The May issue of The Oncology Pharmacist (TOP) features news and insights relevant to today’s pharmacy professionals working in the field of oncology. We begin this issue with highlights from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) 2022 Annual Conference, where experts discussed significant updates for select NCCN Guidelines, new and emerging therapies, and controversies in cancer care.
In a noteworthy presentation at this meeting, Reid Ness, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, discussed important updates to the NCCN Guidelines for Colorectal Cancer (CRC) Screening, including the lowering of the age for initial screening for average-risk individuals from 50 years to 45 years (see here).
“The impetus for this recommendation change is based on well-publicized trends in CRC incidence since the implementation of CRC screening in 1980,” Dr Ness said.
In a separate session at the meeting, Genevieve Boland, MD, PhD, FACS, Section Head, Melanoma/Sarcoma Surgery; Surgical Director, Termeer Center for Targeted Therapies; and Director, Therapeutic Intralesional Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, discussed how targeted treatments are improving the therapeutic landscape for melanoma. Dr Boland stated that the combination of relatlimab plus nivolumab represents a new standard of care for patients with advanced melanoma (see here).
This issue of TOP also includes encouraging data from clinical trials presented at other premier oncology meetings, including the 2021 ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition, the 2022 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, the 2022 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, and the 2022 Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation annual meeting.
At the 2022 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, Kensei Yamaguchi, MD, Department Director, Gastroenterological Chemotherapy, The Cancer Institute Hospital of Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, Tokyo, presented updated findings from the phase 2 DESTINY-Gastric01 trial, which confirmed the antitumor activity of trastuzumab deruxtecan in patients with advanced HER2-expressing gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer (see here).
During the 2022 Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation annual meeting, Lipika Goyal, MD, MPhil, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Lead, Liver Cancer Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, discussed emerging systemic therapies for patients with cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). Dr Goyal noted that the treatment landscape for CCA has changed dramatically in the past decade, which can be attributed to a better understanding of the biology of the disease. This knowledge, she said, has led to the identification of actionable genetic alterations in CCA and more rational clinical trials design (see here).
This issue also explores the future of genetic therapies and value-based care in oncology (see here), ongoing challenges related to sterile compounding standards (see here), and healthcare policies that have the potential to negatively affect patient access to care (see here).
As always, we hope you will enjoy this issue of TOP, and we invite you to visit www.TheOncologyPharmacist.com to share your feedback about this issue with us or send comments to