Articles

Specialty pharmacies are facing specific challenges in the ways they interact with payers, providers, and even with the pharmaceutical industry in relation to access and delivery of cancer drugs.

We conducted a literature search for data supporting same-day chemotherapy administration sequences. This was achieved by searching PubMed using keywords and any combination of the drug name with "administration," "sequencing," or "interactions."

Basal-cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous-cell carcinoma (SCC), commonly referred to as non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSCs), are the most common types of cancers in the United States. These 2 cancers account for approximately 2 million cases of skin cancer annually.

The US Food and Drug Admini­s­tration (FDA) approved a new indication for imatinib (Gleevec; Novartis) for the treatment of children with newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome–positive (Ph+) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common type of pediatric cancer.

The FDA has issued a boxed warning for brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris, Seattle Genetics) related to the risk of John Cunningham virus infec­tion, leading to progressive multifocal leu­ko­­encephalopathy (PML) and death in patients who take brentuximab to treat Hodgkin lymphoma or systemic anaplastic large-cell lymphoma.

The FDA has accepted a New Drug Application (NDA) for bosutinib (Pfizer), an oral dual Src and Abl tyrosine kinase inhibitor, as a second-line therapy for adult patients with previously treated Philadelphia chromosome–positive (Ph+) chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).

The apoptotic topical gel ingenol mebutate (Picato; Leo Pharma) has received FDA approval for the treatment of actinic keratosis, a precancerous condition that can progress to squamous-cell carcinoma.

The FDA approved a new, subcutaneous route of administration for the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib (Velcade; Millennium) as an alternative method to the previously approved intravenous (IV) form of the drug in all the FDA indications.

The FDA approved the newest oral kinase inhibitor axitinib (Inlyta; Pfizer) for the treatment of patients with advanced renal-cell carcinoma that has failed to respond to previous therapy.

The US Food and Drug Admin­istration (FDA) approved vismodegib (Erivedge; Hoffmann–La Roche), a hedgehog pathway inhibitor, for the treatment of basal-cell carcinoma (BCC) in adults with locally advanced disease who are not candidates for surgery or radiotherapy and in those with metastatic disease.