Nearly a decade ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first liquid biopsy assay to monitor patients with prostate, breast, and colon cancer by measuring circulating tumor cells (CTC) in patients’ blood.
Most clinical trials provide limited guidance on the appropriate treatment of patients seen in clinical practice. Particularly in oncology, participants in trials tend to be significantly younger and in substantially better health than the average patient. Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) provides a clear example of the challenge.
Chemotherapy has long been a component in the first-line treatment for advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). A number of studies in recent years indicate that a subset of patients with specific genetic mutations do not respond well to the recommended 5-fluorouracil-based regimens, such as FOLFOX (5-FU, oxaliplatin, and leucovorin) or FOLFIRI (5-FU, irinotecan, and leucovorin) alone or in combination with other agents.
When a cure is not possible, longer life is the goal. For patients with multiple myeloma, extending survival is the best available option today, and one of the best ways to achieve that is to receive care through the U.S. Military Health System.
As the number of first-line treatments for Waldenström Macroglobulinemia increased, older adults experienced marked improvements in survival Among older patients, median progression-free survival improved from 28.3 months in the early era to 63.3 months in the modern era, according to a new study. Younger patients, on the other hand, showed almost no improvement in median progression-free survival between eras, the authors pointed out.
