fludarabine oral / Generic mfg. - LARVOL DELTA

Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Replicates Posititve Outcomes in Transfusion-Dependent Thalassemia (CGTLive) - P4 | N=823 | NCT04009525 | "New 3-year event-free survival data from a phase 4 prospective trial (NCT04009525) in China assessing the validity of a prior study of patients with transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT) who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) suggest that the approach can be effective, particularly when done with matched sibling donors (MSDs)...All told, the full cohort’s 2-year overall survival (OS) rate was 95%, as was the event-free survival (EFS) rate for the same period. The MSD cohort reported an OS and EFS of 97%, the latter of which was deemed slightly superior to the alternative donor groups at 97% (95% CI,95-99) compared with 93% (95% CI, 91-96), respectively (HR, 2.39; 95% CI, 1.14-5.01; P = .022)."

P4 data • Beta-Thalassemia

NCCN Survey Shows Persistence of Oncology Drug Shortages Across Centers (Targeted Oncology) - "Not only are these drug shortages impacting platinum-based drugs but also other essential medications, as found in the survey. A total of 66% of centers reported having a shortage of methotrexate, 55% of 5-fluorouracil, 45% of fludarabine...With this crisis, pressure has been placed on healthcare providers to maintain the quality and effectiveness of care for patients with cancer."

Commercial • Oncology

Opinion: Cancer patients should never be put in this situation (CNN) - "Unprecedented drug shortages are pushing hospitals and clinics around the country to the brink. Physicians are being forced to choose who can receive the recommended treatment for their illness - and who must wait....Some patients are angry, and that anger can be directed toward the doctor, the health care system or even the government for failing to protect them."

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ASCO chief medical officer appeals to Congress for action on cancer-drug shortages (Healio) - "'Eleven oncology drugs, maybe 14, are currently in shortage. Four of these - cisplatin, carboplatin, methotrexate and fludarabine - are commonly used to treat cancer in adults and children,' Gralow said during a House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing this week."

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Dr. Sidana on CAR T-cell Therapy in R/R Multiple Myeloma With Renal Impairment (OncLive) - "Surbhi Sidana, MD...discusses the feasibility of administering idecabtagene vicleucel (ide-cel; Abecma) in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma with renal impairment....It is feasible for patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma with renal impairment to receive BCMA-directed CAR T-cell therapy, specifically ide-cel, Sidana concludes."

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Ide-Cel Proves Safe and Effective for Patients With Relapsed/Refractory Multiple Myeloma (Targeted Oncology) - '"We know ide-cel has resulted in unprecedented response rates in patients with myeloma,' Surbhi Sidana, MD...'Importantly, [patients] had a similar clinical benefit in terms of response rates and PFS,' Sidana said. 'Of course, this is a retrospective study and there are limitations. Specifically, there was no mandatory dose reduction and there was no uniform dose reduction. Going forward, we are planning a phase 2 multicenter study to evaluate [ide-cel] in this population.'"

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Cancer Therapy Advisor: Perlmutter Cancer Center Hematologist Discusses Acute Myeloid Leukemia Clinical Trial Results (NYU Langone Health) - "'The only counterargument for this study is that the reinduction regimen used also contained high-dose cytarabine and anthracycline for patients who already failed cytarabine and an anthracycline, and we can't help but wonder if targeted therapies or introducing other reinduction regimens like FLAG [fludarabine, cytarabine, and granulocyte colony stimulating factor] would have made a difference,' says Dr. Abdul Hay...."

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Dr. Barrientos on the Shift Away From Chemoimmunotherapy in CLL (OncLive) - "Jacqueline Claudia Barrientos, MD, MS, discusses the shift away from chemoimmunotherapy in chronic lymphocytic leukemia."

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Additional Immunotherapeutic Strategies Warrant Exploration in Melanoma Research (ASCO Daily News) - "Merrick I. Ross, MD...discussed the use of oncolytic immunotherapy....'These different agents all have different mechanisms of action, but all of them have relatively robust responses when injected into local tumors and all of them have shown some element of eliciting distant responses at uninjected sites,' Dr. Ross said....Dr. Ross summarized some of the clinical practice scenarios in which oncolytic injectables could be used. On-label uses for T-VEC monotherapy include in patients with in-transit disease, with distant skin, soft tissue, and nodal metastases, and with low-volume visceral disease."

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Many look beyond chemotherapy to combat the swelling incidence of cancer (PRNewswire) - "'There are many other clinical trials still ongoing and these studies are very important, which make it one more reason to ask about immunotherapy,' said Ghassan K. Abou Alfa...'Immunotherapy is no doubt under a lot of studies, being evaluated further, and looked at in many aspects. We are waiting for the results of combinations of different immunotherapies that are actually in studies that are underway.'"

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