivers to prescribe buprenorphine in the ongoing fight against the opioid epidemic, experts said. “There are a whole slew of benefits for patients who end up on medications for their opioid use disorder [OUD]. These medications do save lives,” said Amanda […]
Extra Pounds May Blunt Benefit of Aspirin in Advanced Colorectal Cancer
The association between aspirin use following an advanced colorectal cancer diagnosis and better survival was only significant among patients with a normal body mass index (BMI) prediagnosis, a cross-sectional study found. In the large single-center analysis of patients diagnosed with stage IV disease, those with prediagnosis obesity had a higher risk for death compared with […]
Growing Calls to Marry HF Specialists With Cardiac Critical Care
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — With the needs of advanced heart failure (HF) dwarfing the supply of skilled physicians, HF specialists and others are well-positioned to prove their value in the contemporary cardiac ICU (CICU) — and the clock is ticking for training and accreditation to keep up. The problem for the workforce is that CICU […]
Durvalumab-CRT Pairing Disappoints in Locally Advanced Cervical Cancer
NEW YORK — An immunotherapy-chemoradiotherapy (CRT) combination did not boost progression-free survival (PFS) in untreated, locally advanced cervical cancer, according to CALLA trial findings. Newly diagnosed patients who received durvalumab (Imfinzi) plus standard CRT did not experience a statistically significant PFS improvement versus patients who received placebo plus CRT (hazard ratio 0.84, 95% CI 0.65-1.08, […]
Non-Chemo Regimen Led to High Response Rates in Cisplatin-Ineligible Bladder Cancer
PARIS — Nearly two-thirds of patients with untreated cisplatin-ineligible advanced urothelial cancer responded to an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) and immunotherapy, a small randomized study showed. Overall, 49 of 76 patients responded to frontline enfortumab vedotin (EV; Padcev) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda), including eight complete responses. An additional 17 patients had stable disease, resulting in a clinical […]
Targeted Combo Flops as First-Line Treatment in Advanced Breast Cancer
PARIS — A novel combination failed to improve the clinical benefit rate (CBR) in advanced triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) compared with chemoimmunotherapy, a randomized trial showed. Adding the anti-CD73 antibody oleclumab to durvalumab (Imfinzi) and chemotherapy led to clinical benefit (response plus stable disease) in 43% of patients by 24 weeks as compared with 44% […]
People With Advanced AIDS Benefit From Dolutegravir Treatment
MONTREAL — Patients with advanced HIV/AIDS infections had higher proportion of viral suppression with dolutegravir (Tivicay) treatment versus efavirenz (Sustiva) treatment, a researcher reported. At 48 weeks, 73.9% of the 92 patients assigned to a dolutegravir-based (DTG) regimen achieved viral suppression based on the 200 copies/ml assay versus 47.8% of the 92 patients assigned to […]
New gene identified in arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy
Researchers from the group of Eva van Rooij used advanced sequencing technology to better understand the heart disease arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, in which heart muscle tissue is replaced by fat cells. Using explanted human hearts, they found regions in which heart muscle was actively degenerated and identified a new gene, ZBTB11, that drives heart muscle cell […]