May 2016

Certified pet therapy programs provide patients and their families with comfort, relief, and a distraction from pain, nausea, discomfort, and stress.

For patients with early-stage invasive breast cancer and known estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and HER2 status, ASCO's February 2016 release of their evidence-based recommendations helped define appropriate use of biomarker assay results in guiding adjuvant treatment decisions.

Substantial changes were made to the latest version of the NCCN guideline for multiple myeloma to address the multitude of newly approved agents for patients with this disease.

Plasma-based genetic testing can effectively be used to determine whether a tissue biopsy is necessary for EGFR mutation analysis in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) is the world's leading member-driven organization dedicated to professionals working in the field of cancer immunotherapy. A 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, SITC was established in 1984 to advance the science, development, and application of tumor immunology and cancer immunotherapy. SITC aims to make cancer immunotherapy a standard of care and the word "cure" a reality.

A number of small changes that were specific to neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapies were made to the NCCN breast cancer guidelines, additionally, the recommended treatments for patients with ER-positive disease were also modified.

The treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC) has remained a significant clinical challenge, since over 50% of patients present with or develop liver metastases, which is a leading cause of death; however, a recent phase III study showed promise for selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) in combination with standard chemotherapy as a first-line treatment.

Precision oncology should play a vital role in the shift toward value-based medicine by helping to deliver more effective therapies with more manageable pricing profiles, according to John L. Marshall, MD.

The combination of T-DM1 and pertuzumab was superior to the combination of paclitaxel and trastuzumab as neoadjuvant treatment for women with HER2-positive breast cancer.

A variety of dual immunotherapy combination regimens are currently under exploration that could build upon the success seen with the addition of the CTLA-4 inhibitor ipilimumab (Yervoy) to PD-1 blockade with nivolumab (Opdivo) for the treatment of patients with advanced melanoma.

A phase II study is exploring the oncolytic virus talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC; Imlygic) in the neoadjuvant setting for patients with resectable melanoma.

Payers and pharmacy benefit managers are exploring ways to curb the growing costs associated with biological therapies for the treatment of patients with cancer.