Maggie L. Shaw

Our top coverage from this year’s San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) included updated data on tamoxifen and trastuzumab deruxtecan, treatments long proven effective in the breast cancer space.

The most-read articles in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) for this year ran the gamut of special-interest areas: from treatment costs to pediatric PAH to high-risk patients.

The American Journal of Managed Care® covered thousands of miles in 2022, virtually and in person, criss-crossing the country and the world to deliver the latest clinical data, trial results, and drug developments.

Nasal polyp development, treatment, and recurrence were topics up for discussion in this year’s most popular nasal polyps–related content.

The biomarker potential of Charcot-Leyden crystals in nasal tissue was investigated over 2 years in 110 patients with diagnosed chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP).

BRAF mutations were addressed in depth this year, having been mentioned in 3 of this year’s top 5 articles. Also discussed were a first-in-its-class combination treatment approval and potential indicators of increased skin cancer risk.

A pair of abstracts presented during this year’s 64th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition explored barriers to treatment for sickle cell disease (SCD).

For this analysis, the Japan Pulmonary Hypertension Registry provided data from 2008 to 2021 on patients with diagnosed portopulmonary hypertension (PoPH).

In this study, researchers treated 37 basal cell carcinoma (BCC) lesions from 30 patients, with follow-ups at 5 time points after baseline examination.

In heart failure this year, value-based care, left ventricular ejection fraction, and disease prevention were among the most popular topics discussed.

A pair of abstracts presented at this year’s 64th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition bear out the significant transfusion-free rate at 3 years following beti-cell administration and marked improvements in patient-reported outcomes, including the ability to work and be physically active.

This new study, which followed patients up to 6 months after functional endoscopic sinus surgery, evaluated results using objective and subjective measures.

At this year’s American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions, held November 5-7 in Chicago, Illinois, hot topics for discussion included VICTORIA trial data and the great need for new antihypertensive agents to reduce health care disparities.

Response, progression-free survival, overall survival, time-to-next-treatment, and toxicity outcomes were evaluated among patients with advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) who received first-line treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors.

The ongoing multicenter open-label adaptively randomized phase 2 I-SPY2 trial is currently investigating dual immune blockade with cemiplimab plus the investigational agent REGN3767 as neoadjuvant therapy for early-stage, high-risk breast cancer, and new data were presented yesterday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Babytam is the 5-mg daily dose of tamoxifen being studied in the ongoing TAM-01 study, which is investigating incidence of invasive breast cancer or ductal carcinoma in situ among high-risk women who have received the treatment regimen for 3 years.

Initial data on NTLA-2001, which is a novel investigative intravenous agent that works to prevent development of cardiac transthyretin (ATTR) amyloidosis by targeting the TTR gene and TTR protein levels, were presented at this year’s American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions in Chicago.

The utility of annual MRI plus mammogram was investigated in a new meta-analysis delivered at this year’s San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, with the goal of optimizing use of MRI by considering potential for overdiagnosis and tailoring to age and risk group.

With human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)–low breast cancer still a relatively newly classified disease subtype, research is increasingly focused on the disease, in which cells express lower levels of the HER2 protein than are adequate to classify a patient as having HER2-positive disease.

A highlight of day 2 at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium was the morning presentation of a pair of studies highlighting the ongoing survival benefit associated with trastuzumab deruxtecan in metastatic breast cancer.

Costs are an adverse effect of treatment just like any other adverse effect, with slightly more patients worried about the financial impact of their cancer diagnosis than they are about actually dying from their disease, noted Fumiko Chino, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center.

From comparing outcomes, it is known that cemiplimab has the potential to improve responses among patients who have cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC), although many important questions remain, explained Neil D. Gross, MD, FACS, head and neck surgeon and director of clinical research in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

The study investigators wanted more data on long-term outcomes in pediatric patients following implantation of a transcatheter Potts shunt (TPS) for treatment of severe pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

The annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) will once again take place in a hybrid fashion, with in-person attendees returning to the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center to hear the latest clinical and basic research, as well as see several of their peers receive awards for their contributions to the space.

All-cause mortality was investigated among individuals who had heart failure as it related to their daily caloric intake and energy outcome.

During an Institute for Value-Based Medicine® event held in New York City, Samyukta Mullangi, MD, MBA, fellow in medical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discussed how disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic are ushering in health care delivery reform.

The investigators of this study compared outcomes between patients who had eosinophilic or noneosinophilic chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) by comparing the influence of body mass index (BMI) on each disease subtype.

Malignant cutaneous melanoma outcomes were investigated as they relate to diagnosis delay and potential influence from socioeconomic and demographic factors in Brazil, where skin cancer diagnoses represent 30% of all cancer diagnoses.

Researchers pulled data from the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System to analyze cardiac arrhythmia–related outcomes among patients on a mono or combination regimen for cancer treatment that included immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs).

Researchers investigated subgroups of patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with polyposis (CRSwNP), wanting more data on their responses to dupilumab and hoping to stratify their level of benefit.