December 2020, Vol 11, No 6

Greg Simon, JD, led the Cancer Moonshot program for the Obama administration, raising $1.8 billion in new funding for cancer research and the development of new cancer programs. In 2017, Joe Biden called on him to serve as President of the Biden Cancer Initiative. Mr Simon is also a survivor of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a consultant and public speaker at Simonovation, LLC, and one of the thought leaders in cancer care.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed many of the cracks in our healthcare system. According to Maurie Markman, MD, MS, FACP, FASCO, President, Medicine and Science, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, COVID-19 disproportionately affects the elderly, those with comorbidities, and racial and ethnic minority populations, all of whom are more likely to have serious or fatal illness. At the 10th Annual Summit of the Association for Value-Based Cancer Care (AVBCC) in 2020, Dr Markman served as a co-moderator of a session about minority representation in clinical trials.
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Total growth in the oncology pipeline in 2020 has been driven by targeted therapies, said Doug Long, Vice President, Industry Relations, IQVIA, at the 10th Annual Summit of the Association for Value-Based Cancer Care (AVBCC) in 2020.
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Enrollment in clinical trials is vital for the advancement of knowledge and improvement of patient outcomes, but few adults participate in cancer clinical trials. The numbers are even lower among minority adolescent and young adults (AYAs).
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At the 2020 NCCN hematologic malignancies conference, multiple myeloma expert Shaji Kumar, MD, Consultant and Professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, Rochester, MN, discussed the “bonanza of treatment regimens for multiple myeloma.”
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Although smoldering myeloma is acknowledged as a clinical entity, debate continues about whether to treat, when to treat, and how to treat this condition, said Natalie S. Callander, MD, Leader, Myeloma/Lymphoma Disease-Oriented Team, University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center, Madison, at the 2020 NCCN hematologic malignancies conference.
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Healthcare and biopharmaceutical industry markets were trending positively during the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election, even before the promising news from Pfizer and Moderna regarding their COVID-19 vaccines. At the 10th Annual Summit of the Association for Value-Based Cancer Care (AVBCC) in 2020, 2 industry leaders advised that the industry reaction was likely in response to an expectation of less volatility and more predictability in healthcare in 2021 with what is likely to be divided government.
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On October 23, 2020, the FDA approved the FoundationOne CDx diagnostic test as a companion diagnostic to identify fusions in the NTRK1, NTRK2, and NTRK3 genes in patients who are eligible for treatment with larotrectinib (Vitrakvi).
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In October and November, the FDA approved FoundationOne Liquid CDx (Foundation Medicine), a next-generation sequencing liquid biopsy test, for the identification of multiple cancers and biomarkers.
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On October 2, 2020, the FDA approved the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo; Bristol Myers Squibb), a PD-1 inhibitor, and ipilimumab (Yervoy; Bristol Myers Squibb), a CTLA-4 inhibitor, for first-line treatment of adults with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma.
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