European journal of cancer : official journal for European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) [and] European Association for Cancer Research (EACR)
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The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 pandemic is a global health problem, which started to affect China by the end of 2019. In Europe, Italy has faced this novel disease entity (named novel coronavirus disease [COVID-19]) first and severely. COVID-19 represents a significant hurdle for public health services and a potential harm for patients with cancer. ⋯ Results of this survey suggest that Italian oncology departments have promptly set a proactive approach to the actual emergency. Oncologists need to preserve the continuum of care of patients, as the benefit of ensuring a well-delivered anti-cancer treatment plan outweighs the risk of COVID-19 infection. International cooperation is an important starting point, as heavily affected nations can serve as an example to find out ways to safely preserve health activity during the pandemic.
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The impact of immune-related adverse events (irAE) on survival outcomes after single-agent immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) remains unclear. We aimed to evaluate the association between irAEs and ICI efficacy in various malignancies. ⋯ In this pooled multi-institutional cohort, the incidence of irAEs was associated with better long-term survival across different malignancies treated with ICI monotherapy.
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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is challenging for physicians treating patients with genitourinary cancers as they are considered at high risk of severe events. The uro-oncology outpatient clinic at our academic institution was affected early by the outbreak owing to the widespread infection of healthcare personnel. ⋯ Furthermore, we analysed susceptibility to COVID-19 and its effects on patients with uro-oncological cancer treated with antitumoural agents. The goal is to warrant high-quality cancer care, despite being an academic centre on the front line of Germany's response to COVID-19.
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Anti-[programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)] antibodies nivolumab and pembrolizumab were approved for adjuvant treatment of melanoma as they demonstrated improved relapse-free survival. Currently, combined anti-PD-1 plus anti-[cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA4)] blockade is being investigated in adjuvant and neoadjuvant trials. Sarcoidosis-like reactions have been described for immune checkpoint inhibitors and are most likely drug-induced. The reported rate of sarcoidosis/sarcoidosis-like reactions within clinical melanoma trials is <2%. We observed that a remarkably higher number of melanoma patients (10/45 patients, 22%) treated with immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) within an adjuvant clinical trial-developed drug induced sarcoidosis-like reaction (DISR) mimicking metastasis. ⋯ In most cases, sarcoidosis could only be differentiated from melanoma progression on biopsy. Treating physicians as well as radiologists have to be aware of the potentially higher rate of DISR in patients receiving adjuvant ICI. A thorough interdisciplinary workup is required to discriminate from true melanoma progression and to decide on continuation of adjuvant ICI treatment.
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Regarding the comparison between primary debulking surgery (PDS) and neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) for stage III/IV ovarian, tubal and peritoneal cancers, EORTC55971 and CHORUS studies demonstrated noninferiority of NACT. Previously, we reported reduced invasiveness of NACT in JCOG0602. This is a final analysis including the primary endpoint of overall survival (OS). ⋯ UMIN000000523.