Outcomes of Antineoplastic Immunotherapy at a Large Healthcare Organization: Impact of Provider, Race and Socioeconomic Status.

Purpose: Disparities in cancer care delivery remain a pressing health-care crisis within the United States (US). The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and their management may be a disparity generator that impacts survival. This retrospective study assessed disparities in a cohort of patients with a variety of solid tumors treated with ICIs within a single health-care organization focusing on the impact of race, socioeconomic status (SES) and site of care delivery on survival and the development of severe immune-related adverse events (irAEs).

Minding the Bathwater: Fertility and Reproductive Toxicity in the Age of Immuno-Oncology.

Immune checkpoint inhibition has resulted in significant efficacy across many cancer types, including melanoma. Melanoma is the second most common cancer among those of reproductive age, yet the reproductive toxicities of adjuvant and first-line immunotherapy are largely unknown.The normal innate and adaptive immune systems play a vital role in reproductive organ homeostasis of men and women and are essential for implantation, fertility, and a successful pregnancy.

Association of the Time to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor (ICI) Initiation and Outcomes With Second Line ICI in Patients With Advanced Urothelial Carcinoma.

Background: Early progression on first-line (1L) platinum-based therapy or between therapy lines may be a surrogate of more aggressive disease and poor outcomes in advanced urothelial carcinoma (aUC), but its prognostic role regarding immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) response and survival is unclear. We hypothesized that shorter time until start of second-line (2L) ICI would be associated with worse outcomes in aUC.

Patients And Methods: We performed a retrospective multi-institution cohort study in patients with aUC treated with 1L platinum-based chemotherapy, who received 2L ICI.

Association Between Sites of Metastasis and Outcomes With Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Advanced Urothelial Carcinoma.

Background: Sites of metastasis have prognostic significance in advanced urothelial carcinoma (aUC), but more information is needed regarding outcomes based on metastatic sites in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI). We hypothesized that presence of liver/bone metastases would be associated with worse outcomes with ICI.

Methods: We identified a retrospective cohort of patients with aUC across 26 institutions, collecting demographics, clinicopathological, treatment, and outcomes information.

Response and Outcomes to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Advanced Urothelial Cancer Based on Prior Intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guerin.

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) improve overall survival (OS) in patients with locally advanced, unresectable, or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (aUC), but response rates can be modest. We compared outcomes between patients with and without prior intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), who received ICI for aUC, hypothesizing that prior intravesical BCG would be associated with worse outcomes.

Patients And Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study across 25 institutions in US and Europe.

A Perspective on Modulating Antitumor Immunity in Targeting Prostate Cancer.

Medicinal plants serve as a lead source of bioactive compounds and have been an integral part of day-to-day life in treating various disease conditions since ancient times. Withaferin A (WFA), a bioactive ingredient of , has been used for health and medicinal purposes for its adaptogenic, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer properties long before the published literature came into existence. Nearly 25% of pharmaceutical drugs are derived from medicinal plants, classified as dietary supplements.

Long-Term Outcomes of Dose-Escalated Pelvic Lymph Node Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) With a Simultaneous Hypofractionated Boost to the Prostate for Very High-Risk Adenocarcinoma of the Prostate: A Prospective Phase II Clinical Trial.

Purpose: There remains limited data as to the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of higher doses of elective radiation therapy to the pelvic lymph nodes in men with high-risk prostate cancer. We conducted a phase II study to evaluate moderate dose escalation to the pelvic lymph nodes using a simultaneous integrated boost to the prostate.

Methods And Materials: Patients were eligible with biopsy-proven adenocarcinoma of the prostate, a calculated lymph node risk of at least 25%, Karnofsky performance scale ≥70, and no evidence of M1 disease.

Early Bone Metastases are Associated with Worse Outcomes in Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma.

Background: Outcomes of patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC) with early bone metastases (eBM) vs no early bone metastases (nBM) have not thoroughly been described in the age of immuno-oncology.

Objective: To compare survival and other clinical outcomes in patients with eBM and nBM.

Methods: We used a multi-institutional database of patients with mUC treated with systemic therapy.

Epidemiology and outcomes of primary pediatric lung malignancies: Updates from the SEER database.

Background: Primary pediatric lung malignancies are rare tumors. We provide an updated analysis of the epidemiology and prognosis of these tumors since the last SEER series published in 2009.

Methods: The SEER 18 database from 1975 to 2016 was analyzed for patients ages 0-19 years with primary lung and/or bronchus neoplasms.

A New Prognostic Model in Patients with Advanced Urothelial Carcinoma Treated with First-line Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors.

Background: While immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are approved in the first-line (1L) setting for cisplatin-unfit patients with programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1)-high tumors or for platinum (cisplatin/carboplatin)-unfit patients, response rates remain modest and outcomes vary with no clinically useful biomarkers (except for PD-L1).

Objective: We aimed to develop a prognostic model for overall survival (OS) in patients receiving 1L ICIs for advanced urothelial cancer (aUC) in a multicenter cohort study.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Patients treated with 1L ICIs for aUC across 24 institutions and five countries (in the USA and Europe) outside clinical trials were included in this study.

Myocarditis associated with immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy: a case report of three patients.

Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-associated myocarditis is a rare but potentially fatal complication associated with development of other immune-related adverse events (irAEs). Troponin levels, ECG, echocardiography, and cardiac MR can assist with the diagnosis of this rare albeit serious adverse effect related to immunotherapy. In this case report, we present the clinical and radiological features of myocarditis in three patients presenting with acute symptoms while receiving therapy with ICIs.

Histological Subtypes and Response to PD-1/PD-L1 Blockade in Advanced Urothelial Cancer: A Retrospective Study.

Purpose: Urinary tract cancer can be pure urothelial carcinoma, pure nonurothelial carcinoma or variant urothelial carcinoma (defined here as mixed urothelial carcinoma). Little is known regarding outcomes for patients with variant urothelial carcinoma receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors. We hypothesized that variant urothelial carcinoma does not compromise immune checkpoint inhibitor efficacy in patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma.

Impact of performance status on treatment outcomes: A real-world study of advanced urothelial cancer treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) represent an appealing treatment for patients with advanced urothelial cancer (aUC) and a poor performance status (PS). However, the benefit of ICIs for patients with a poor PS remains unknown. It was hypothesized that a poor Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) PS (≥2 vs 0-1) would correlate with shorter overall survival (OS) in patients receiving ICIs.

Autologous Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation in Patients With Multiple Myeloma: Effect of Age.

Background: In the novel and pre-novel agent era, high-dose therapy, followed by autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (AHCT), has been shown to prolong survival in patients with multiple myeloma (MM) in randomized trials. However, these trials only included patients aged ≤ 65 years. Given that the median age at diagnosis is 66 years, it is important to know the outcomes of AHCT in older patients.