Medical Oncology
Physician insights on cancer treatment protocols, immunotherapy, targeted therapies, and clinical trial updates.
Recent Discussions
Do you hold maintenance lenalidomide or bortezomib for a patient who needs a surgery?
I'm not aware of any formal data to guide this recommendation. In general, I do not recommend holding maintenance lenalidomide or bortezomib for surgery. I do hold maintenance for treatment if/when: - the patient has cytopenias from treatment and would benefit from improved counts from a treatment b...
In cases where EGFR NSCLC has transformed into small-cell lung cancer after treatment with osimertinib, and with no CNS involvement, is it advisable to continue osimertinib alongside chemotherapy?
There is a paucity of data to guide treatment decisions in this context. Transformed small cell lung cancer is a complex phenomenon wherein some oncogene-driven lung cancer clones undergo a series of transcriptomic and epigenetic changes (such as EMT-like changes and methylation-driven events) as a ...
What pathologic response criteria do you use to determine the need for further adjuvant therapy in patients with breast cancer?
The question about which response criteria might guide further adjuvant therapy in HR+ disease after neo-adjuvant chemo is of unclear clinical significance currently. Until CDK4/6 inhibitors receive an FDA indication in the adjuvant setting, the only "systemic therapy" decision to be made after neo-...
What chemotherapy regimen do you use for de novo metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of penile urethra?
Challenging cancer and prognosis; therapy with palliative intent (Nutrition and Palliative Care consults can help regardless of which therapy to use); in pure SCC of penile urethra, would likely consider platinum/gemcitabine or platinum/taxane as 1L therapy as a conventional chemo regimen with perio...
Would you consider the use of pembrolizumab + lenvatinib after progression on first-line carboplatin + paclitaxel + immunotherapy for metastatic endometrial cancer?
Yes, I think this is borderline standard of care now. Adding Lenvima to IO when the cancer recurs seems to usually at least obtain stable disease for a few more months, or even regression.
Have you utilized a dose-reduced approach for elderly patients receiving frontline Pola-R-CHP, similar to R-miniCHOP?
I have utilized a dose-reduced approach for Pola-R-CHP for patients who are elderly, whom I would normally treat with R-miniCHOP, based on the early safety data from the POLAR BEAR trial. This randomized trial compared pola-r-miniCHP to R-miniCHOP in patients >80 years of age or >/=75 with comorbid ...
Have you utilized a dose-reduced approach for elderly patients receiving frontline Pola-R-CHP, similar to R-miniCHOP?
I have utilized a dose-reduced approach for Pola-R-CHP for patients who are elderly, whom I would normally treat with R-miniCHOP, based on the early safety data from the POLAR BEAR trial. This randomized trial compared pola-r-miniCHP to R-miniCHOP in patients >80 years of age or >/=75 with comorbid ...
How do you approach patients with biochemical relapse of high-risk prostate cancer, with PSA doubling time less than 6 months?
This is a very thoughtful question. The assumption is that the patient has no evidence on conventional imaging by (CT/Bone scan) and BCR with rapidly doubling PSA after both prostatectomy and adjuvant XRT. The biology of these patients remains concerning and although STAMPEDE would include these typ...
If there is HER2-low discordance between primary and subsequent breast cancer biopsies, in which scenarios would you choose to use trastuzumab deruxtecan?
Because of the potential heterogeneity of HER2 expression, I would still offer T-DXd for these patients. In addition, HER2 IHC 0 may not exclude T-DXd activity based on the DAISY trial.
What adjuvant treatment would you recommend for a patient with FIGO 2023 IIIB2 endometrioid endometrial adenocarcinoma (Grade 3, p53mut, MMR proficient), metastatic to the uterine serosa, bilateral ovaries, and anterior peritoneal reflection?
Chemotherapy followed by pelvic RT