In the Association for Value-Based Cancer Care (AVBCC) webcast, titled Wholesale Supply Channels: COVID-19 Impact on Cancer Care and Road to Recovery, a panel of healthcare experts discussed issues related to wholesale supply channels for the distribution of drugs and medical/surgical supplies to community oncology care providers.
The challenges of managing cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic raise new concerns for oncologists, nurses, and the entire cancer care team. The management of patients with cancer, who are at increased risk from this new respiratory infection, has rapidly become even more urgent.
San Francisco, CA—Positron emission tomography (PET) scanning targeted to detect prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is poised to overtake conventional imaging, according to presentations at the 2020 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.
San Antonio, TX—The investigational oral drug tucatinib reduced the risk for death by 33% and the risk for disease progression or death by 50% when added to trastuzumab (Herceptin) plus capecitabine (Xeloda) in patients with heavily pretreated advanced HER2-positive breast cancer, with or without brain metastasis.
San Francisco, CA—Delivering the keynote address at the 2020 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, David F. Penson, MD, MPH, MMHC, Hamilton and Howd Chair in Urologic Oncology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, highlighted the need to move toward patient-centered decisions beyond survival, focusing on patient-centered outcomes by integrating quality of life (QOL) and financial toxicity into the shared, treatment-related, decision- making process.
On March 10, 2020, the FDA accelerated the approval of the immunotherapy combination of nivolumab (Opdivo; Bristol-Myers Squibb) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy; Bristol-Myers Squibb) for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who have previously received sorafenib. Nivolumab and ipilimumab have been previously approved by the FDA for several indications. This new indication was previously granted a breakthrough therapy designation.