Medical Oncology
Physician insights on cancer treatment protocols, immunotherapy, targeted therapies, and clinical trial updates.
Recent Discussions
Would you consider adding abiraterone, in addition to ADT, for patients with less than very-high risk localized prostate cancer but high clinical-genomic metastasis risk after EBRT?
This is a very tricky area to be sure. The short answer is yes, I do in carefully selected patients.It is well established that genomics correlates with biology in the mHSPC and mCRPC settings. Now, there is emerging data that genomics correlates well with biology in the localized disease setting (e...
Would you use abiraterone or docetaxel in addition to ADT and radiotherapy for patients with very high risk, node-negative prostate cancer?
The most recent update from STAMPEDE's abiraterone arm in the M0 N0 very high risk setting was reported here: Attard et al., PMID 34953525 and strongly suggests that abi/ADT for 2 years plus radiation improves MFS and OS significantly and should be standard of care for men who are choosing RT in thi...
For patients with triple negative breast cancer who are planned to receive adjuvant pembrolizumab, would you recommend pembrolizumab be held until radiation is complete?
This will become a practical issue for radiation oncologists as four drugs are now approved for adjuvant treatment after neoadjuvant chemotherapy including pembro, xeloda, T-DM1, and olaparib. Out of these, olaparib and xeloda were done sequential after radiation as concern about increased side effe...
Do you use immune checkpoint inhibitors in NSCLC patients with pre-existing, well-controlled autoimmune disease?
While there is limited data on the use of PD1 inhibitors in patients with pre-existing autoimmune conditions; in patients with metastatic NSCLC with limited options, it warrants consideration. This is obviously a high risk population to treat and close monitoring and co-ordinated care with specialis...
Does your treatment approach for NK/T cell lymphoma of the nasal cavity differ depending on the volume and extent of disease?
There has been a recent (2021), updated review of treatment guidelines published by ILROG which provides very detailed recommendations including some considerations about systemic therapy. Qi et al., PMID 33581262.They offer treatment field suggestions based on the anatomic location of the tumor, di...
When would you consider upfront eculizumab for sickle cell hyperhemolysis?
How would you treat a de novo CLL with WBC of 1,000,000 and no overt signs of leukostasis?
This is an interesting question. I haven't seen anyone with a WBC count this high except when they had other factors influencing the count such as dehydration or systemic infection such as c diff and it was a reactive process in addition to CLL. It would be interesting to know what else was going on...
How would you treat a de novo CLL with WBC of 1,000,000 and no overt signs of leukostasis?
This is an interesting question. I haven't seen anyone with a WBC count this high except when they had other factors influencing the count such as dehydration or systemic infection such as c diff and it was a reactive process in addition to CLL. It would be interesting to know what else was going on...
Would you consider induction chemotherapy prior to starting chemoradiation therapy in squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus?
Time and again, studies have shown that induction therapy for squamous cell carcinoma, seemingly regardless of primary tumor origin, probably does not improve the outcomes for patients compared to upfront chemoradiation therapy. For example in Head & Neck squamous cell cancers, the use of induction ...
Do you use denosumab for castration-sensitive prostate cancer with osseous metastases?
This is an important question but a complex one. Several issues are critical to consider: 1) bone anti-resorptive therapies like zoledronic acid have NOT been established to improve survival or reduce skeletal events in this setting of bone metastatic HSPC as compared to waiting for mCRPC. See CALGB...