Medical Oncology
Physician insights on cancer treatment protocols, immunotherapy, targeted therapies, and clinical trial updates.
Recent Discussions
What is your approach to screening a cancer survivor for iron overload, and what is your treatment of choice?
We check the ferritin level after completion of chemotherapy. If ferritin is >1,000 ng/ml, we recheck the level as it can be falsely elevated with inflammation/infection. If ferritin is >1,000, we obtain a liver MRI with iron quantification. If liver iron concentration (LIC) is > 5 mg/g dry weight, ...
What is your approach to screening a cancer survivor for iron overload, and what is your treatment of choice?
We check the ferritin level after completion of chemotherapy. If ferritin is >1,000 ng/ml, we recheck the level as it can be falsely elevated with inflammation/infection. If ferritin is >1,000, we obtain a liver MRI with iron quantification. If liver iron concentration (LIC) is > 5 mg/g dry weight, ...
Would you use bevacizumab in a patient with advanced HCC and multiple large esophageal varices that have not been endosopically intervened upon?
Large varices should be treated endoscopically. I would avoid using Atezo/bev in a patient who has not had adequate treatment of their varices as there is a real risk of bleeding with bev in this setting.
For gross hematuria from a primary bladder tumor, what palliative radiation regimen would you recommend?
I found that 36 Gy/6 Fx delivered weekly is a great option for palliation.This has been used in curative system, as well, but I find it to be particularly helpful in elderly patients or those with travel issues. There is a phase 2 study in patients who are medically inoperable and the local control ...
When do you choose a non-anthracycline containing regimen, such as docetaxel/cyclophosphamide, for patients with hormone receptor positive, HER2 negative breast cancer who warrant adjuvant chemotherapy?
As in many of the decisions we face, we need to balance benefit and risk. Based on the ABC suite of trials, anthracycline regimens are slightly more effective than non-anthracycline (taxane only) regimens. To be clear, the ABC data is far from perfect - the trial design changed at least 3 times duri...
Do you consider omitting adjuvant radiation therapy in an older patient with node positive TNBC who achieve pCR to neoadjuvant chemotherapy?
It depends on what surgery the patient has received. If lumpectomy plus SLNB, I would not omit unless there is absolute contraindications, intolerance to radiation therapy. PRIME II, CALGB 9343, and this meta-analysis provided evidence that post lumpectomy radiation therapy can be omitted in women >...
What would be an appropriate chemotherapy de-escalation strategy for patients with metastatic TNBC on pembrolizumab/chemotherapy with CR and negative ctDNA?
My inclination would be to stop the chemotherapy but continue pembrolizumab indefinitely, in the absence of an immune-related adverse event (that can't be easily controlled, such as hypothyroidism).
How do you choose among regimens for relapsed refractory myeloma?
To be brief - no one chooses elotuzumab with no single agent activity if Daratumumab is available, with its approximate 30% response rate in its pivotal study. I was just sitting down at a meeting with a number of myeloma physicians asking how do we currently choose treatment for relapsed myeloma.Fo...
How do you choose among regimens for relapsed refractory myeloma?
To be brief - no one chooses elotuzumab with no single agent activity if Daratumumab is available, with its approximate 30% response rate in its pivotal study. I was just sitting down at a meeting with a number of myeloma physicians asking how do we currently choose treatment for relapsed myeloma.Fo...
Based on the DREAMM-7 and DREAMM-8 data, how would you incorporate belantamab mafadotin in your practice?
This is definitely top of mind with the publication of the DREAMM, BENEFIT, and IMROZ trials. Given my standard sequencing of myeloma treatments in non t(11;14) patients who are not clinical trial candidates, there is no longer a good time to incorporate a toxic BCMA antibody drug conjugate into the...