Genitourinary Cancer News

CHICAGO — An alternative dosing strategy of pembrolizumab and nivolumab may substantially reduce pharmaceutical costs without compromising efficacy in treating various cancers, according to results of a retrospective study presented at ASCO Annual Meeting.

CHICAGO — Proton chemoradiotherapy significantly reduced incidence of adverse events associated with unplanned hospitalizations compared with traditional photon chemoradiotherapy among adults with nonmetastatic cancers, according to results of a comparative effectiveness study presented at ASCO Annual Meeting.

CHICAGO — A standard nonopioid analgesia pathway with escalation options enabled most patients to go home without opioids, while still addressing their cancer and surgical pain, following robotic surgery for genitourinary cancers, according to results of a prospective cohort study presented at ASCO Annual Meeting.

For all cancer types, U.S. mortality rates continued to decline among adults and children from 1999 to 2016, with decreasing incidence rates for men and stable incidence rates for women, according to the Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer.

An increase in the number of immune checkpoint inhibitors approved by the FDA, along with more indications, means that 43% of patients with cancer in the United States are eligible to receive these drugs, according to an analysis published in JAMA Network Open.

According to a study presented at the National Kidney Foundation Spring Meeting, patients with chronic kidney disease had a statistically higher incidence of digestive system, urinary tract, respiratory tract, skin and hematologic cancers.

The FDA has issued the following approvals for oncology indications:

In this issue, we report the interesting study presented at Genitourinary Cancers Symposium from a strong multidisciplinary uro-oncology group, using the National Cancer Database (NCDB) to study the impact of retroperitoneal node dissection (RPLND) for stage I to stage II seminoma (see related article).

The Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force held an evening art gallery event for its survivors in October. For the task force, it was a celebration of successful efforts in navigating underserved, minority patients with cancer toward quality care.

The trends are clear — not only do ethnic and racial minority groups face poorer cancer outcomes, they also are less frequently invited to participate in clinical trials, more often experience delays in treatment and initiation of palliative care, and are less likely to be offered genetic testing.