Volume 26, Issue 12, December 2021

The advancing field of precision medicine and the increasing number of requests for research biopsies in clinical trials pose challenges for patients and providers. This commentary explores requests and consent for research biopsies in clinical trials in light of the recently developed ASCO Ethical Framework.

Recent trends in cancer epidemiology in low- and middle-income countries show the need for urgent action. This article focuses on sub-Saharan Africa, where populations are showing an increased risk for diseases associated with the Western lifestyle, including cancer.

With the increasingly popular use of next-generation sequencing for tumor genotyping, molecular pathologists encounter variants that are on the same allele and close enough to be combined and annotated together. This article reports a case of acute myeloid leukemia with two in cis IDH2 variants, illustrating the importance of correct variant annotation as good communication practices between molecular laboratories and oncologists.

This case report describes a rare presentation of early stage breast cancer in which the primary tumor and metastasis in a draining axillary node were histologically discordant, highlighting the value of genomic data for guiding treatment of atypical clinical presentations.

Metastasis of endometrial cancer to the brain is rare, and diagnosis can be challenging. This case report highlights the power of molecular analysis in making the diagnosis in cases of rare metastases.

This report describes the case of a 33-year-old male patient with Lynch syndrome who was diagnosed with locally advanced rectal cancer. Instead of chemoradiation, neoadjuvant treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors was given.

Rearrangements of the ROS1 gene occur in 1%–2% of non-small cell lung cancers, characterizing a distinct molecular subgroup. This article reports a case of stage IVb lung cancer in a patient with ROS1 fusion who acquired a BRAF V600E fusion after progression on crizotinib.

This systematic review of the literature analyzes the risk of fluoropyrimidine chemotherapy treatment-related death associated with DPYD gene variants.

Immunotherapy has become the standard treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This article presents the first real-world results on the effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment for advanced NSCLC from a single academic center from Central and Eastern European country.

Esophageal cancer is the eighth most common cancer and the sixth most common cause of cancer death worldwide. This article focuses on best treatment options for patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Real-world evidence of clinical outcomes for patients treated with regorafenib and trifluridine/tipiracil (FTD/TPI) is lacking. This article evaluates FTD/TPI versus regorafenib on clinical outcomes among patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who had progressed on or were intolerant to previous lines of therapies.

This article reports on the association between body composition and clinical outcomes in patients with urothelial carcinoma treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors.

This article examines differences in outcomes for patients treated with platinum-based combination chemotherapy for metastatic urothelial carcinoma who later received subsequent platinum-based chemotherapy or subsequent non-platinum-based chemotherapy. Clinical factors associated with better outcomes are reported.

Excessive polypharmacy, defined as the concurrent use of eight or more drugs, is becoming more common, especially in the older population. This article evaluates the association of polypharmacy with overall survival in large cohort patients with colorectal cancer.

Frailty is an aging-related syndrome. This article examines the relationship between frailty and emotional health in older patients with advanced cancer.

Patients with thoracic neoplasms, with cancer symptoms that can mimic those of COVID-19, might suffer from misdiagnosis or diagnostic delays, leading to detrimental effects on prognosis. This article describes the clinical and social effect of COVID-19 on patients with thoracic cancer and the outcomes in those with a confirmed diagnosis.

Mobile technology is widely available and inexpensive, and mobile health-based oncology education could be a powerful tool for providing cancer screening knowledge to physicians. This article reports a mobile application (M-OncoED) that was developed to educate physicians in India on cancer risk factors, symptoms, and screening approaches.

To address an increasing mortality burden, resource-stratified guidelines have been developed to ensure that breast cancer care is matched to specific resources in low- and middle-income countries. This article identifies facilitators and barriers to the use of breast cancer guidelines by oncology providers at Princess Marina Hospital in Botswana using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR).

This article evaluates the clinical and pathologic data from a contemporary cohort of women who had a hysterectomy for endometrial cancer, to better understand factors that are associated with recurrences and deaths.

Adjuvant treatment for patients with cervical cancer remains controversial. This article assesses the prognosis of early-stage cervical cancer with pathological intermediate-risk factors and provides a reference for choice of adjuvant therapy.

This review summarizes the reported cases of immune checkpoint inhibitor–induced myocarditis with myositis and/or myasthenia gravis overlap syndrome (IM3OS).

This study investigated the role of PD-L1 expression on circulating tumor cells in predicting and monitoring response to PD-1/PD-L1 blockade immunotherapies in patients with advanced cancer.

Reporting of immune-related adverse events (irAEs) has not yet been standardized. This review evaluates the current state of irAE reporting in clinical trials, focusing on shortcomings associated with this reporting and possible solutions.

With the development of precision medicine and the advent of clinical trials testing targeted therapies and immunotherapies, biomarkers and the need for nondiagnostic biopsies have increased. This article focuses on improving the ethics of research biopsies.

It is unclear whether disclosures of data limitations and clinical uncertainty adequately communicate the limitations and practical utility of data displays reporting cancer drug trial results. This article examines how physicians interpret presentations of data with uncertain clinical utility in promotional communications for three different fictitious oncology drugs using three common data display types: forest plot, Kaplan-Meier curve, and bar chart.

This article reports clinical outcomes of patients with metastatic melanoma treated with BRAF/MEK inhibitors who interrupted the treatment after achieving a long-lasting objective response, exploring the role of circulating tumor DNA assessed at time of discontinuation as a biomarker for post-discontinuation progression-free survival.

Locally advanced basal cell cancer is a rare and challenging clinical problem. This article reports a novel treatment approach.

This article assesses the safety and tolerability of long-term administration of bevacizumab among patients with solid tumors.

Accurate illness understanding is crucial for patients with advanced cancer. This article reports on the association between being consistently accurate in prognostic understanding and psychological distress over time.

Early palliative care can improve experiences and outcomes for patients with advanced cancer. This article analyzes disease perceptions of cancer patients and their caregivers before and after early palliative care intervention.

This article focuses on chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and quality of life of breast cancer patients through multiple cycles of treatment.

Comprehensive genetic profiling using next-generation sequencing technologies has become an integral part of precision oncology. This article highlights inconsistencies in variant annotation, focusing on the annotation for the MET D1228N exon 19 resistance mutation.

Considering the increase in genomic testing for cancer care, this study aimed to better understand patients’ knowledge of their genetic test results.

This letter to the editor remarks on a recently published article reporting on gemcitabine-related adverse events associated with antibacterial use, focusing on key points for further consideration.

This letter to the editor responds to remarks on the authors’ article reporting on gemcitabine-related adverse events associated with antibacterial use.