Medical Oncology
Physician insights on cancer treatment protocols, immunotherapy, targeted therapies, and clinical trial updates.
Recent Discussions
Is there a role for intravenous temozolomide in place of oral for the 5-day dosing q 28 days after surgery/XRT+Temozolomide for glioblastoma multiforme?
I have never used IV temozolomide, or seen it used by others in practice for GBM, and do not think it would offer a significant benefit over oral formulations as it has high oral bioavailability. I have seen and prescribed liquid oral temozolomide for patients with dysphagia.
Do you give bisphosphonates after completing adjuvant anti-HER2 therapy and chemotherapy for HER2+ breast cancer to reduce the risk of recurrence?
Bisphosphonates and the RANK-ligand inhibitor, denosumab, are bone-modifying agents that are indicated to decrease the risk of bone fragility fractures in at-risk populations without cancer, and to decrease pain and complications related to metastatic bone disease. In the adjuvant setting for postme...
Do you offer adjuvant bisphosphonates to high-risk premenopausal women on ovarian suppression for early-stage breast cancer who would want to consider pregnancy in the future?
ASCO guidelines from 1/2022 recommend a discussion of bisphosphonate therapy in post-menopausal women or women on ovarian suppression who are candidates for adjuvant therapy, but risks and benefits should be carefully weighed.In a large meta-analysis of adjuvant bisphosphonate therapy in early breas...
What criteria would you use to decide between trastuzumab-deruxtecan and sacituzumab govitecan in HER2 low metastatic TNBC given T-DXd approval in HER2 low breast cancer?
There are currently unfortunately no biomarkers to select participants for antibody drug conjugate therapies, including sacituzumab and trastuzumab deruxtecan for HER2 low metastatic TNBC. The studies evaluating sacituzumab govitecan and trastuzumab deruxtecan had different I/E criteria, including w...
How often do you assess for frailty in your clinical practice for patients with Multiple Myeloma and what tool do you use?
Excellent question - the short answer is that I suspect the "eyeball test" is used by the vast majority of people reading this, to the point where launching a Mednet poll might not even be helpful...For those who are interested in trying out the IMWG frailty score, it's available (for free) at this ...
Would you start anticoagulation in a patient with RCC and related (tumor) thrombus with extension to renal vein and further?
Tumor thrombus is an intraluminal extension of tumor mass, rather than a true thrombus. There is no evidence that anticoagulation improves outcomes in tumor thrombus (Marcoux et al., Blood 2019). Primary management is surgical resection, typically as part of radical nephrectomy for localized RCC or ...
Would you start anticoagulation in a patient with RCC and related (tumor) thrombus with extension to renal vein and further?
Tumor thrombus is an intraluminal extension of tumor mass, rather than a true thrombus. There is no evidence that anticoagulation improves outcomes in tumor thrombus (Marcoux et al., Blood 2019). Primary management is surgical resection, typically as part of radical nephrectomy for localized RCC or ...
How would you approach a patient over the age of 40 with a sub-totally resected frontal oligodendroglioma, WHO Grade II, 1p/19q co-deleted, IDH mutant, with imaging concerning for second site in the pontomedullary junction?
The pontomedullary junction is not usually amenable to a biopsy (unless the lesion is exophytic); as such, there are 2 possibilities: a) the second lesion is related to the one that has undergone subtotal resection, or b) the lesion is of a different nature. Statistically, it is more likely to be a ...
What is your approach to a patient with muscle invasive bladder cancer getting neoadjuvant gemcitabine/cisplatin who develops significant ototoxicity due to cisplatin after two cycles?
My approach would be to proceed to surgery and based on pathological response, determine if the patient is a candidate for nivolumab.For patients who cannot tolerate cisplatin, there is no recommendation for an alternate regimen in the neoadjuvant setting.If treatment-naive and cisplatin-ineligible ...
How would you manage superficial thrombophlebitis of the great saphenous vein involving the knee and calf?
I would point you to an excellent algorithm created by Sherry Scovell on UpToDate, "Superficial Vein Thrombosis and Phlebitis of the Lower Extremity Veins" which has informed my practice. The highlights of the approach utilized are to perform imaging with Doppler ultrasound to determine the length o...