A cost-effectiveness analysis of avelumab plus best supportive care versus best supportive care alone as first-line maintenance treatment for patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma in Taiwan.

Background: Patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma have limited treatment options and a poor prognosis. The JAVELIN Bladder 100 trial showed that avelumab as first-line maintenance plus best supportive care significantly prolonged overall survival and progression-free survival versus best supportive care alone in patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma that had not progressed with first-line platinum-containing chemotherapy.

Aims: We assessed whether avelumab plus best supportive care is a cost-effective treatment option versus best supportive care alone in this patient group in Taiwan.

Randomized Phase III BMT CTN Trial of Calcineurin Inhibitor-Free Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease Interventions in Myeloablative Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation for Hematologic Malignancies.

Purpose: Calcineurin inhibitors (CNI) are standard components of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis after hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). Prior data suggested that CNI-free approaches using donor T-cell depletion, either by ex vivo CD34 selection or in vivo post-transplant cyclophosphamide (PTCy) as a single agent, are associated with lower rates of chronic GVHD (cGVHD).

Methods: This multicenter phase III trial randomly assigned patients with acute leukemia or myelodysplasia and an HLA-matched donor to receive CD34-selected peripheral blood stem cell, PTCy after a bone marrow (BM) graft, or tacrolimus and methotrexate after BM graft (control).

Right-sided acute diverticulitis in the West: experience at a university hospital in Argentina.

Purpose: In the West, diverticular disease is located mainly in the left colon. However, it can also present in the right colon, with an incidence of 1% to 2% in Caucasians. The purpose of this study was to describe our experience in right-sided acute diverticulitis (RD).

Systematic literature review of current treatments for stage I-III Merkel cell carcinoma.

There is a need to evaluate current treatments for stages I-III of Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). A systematic literature review was conducted to understand how patients with stage I-III MCC are treated and assess efficacy, safety, health-related quality of life and economic impact of current therapies. Embase was searched using the following inclusion criteria: publications from 2014 to 2019, in English, with adult patients (≥18 years) with early-stage MCC (i.