Articles

The FDA denied the approval of a New Drug Application for tivozanib, which was submitted by its manu­facturer (Aveo Pharmaceuticals/Astellas), for the treatment of renal-cell carcinoma.

The FDA approved lenalidomide capsules (Revlimid; Celgene Cor­poration) for the treatment of patients with mantle-cell lymphoma whose disease has relapsed or progressed after 2 previous therapies, one of which included bortezomib (Velcade). Lenalidomide is already approved for multiple myeloma (as is bortezomib).

From the beginning, decisions about cancer treatment can be overwhelming. To help patients get back to the life and the people they love, Meridian Cancer Care offers every medical advantage. Medical collaboration is critical in the treatment of cancer. At Meridian Health, surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, and other specialists work together to provide the best treatment plan for patients with cancer.

Evidence-based drug sequencing should form the basis of treatment for castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), according to a new guideline from the American Urolo­gical Association (AUA) released at the 2013 AUA annual meeting.

A study comparing patient-reported outcomes (PROs) labeling claims in Europe and in the United States showed that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is more proactive in considering patient-generated feedback in their drug labeling decisions—this despite the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s 2009 guidance that emphasized the importance of gathering and disseminating such data.

Getting technical information about companion diagnostic tests required to make formulary decisions about oncology drugs may not be easy, according to a small telephone survey conducted by Aashish Surti, PharmD can­didate, and Iris Tam, PharmD, Di­rector, Managed Care Med­i­­cal Com­mu­n­i­­cations, Genentech. They reported their survey results in a poster presented at the 2013 Academy of Man­aged Care Pharmacy (AMCP) meeting.

An analysis comparing the prescribing habits of urology practices shows that, despite treatment guideline recommendations to the contrary, gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists, which are only indicated for the palliative treatment of advanced prostate cancer, are routinely prescribed for patients with localized, low- or intermediate-grade prostate cancer, particularly by urologists who have no practice affiliation with a medical school.

;Researchers looking at whether guideline-directed adjuvant treatments for breast cancer were actually being administered in rural areas of the United States found that only 41% of the patients in this study received all of the suggested treatment modalities for breast cancer.