May 2016, Vol 7, No 4

The chances for further policy changes in healthcare over the next several years are expected to be minimal, said panelists during a roundtable discussion at the 2016 National Comprehensive Cancer Network annual conference.

Approximately 40% of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) fail to take 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) as prescribed, and a sizable majority of parents and children with ALL overreport the intake of a critical drug for maintaining remission, according to a study reported by lead investigator Wendy Landier, PhD, RN, NP, Children’s of Alabama, Birmingham, and colleagues at ASH 2015.

Long-term follow-up of the French 1 Stop Imatinib Study (STIM1) in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) has demonstrated that imatinib (Gleevec) can be safely discontinued in patients with a deep molecular response (ie, lasting at least 2 years). According to data presented at ASH 2015, molecular relapse was very rare after 6 months of stopping imatinib, and no relapse was reported after 2 years.

It is not clear how to treat residual disease after neoadjuvant therapy in patients with early HER2-negative breast cancer. Additional chemotherapy with capecitabine improved survival in this group of patients, according to a large Japanese study presented by lead investigator Masakazu Toi, MD, PhD, Professor, Breast Surgery, Kyoto Hospital, Japan, at the 2015 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Younger patients with luminal A subtype breast cancer may not need chemotherapy, according to a Danish trial presented by lead investigator Torsten O. Nielsen, MD, PhD, Professor, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, at the 2015 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Patients with luminal A biological subtype breast cancer have an excellent prognosis, even high-risk patients, the study suggests.

On November 16, 2015, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first monoclonal antibody, daratumumab (Darzalex; Janssen Biotech), for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least 3 previous lines of therapy, including a proteasome inhibitor and an IMiD, or for the treatment of patients whose disease is double-refractory to proteasome inhibitors and IMiDs.

Cabozantinib (Cabometyx) achieved superior progression-­free survival (PFS) versus standard treatment with everolimus in patients with previously treated advanced renal-cell carcinoma in an updated analysis of the phase 3 METEOR trial, the results of which were reported at the 2016 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.

The first-in-class cancer stem-cell inhibitor BBI608 demonstrated activity in advanced pancreatic cancer and colorectal cancer (CRC), according to results of 2 small studies reported at the 2016 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Linking physicians and patients is a major undertaking, but given the ubiquity of smartphone technology and the rise in app development, the healthcare industry is poised to leverage advances in communication and information exchange. At the 2016 Cancer Survivorship Symposium, Steven J. Katz, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine and Health Management and Policy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, discussed the use of deliberation systems to enhance communication with survivors and their care.

“When we talk about multidisciplinary cancer care teams, I think it is important to discuss MDT [multidisciplinary team] clinical decision-making,” said Dr Jacobs. “How does the team really work together?”