Medical Oncology
Physician insights on cancer treatment protocols, immunotherapy, targeted therapies, and clinical trial updates.
Recent Discussions
What third line treatment do you consider for a patient with metastatic pancreatic cancer with good functional status and no targetable mutations after progression on FOLFIRINOX and gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel?
Sadly, there is absolutely no "standard" option in this space, as no trials have demonstrated any meaningful benefit. I personally would not just "try" a therapy - and I would especially not just "try" an immune checkpoint inhibitor, as these, as single agents have shown no benefit at all (if the tu...
How do you interpret isolated PSMA-avid sites in a patient with prostate cancer with no pelvic or RP LN uptake?
The issue of false-positive PSMA scans is a vexed one, and we are still learning how to handle this optimally. My general approach is to think about the clinical context, level of risk, and whether an early diagnostic pick-up will actually make a clinical difference. For example, in a patient with ...
Do you recommend 3 months of chemotherapy, 6 months of chemotherapy, or no chemotherapy along atezolizumab in patients with low risk (T1-3, N1) Stage III dMMR colon cancer?
This is a good question (and a data-free zone). pMMR low-risk stage III disease can be treated with 3 months of CAPOX or 6 months of FOLFOX, based on the IDEA trial. The residual risk of relapse for this entity, after chemotherapy, is ~20%. FOLFOX for 3 months was inferior to 6 months by a few perce...
What is the rationale for the recent change in the NCCN criteria for very high risk prostate cancer?
As the new Chair of NCCN's Prostate Cancer Guidelines, I am happy to answer this.The purpose of risk groups is not merely to be a prognostic divider, but to help guide treatment. Many systems have been developed that have greater prognostication than NCCN risk groups, such as STAR-CAP (which is supe...
How are you approaching endocrine therapy for patients with metastatic HR+/HER2+ breast cancer in light of enhanced HER2 directed treatment with either T-DXd/pertuzumab or HP/tucatinib?
This is an area without clear data. I am not entirely sure that it matters. While the S8814 trial demonstrated that sequential chemotherapy followed by endocrine therapy (tamoxifen) was the best arm, this question has not been fully addressed with aromatase inhibitors. I typically would start ET wit...
How do you monitor for pulmonary toxicity for patients on trastuzumab deruxtecan?
Eligibility criteria for T-DXd trials were based on clinical history and not on objective findings such as PFTs or radiographic criteria. Therefore, risk for factors for T-DXd-related ILD or other pulmonary toxicity are not at all clear, although they may emerge with larger pooled safety analyses an...
In your practice, what premedications do you use for subcutaneous daratumumab?
We administer the following pre-infusion medications 1 hour to 3 hours before the first 4 SQ infusions, and then we drop all premedications (except for dexamethasone) thereafter: Dexamethasone 20-40 mg Acetaminophen 650 mg Diphenhydramine 25 mg Montelukast 10 mg [this is not in the package insert b...
In your practice, what premedications do you use for subcutaneous daratumumab?
We administer the following pre-infusion medications 1 hour to 3 hours before the first 4 SQ infusions, and then we drop all premedications (except for dexamethasone) thereafter: Dexamethasone 20-40 mg Acetaminophen 650 mg Diphenhydramine 25 mg Montelukast 10 mg [this is not in the package insert b...
Would you consider neoadjuvant immunotherapy prior to radiation for a locally advanced skin squamous cell carcinoma?
While the definitive trials are yet outstanding and enrollment in NRG HN0014 (NCT06568172) should be encouraged where it is open, the present indications for using cemiplimab should follow its principal indication, unresectable cutaneous squamous cell cancer, a minority of cases at 5%. Practically s...
Would you give adjuvant pembrolizumab in a MSI-H oligometastatic colorectal cancer status-post resection that responded to neoadjuvant ICI?
Only <5% of metastatic colorectal cancer is mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) or microsatellite instability-High (MSI-H). However, it is such an important predictive biomarker for quick, sometimes dramatic, and durable response to immunotherapy as seen in the first line studies (CheckMate 142, KEYNOT...