Medical Oncology
Physician insights on cancer treatment protocols, immunotherapy, targeted therapies, and clinical trial updates.
Recent Discussions
In a patient with borderline resectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma who received neoadjuvant FOLFIRINOX followed by resection that demonstrated residual disease, how do you proceed in the adjuvant setting?
In order to answer this question completely, I would need to know more about the neoadjuvant FOLFIRINOX that was given. In a patient who received a full 6 months of neoadjuvant therapy followed by successful surgical resection (albeit with poor response), I would not recommend continuing systemic th...
When should you use caplacizumab in the treatment of acute TTP patients?
Whenever I encounter a patient with features of thrombotic microangiopathy and a normal coagulation panel (that rules out DIC), I consider the possibility they may have immune TTP.If my suspicion of immune TTP is high (e.g. history of autoimmune disease, possible relapse of immune TTP) and there is ...
How would you manage an epidural spinal metastasis causing cord compression from rhabdomyosarcoma?
Leptomeningeal spread of rhabdomyosarcoma could result from the dissemination of tumor cells in the CSF by direct extension or by malignant cells growing along blood vessels or nerve sheaths. I would first get a total spine and a brain MRI to assess where there is gross disease present in other part...
Why is there a benefit of ADT for high risk prostate cancer treated with radiation, yet no large trials describing benefit of adjuvant ADT after radical prostatectomy?
From a high level, the magnitude of the benefit of ADT with radiation seems proportional to the aggressiveness of the disease (i.e. low risk has no significant benefit, int risk weighs risk features and cardiac health, and high risk the benefit of ADT can trump cardiac risk). In that context, we hav...
If a stage I laryngeal cancer completely responds to FU-based chemotherapy (given for another malignancy) would you consider observation?
We expect a 60-80% response rate with induction chemo data, with 20% having a complete response. That doesn’t preclude local treatment but predicts for better outcome.
Is there evidence supporting the role of SBRT in the management of oligometastatic stage IV NSCLC?
Yes. I would look at a great trial from Wake Forest, looking at consolidative radiotherapy after 3-6 cycles of platinum-based chemotherapy, followed by observation, so chemotherapy, then radiotherapy, then observation (no maintenance chemotherapy). The trial occurred from 2010 to 2015. This single-a...
Would you recommend large-field radiation therapy to treat SCC of the skin with field cancerization (e.g., entire forearm, scalp) in elderly patients with CLL/immune compromise who have had mixed responses to cemiplimab?
Yes, retrospective data from Australia support large fields using VMAT at a median dose of 47.9 Gy in an average of 23.9 fractions with treatment breaks as needed and using a custom bolus. The photos in the article help clarify what is meant by 'field cancerization.' This phenomenon is termed extens...
Is there any antiresorptive therapy that you would be comfortable prescribing if the patient refuses to see a dentist for clearance and is at risk of skeletal-related events?
For patients with hypercalcemia of malignancy, I don't usually worry about dental care. For everyone else, short answer is no.The "secret" about anti-resorptive therapy is that it provides clear benefits in patients that have myeloma that is not well-controlled (PMID 8559201, 9469347). Things become...
Is there any way to safely treat patients with mCRPC with 177-Lu PSMA who are on hemodialysis?
For the most part, no. Not unless you're a big academic medical center with a robust multidisciplinary team willing to tackle the significant logistical challenges associated with this scenario.I'm aware of no literature in this scenario specifically for Pluvicto, but we can look at the radiopharmac...
How would you change the regimen for a patient receiving neoadjuvant TCHP or node positive HR+/HER2+ breast cancer who develops a severe allergic reaction to docetaxel?
I would favor replacing docetaxel with nab-paclitaxel and continue carboplatin along with trastuzumab and pertuzumab, as the data would suggest that in HER2+ breast cancer, the taxanes are more important than anthracyclines (as seen in BCIRG-006 and TRAIN-2) and that the taxanes offer synergy with H...