Supportive Care

Randall A. Oyer, MD, oncology program, medical director, Lancaster General Health, treasurer, Association of Community Cancer Centers, discusses some of the tools clinicians could potentially use for their patients with cancer.

The FDA has expanded the indication for the DigniCap Cooling System to be used for alopecia reduction across all solid tumors.

Research from Tulane University provides a strong case that, across demographic and clinical populations, informed patients are less wary of palliative care and more inclined to take advantage of the favorable effects that palliative care services can offer for patient-centered outcomes.

Advances in treatment and supportive care have resulted in substantial improvements in cancer survival and a growing number of cancer survivors in the United States.

Deanna J. Attai, MD, assistant clinical professor of surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), breast surgeon at UCLA Health, discusses studies exploring the challenges with survivorship care plan implementation for patients with cancer in an interview during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

The rate of severe long-term side effects caused by treatments for childhood cancers is dropping over time, according to findings from a retrospective analysis of 23,600 survivors enrolled in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study.

The European Commission has approved oral rolapitant tablets for the treatment of delayed chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in adults.

The FDA has eliminated the need for risk evaluation and mitigation strategy certification prior to the administration of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents for anemia due to myelosuppressive chemotherapy.

The FDA has accepted a supplemental new drug application for ibrutinib as a treatment for patients with chronic graft-versus-host-disease after failure of 1 or more lines of systemic therapy.

Stacie Levine, MD, associate professor of Medicine, director, Geriatrics and Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program, University of Chicago Medicine, discusses the benefits of palliative care for patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

The FDA has approved telotristat ethyl (Xermelo) for use in combination with somatostatin analog (SSA) as a treatment for carcinoid syndrome diarrhea in patients with metastatic neuroendocrine tumors that cannot be adequately controlled by SSA therapy alone.

The EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has recommended approval of oral rolapitant (Varuby; Varubi in US) for the prevention of delayed nausea and vomiting associated with highly and moderately emetogenic cancer chemotherapy.

Prophylactic treatment with letermovir lowered the rates of cytomegalovirus infection and all-cause mortality compared with placebo for CMV-seropositive patients following an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant.

Francisco Marty, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the initial results of the Phase III trial evaluating letermovir for CMV after bone marrow transplant.