Entries by Kirsty LEE

Combination therapy with a novel agent, albuvirtide, in hospitalised AIDS patients

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Delayed therapy start and antiretroviral therapy (ART) resistance are two common issues affecting up to 33% and 17% of patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), respectively. These patients commonly present with higher viral loads, lower CD4 T-cell count, and complications such as infections requiring acute treatment. For those patients presenting with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) or those who have breakthrough HIV, and who present with opportunistic infections and comorbidities requiring hospitalisation, ART treatments are limited.

Breast cancer update January 2021

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With the San Antonio Breast Cancer Conference (SABCS) 2020 by AACR just completed, several new and clinical relevant phase 2 and phase 3 have been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Clinical Cancer Research, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and Lancet Oncology. [‘mediPr] provides you with an overview.

Increasing dose frequency of lanreotide autogel injections in neuroendocrine tumours

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Somatostatin analogues (SSA) control the hormonal hypersecretion in pancreatic and midgut neuroendocrine tumours (NETs), with antiproliferative, antiangiogenic and proapoptotic effects. Lanreotide autogel is a long-acting SSA that is considered the therapy of choice along with octreotide, in controlling symptoms associated with gastroenteropancreatic (GEP)-NETs.

HCV-infected kidneys safe for transplantation with antiviral treatment

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Kidney transplants are the best treatment for end-stage renal disease (ESRD), with better survival outcomes than haemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis. However, in Hong Kong as well as much of the rest of the world, there is an increasing gap between the number of patients requiring a transplant and the number of organs available.

Sotorasib for the treatment of KRASG12C mutated lung cancer

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RAS is the most frequently mutated gene family in cancers, with KRAS mutations being involved as a driver in three of the most lethal cancers – lung cancer, colorectal cancer, and pancreatic cancer. Incidence of KRAS mutations vary between ethnicity with Caucasians having a higher incidence than African-Americans or Asians. In non-small lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common KRAS mutation is G12C. In Asia, G12C mutations in particular account for 14.5% of KRAS mutations in the Chinese population. KRAS G12C was identified in 4.3% of lung cancer samples and 2.5% of colorectal cancer samples.

Capmatinib therapy for the treatment of MET-positive non-small cell lung cancer

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A number of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are now available for the treatment of various types of non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC), including epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutated and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-rearranged NSCLC. However, amplification of the MET gene, which codes for the hepatocyte growth factor receptor (HGFR), has been found to be one of the most prominent mechanisms of secondary resistance to EGFR TKIs. Similarly, the MET exon 14 (METex14) mutation has also emerged as a potential tumour driver due to its role in cancer proliferation, and thus also a promising target for NSCLC.

Data for safe and effective use of evolocumab in paediatric familial hypercholesterolaemia

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While SARS-CoV2 has been previously reported to exist in lung tissue in a 78-year-old patient who died of unexpected cardiac arrest when ready for discharge after COVID-19 hospitalisation, recently the first evidence of SARS-CoV2 infection in heart muscle cells has been reported in a case from Brazil and which is supported by evidence from other reports.

Ticagrelor may not confer post-MI benefits to elderly patients

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While SARS-CoV2 has been previously reported to exist in lung tissue in a 78-year-old patient who died of unexpected cardiac arrest when ready for discharge after COVID-19 hospitalisation, recently the first evidence of SARS-CoV2 infection in heart muscle cells has been reported in a case from Brazil and which is supported by evidence from other reports.

Evidence of SARS-CoV2 in heart cells

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While SARS-CoV2 has been previously reported to exist in lung tissue in a 78-year-old patient who died of unexpected cardiac arrest when ready for discharge after COVID-19 hospitalisation, recently the first evidence of SARS-CoV2 infection in heart muscle cells has been reported in a case from Brazil and which is supported by evidence from other reports.

Selpercatinib displays efficacy in RET fusion-positive non-small cell lung cancer

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Aberrant RET activation has shown to be a clinical driver of tumour growth and proliferation. It is reported that 1-2% of non-small cell lung cancer patients have activating RET fusions. Clinical characteristics of these patients are generally younger (<60 years) with minimal or no smoking history, and frequent presentation with brain metastases at diagnosis of advanced disease. RET mutations are mutually exclusive with other common lung cancer genetic abberations, such as reported for KRAS, EGFR, and ALK.

Updated human papillomavirus vaccination and testing recommendations from the American Cancer Society

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Human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of the most common causes of sexually transmitted disease worldwide. HPV is associated with a variety of clinical conditions that can range from cutaneous warts to cervical or anal cancer. Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer in women in the United States, and may constitute up to 25% of all female cancers in developing countries.

Lower-risk MDS patients benefit from novel drug, imetelstat

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Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a heterogenous group of clonal haematopoietic disorders that carry a risk of progression to acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Patients are stratified into risk groups due to the heterogeneity of the disease, which is also exemplified by median overall survival (OS) of 8.8 years for very low risk, and 0.8 years for very high risk patients. Due to symptoms such as anaemia, supportive red blood cell (RBC) transfusions are needed in 80-90% of patients during their disease course, although RBC dependence has been shown to be an adverse prognostic marker.

Carboplatin plus paclitaxel to be the new standard of care for anal cancer

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The incidence of anal cancer has been increasing over the past decade, but currently still constitutes 0.5% of all cancer diagnoses in the United States. When the cancer has metastasised, prognosis remains poor, with relative 5-year survival rates of approximately 30%. The current standard of care for metastatic anal cancer is cisplatin-based chemotherapy combined with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). However, no randomised clinical trial investigating the optimal chemotherapy regimen for this disease has been conducted. The InterAAct trial was launched to investigate cisplatin plus FU against carboplatin plus paclitaxel in advanced anal cancers, and full results were recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.