Journal Of Clinical Oncology (jco) Podcast

Given the high rate of unplanned hospitalizations in older cancer patients, multidisciplinary care is needed for outcomes improvement.

Minimal residual disease monitoring has been very helpful in early response evaluation and risk stratification of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). This podcast discusses the pros and cons of extended MRD monitoring throughout the duration of therapy for childhood ALL.

This podcast describes the report of a cohort of Chinese patients with known prior hepatitis B exposure, receiving rituximab as part of their therapy for lymphoma. The podcast includes a summary of the trial and discussion of the finding that while reactivation of hepatitis B is common in this population, if treatment with antivirals is started soon after the detection of a positive viral load, then pathology related to hepatitis B can be avoided.

In this paper, the authors demonstrate that only a very small percentage of patients from 2 large, prospective cohorts developed recurrent diffuse large B-cell lymphoma detected solely on post remission imaging. In addition, the overall survival of these patients was not different from that of patients who presented with symptoms or findings on physical exam. I will review the data and discuss its possible implications for the clinical care of patients in remission at the completion of front-line chemotherapy.

A phase I/II study of the antibody-drug conjugate glembatumumab vedotin (CDX-011 or CR011-vcMMAE) in patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer, reveals an acceptable safety profile and promising clinical activity in GPNMB expressing breast cancer.

Conventional GVHD prophylaxis with calcineurin inhibitors has a high incidence of chronic GVHD. Kanakri et al show that post-transplant administration of High dose cyclophosphamide is an effective way of reducing chronic GVHD. Limitations of this approach and alternative approaches are briefly discussed.

Many new oncology drugs are expensive. Drug prices may not reflect the whole cost of new agents, as increases or decreases in adverse effects compared to previously available therapies may influence cost comparisons. This podcast summarizes a meta-analysis of the economic consequences of adverse effects in 41 registration trials that led to approval of new oncology drugs between 2000 and 2011.

This podcast discusses a phase 2 trial of cabozantinib in men with advanced bone-metastatic prostate cancer, using a novel method to assess bone scan response.

This podcast discusses the results and practical implications of a population-based study that found an increased fracture risk after cystectomy for bladder cancer.

This podcast discusses the current state of knowledge regarding allogeneic transplantation as a treatment modality for advanced systemic mastocytosis.

This study assessed diabetes mellitus risk in long-term Hodgkin lymphoma survivors, and found that a mean pancreatic tail dose of 36 Gy or higher was associated with a significantly increased risk of diabetes mellitus. This finding has important implications in the follow up of long-term Hodgkin lymphoma survivors, and also suggests that in newly diagnosed patients with upper abdominal involvement, the pancreas should be included as in organ-in-risk in the radiotherapy planning.

This podcast reviews the publication of the RESORT manuscript, and puts these results into context with the recently published Ardeshna trial of rituximab vs. observation in follicular lymphoma, concluding that there is no longer a role for rituximab maintenance in low tumor burden follicular lymphoma.

This podcast will use the study reported by Bejar and colleagues to review the role of screening for TET2, DNMT3A, and particularly TP53, mutations in deciding whether to recommend allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant for patients with myelodysplastic syndromes.

This JCO Podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article, "Oncology Fellows' Career Plans, Expectations and Well-Being: Do Oncology Fellows Know What They are Getting In To?" by Tait D. Shanafelt, et al.

This study reports surprisingly good outcomes for children with Ph-like ALL treated on the St. Jude Total Fifteen clinical trial.

Corticosteroids are recommended as part of the WHO analgesic ladder but there is limited evidence for their efficacy for the treatment of pain in cancer patients.

The availability of reconstructive surgeons restricts the use of immediate breast reconstruction, creating unintended inequities even in a system with universal health care coverage.

This podcast describes the rising epidemic of HPV-associated oropharynx cancer, its unique demographic profile and natural history, and comments on new findings from Carole Fakhry et al. regarding patterns of disease recurrence seen in patients enrolled on RTOG 0129 and 0522.

This podcast discusses the report of cardiac monitoring data from the HERA trial, places the findings in context with data from other trials, and considers how the report relates to clinical practice.

This is a review of breast needle biopsy for the diagnosis of breast cancer and how surgeons and geography affect utilization and the resultant impact on quality of care.