Journal of oncology practice
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Tumor-specific cytotoxic T cells have the capacity to target and eradicate malignant B cells in patients with Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma; however, multiple mechanisms, including regulatory T cells, immunosuppressive ligands, and immune exhaustion, suppress an effective antitumor immune response. One mechanism that is used by malignant cells to inhibit the immune response is overexpression of programmed death ligand 1 or 2 (PD-L1 or PD-L2) on the cancer cell surface. ⋯ Blocking antibodies that are directed against PD-1 or PD-L1 are currently being tested in patients with lymphoma and have shown remarkable efficacy, particularly in patients with relapsed Hodgkin lymphoma. On the basis of the promising activity of this approach, PD-1 inhibitors are being used as single-agent therapy in patients with relapsed Hodgkin lymphoma, and these inhibitors are also being tested in combination with standard chemotherapy or targeted agents in ongoing clinical trials.
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Checklists are used in many different settings for the purpose of standardization and reduction of preventable errors in practice. Our group sought to determine whether a palliative care checklist (PCC) would improve the clinical documentation of key patient information. ⋯ Our study showed that the use of a PCC improved the quality of the documentation of a patient visit in an outpatient clinical setting.