Articles

The role of pathologists in gathering and interpreting oncologic information has never been as complex as it is today, but neither has it been as clinically impactful, suggested presenters at the 2011 College of American Pathologists meeting.

The House of Delegates of the American Medical Association (AMA) laid out guidelines for patient navigator programs during their November 2011 Interim Meeting. The aim is to ensure that patient navigators “enhance, rather than undermine, the delivery of high-quality patient care,” the resolution states.

Two expert oncologists presented the clinical data in support for and against the use of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in melanoma as the standard of care during the 2011 College of American Pathologists annual meeting.

The clinical and economic impact of multiple myeloma is tremendous. With the onset of novel therapies used in multiple myeloma, as well as the release of new data demonstrating progression-free survival and overall survival, therapy used in multiple myeloma is now on the radar for payers, despite the relatively low incidence of the disease.

Delivering higher doses of external-beam radiation over a shorter period (hypofractionated radiation) was as effective as conventional radiation in preventing treatment failure in men with intermediate- to high-risk prostate cancer.

Innovative medications target the molecular structure of cancer cells with increasing precision, resulting in reduced adverse effects. Novel therapies enlist the patients’ own immune systems to defeat cancer. At the same time, as personalized medicine comes of age, improved diagnostic tests match the right patients to these new treatments.

Azacitidine is the current standard of care for high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), but many patients experience treatment failure. No study has previously analyzed patient outcomes of those who fail azacitidine therapy. This new analysis combined data from 4 international clinical trials to describe patient outcomes after failing azacitidine treatment (Prébet T, et al. J Clin Oncol. 2011;29:3322-3327).

The second-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) dasatinib and nilotinib produce optimal cytogenetic response after 3 months of treatment in themajority of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in the chronic phase, a much faster rate than the 12 to 18 months for the peaked response reported with imatinib (Jabbour E, et al. J Clin Oncol. 2011;29:4260-4266).