The March issue of The Oncology Pharmacist (TOP) contains important news and updates for today’s oncology pharmacist, including highlights from recent virtual conferences, which explore the latest advancements in the treatment of patients with cancer, as well as efforts underway to address ongoing social and economic issues that can diminish the optimal delivery of healthcare.
In an exciting session during ASH 2020, Sagar Lonial, MD, FACP, Chief Medical Officer, Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, discussed a post-hoc analysis of the DREAMM-2 clinical trial, which evaluated the safety and efficacy of belantamab in heavily pretreated patients with multiple myeloma (see here).
“Blenrep achieved deep and durable responses, with no notable alterations in its safety profile, even when patients had received 7 or more prior lines of therapy,” he said.
In a separate presentation, researchers discussed the encouraging results from a pilot study evaluating the benefits of a screening tool that can be used to identify and address financial toxicity issues in high-risk patients with hematologic malignancies (see here).
“Intervening on financial toxicity in a comprehensive way is effective and led to increased quality of life,” said Thomas Greg Knight, MD, Department of Hematologic Oncology and Blood Disorders, Levine Cancer Institute, Atrium Health, Charlotte, NC, who presented the data from the study.
This issue of TOP also features an informative article on the history of asparaginase use in pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, safety and efficacy data on currently approved agents, and strategies underway to ensure patients have access to these therapies (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