The 60th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition was held in San Diego, CA from December 1-4, 2018.
The Annual European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2019 Congress was held in Barcelona, Spain from September 27 to October 1, 2019. Conference highlights included new data from PARP inhibitors in ovarian cancer, such as Zejula, Lynparza and veliparib, as well as a follow-up update for KRAS-targeted drug AMG 510 for colorectal cancer, and CDK4/6-inhibitors, Kisqali and Verzenio, for breast cancer. Key pipeline updates for more established drugs were highly featured including Keytruda for…
The Annual European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2020 Congress was held virtually from September 19 to September 21, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A US KOL provides insight into the current treatment landscape for bladder cancer. Critical unmet needs in the bladder cancer market along with future trends are also discussed.
The CLL treatment paradigm has changed significantly over the past five years, with targeted therapies such as Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors and BCL-2 inhibitors displacing chemotherapy-based treatments for most patients who have CLL.
AML is a type of heterogeneous hematological malignancy that originates from immature white blood cells (blasts) in the bone marrow, which may be derived from either a hematopoietic stem cell or a lineage-specific progenitor cell. “Acute” means that the leukemia may progress rapidly – AML generally spreads quickly to the bloodstream and can then spread to other parts of the body including the lymph nodes, spleen, central nervous system, and testicles.
Bladder cancer is the fifth most common cancer in Europe and the ninth most common cancer globally. Symptoms include hematuria, dysuria, increased urinary frequency, and frequent urinary tract infections.
Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is defined as a cancer of the blood in which a mutation in myeloid hematopoietic stem cells causes the overproduction of immature and dysfunctional white blood cells (myeloblasts, also known as blasts), preventing the normal production and function of healthy white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.
Colorectal (or bowel) cancer refers to carcinomas arising in the epithelium of the large intestine at any point between the cecal valve and the anus. CRC typically develops through the proliferation of mucosal epithelial cells of the gastrointestinal (GI) wall, eventually forming a polyp or adenoma. As with many other cancers of the GI tract, the vast majority (>95%) are adenocarcinomas.
Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is an aggressive subtype of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), which originates in the lymphatic system when B lymphocytes become enlarged and proliferate uncontrollably to form a tumor mass. DLBCL can arise de novo or as a progression or transformation from more indolent disease such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia (in which case it is also known as Richter’s transformation) or follicular lymphoma (FL).
Stomach or gastric cancer (GC) refers to any cancer arising in the lining of the stomach. The vast majority (95%) of these cancers are adenocarcinomas, and can be further grouped by anatomic origin. The clearest etiological distinction exists between adenocarcinomas of the gastric cardia (the anterior edge of the stomach surrounding the entry point of the esophagus), and those arising in the other anatomical subsites of the stomach – the fundus, body, pylorus, and the antrum. In most cases, gastric adenocarcinomas will begin in the muscularis mucosae and submucosa, then invading deeper lamina of the gastric wall.
Head and neck cancers (HNCs) are defined as any cancer that begins in cells of the oral cavity, pharynx, nose, sinuses, or salivary glands. These cancers are grouped together due to historical similarities in etiology, disease presentation, and manifestation. The vast majority of these cases (90%), collectively referred to as head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs), appear in squamous epithelial cells lining the mucous membranes of these regions. The exception to this is salivary gland cancer, which can appear in any of the salivary glands’ diverse cell types.
Liver cancers can be differentiated based on the cell types they affect. The most common form of liver cancer is hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which accounts for 80–90% of liver cancer cases. HCC affects hepatocellular cells, or hepatocytes, which are the most abundant cell type in the liver and are responsible for the liver’s primary functions, such as bile production, protein synthesis, and detoxification. This differentiates HCC from other types of liver cancer such as cholangiocarcinoma, which affects the epithelial cells lining the bile ducts, and angiosarcoma, which affects the endothelial cells lining blood vessels of the liver.
Amplification of the HER2/neu oncogene and related genetic elements on chromosome 17 increases HER2 expression and accelerates tumorigenesis. The natural disease progression meant that, historically, women with breast cancer who overexpressed HER2 were found to have significantly shorter disease-free survival and overall survival compared with women without HER2 amplification; however, the introduction of trastuzumab in 1998 drastically changed patient outcomes, to the point where HER2+ breast cancer patients now have the longest median survival of all breast cancer subtypes. HER2 is overexpressed in approximately 20% of breast cancers.
Hormone receptor-positive (HR+) is the most common breast cancer subtype, with approximately 70% of breast cancers presenting with overexpression of estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, or both (De Placido and Pronzato, 2015). Overexpression of the hormone receptors allows estrogen and progesterone to drive tumor growth and proliferation. Therefore, endocrine therapy remains the standard treatment for advanced patients with HR+/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2-) breast cancer.
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