Publications by authors named "Richard Cathomas"

Immunoglobulins for intravenous use (IVIgs) and subcutaneous use (SCIgs) can prevent recurrent and severe infections in patients with secondary antibody deficiencies that are frequently linked to haematological/oncological malignancies as well as other clinical conditions and their respective treatments. Even so, as IVIgs and SCIgs are costly and their supply is limited, their clinical use must be optimised. The aim of this position paper is to provide structured practical guidance on the optimal use of IVIgs and SCIgs in secondary antibody deficiencies, particularly in haematological and oncological practice.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on improving follow-up care for patients with testicular cancer to detect relapses early by analyzing different imaging methods used for relapse detection in a large cohort of patients (1175 enrolled) from the Swiss Austrian German Testicular Cancer Cohort Study.
  • Key findings included that 76% of analyzed patients had stage I disease, with a high 5-year relapse-free survival rate of 90.1%. Cross-sectional imaging of the abdomen was found to be the most effective method for detecting relapses, especially abdominal CT scans.
  • The researchers proposed updated follow-up schedules emphasizing abdominal imaging while reducing reliance on chest X-rays, aiming to guide clinicians in future patient management strategies.
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Purpose: Optimal follow-up strategies following trimodal treatment for muscle invasive bladder cancer play a crucial role in detecting and managing relapse and side-effects. This article provides a comprehensive summary of the patterns and risk factors of relapse, functional outcomes, and follow-up protocols.

Methods: A systematic literature search on PubMed and review of current guidelines and institutional follow-up protocols after trimodal therapy were conducted.

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Immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors including atezolizumab, pembrolizumab and nivolumab has become an essential pillar in the management of muscle invasive and metastatic urothelial carcinoma. The field has evolved quickly in the past few years and several early beliefs have recently been upended. One such belief relates to the predictive value of PD-L1 expression based on immunohistochemistry.

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Purpose: Common side effects of taxane chemotherapy are nail toxicity and peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) causing severe impact on the quality of life. Different methods of cryotherapy to prevent these side effects have been tested. We investigated the use of machine-controlled cooling of hands and feet to reduce nail toxicity and CIPN in patients receiving taxane chemotherapy.

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Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) improve overall survival (OS) in advanced/metastatic urothelial cancer (a/mUC) patients. Preliminary evidence suggests a prognostic role of inflammatory biomarkers in this setting. We aimed to develop a disease-specific prognostic inflammatory index for a/mUC patients on ICIs.

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Introduction: Enzalutamide, a second-generation androgen receptor inhibitor, is indicated for the treatment of metastatic disease, as well as in the treatment of non-metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (PCa). This systematic review aims to determine outcomes and toxicity in patients with non-metastatic castration sensitive prostate cancer (nmCSPC) treated with enzalutamide in the primary or salvage settings.

Method: We performed a systematic review focusing on the role of Enzalutamide in the treatment of nmCSPC, using the PubMed/Medline database.

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  • Darolutamide is an androgen receptor pathway inhibitor for prostate cancer, and its toxicity profile is a crucial factor for treatment selection, although efficacy among different ARPIs appears similar.
  • A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted using data from clinical trials comparing darolutamide to placebo, focusing on adverse events (AEs) that could lead to treatment discontinuation.
  • The results showed that darolutamide did not significantly increase AEs compared to placebo, except for a notable higher incidence of bone fractures associated with placebo.
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Approximately 30% of seminoma (SEM) patients present with moderately elevated human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) levels at first diagnosis. In case of high hCG serum levels, the presence of a non-SEM component, i.e.

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  • - The 2023 EAU guidelines provide updated, evidence-based recommendations for managing muscle-invasive and metastatic bladder cancer (MMIBC), focusing on diagnosis and treatment approaches.
  • - Key findings emphasize the significance of detailed pathology reporting, using MRI for better disease staging, and the importance of evaluating frail patients with a team of specialists.
  • - Treatment recommendations include cisplatin-based neoadjuvant therapy and exploring sexual organ-preserving surgeries, which lead to improved functional outcomes without increasing cancer risk.
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Background: It has been shown that the Stockholm3 test decreases overdetection of prostate cancer (PCa) while retaining the ability to detect clinically significant PCa (csPCa) in a Swedish population. However, the test includes potentially population-specific testing of single-nucleotide polymorphisms and has yet not been validated outside Scandinavia.

Objective: To assess the performance of the Stockholm3 test in discriminating csPCa in a Central European cohort undergoing prostate biopsy (PBx).

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The management of prostate cancer is undergoing rapid changes in all disease settings. Novel imaging tools for diagnosis have been introduced, and the treatment of high-risk localized, locally advanced and metastatic disease has changed considerably in recent years. From clinical and health-economic perspectives, a rational and optimal use of the available options is of the utmost importance.

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Purpose: The integration of immunotherapy in the perioperative setting of muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma (MIUC) appears promising. SAKK 06/17 investigated the addition of neoadjuvant durvalumab to gemcitabine/cisplatin (GC) chemotherapy followed by radical surgery and adjuvant checkpoint inhibition with durvalumab.

Patients And Methods: SAKK 06/17 was an investigator-initiated, open-label, single-arm phase II study including cisplatin-fit patients with stage cT2-T4a cN0-1 operable MIUC.

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Background: Treatment options for patients with urothelial cancer (UC) refractory to platinum and immunotherapy are limited and survival is short. Enfortumab vedotin (EV) is a monoclonal anti-NECTIN4 antibody conjugated to monomethyl auristatin. It was recently approved because of superior survival in comparison to standard-of-care (SOC) chemotherapy.

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Introduction: The combination of checkpoint inhibition and cisplatin-based chemotherapy is investigated in muscle invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) and results from phase 2 trials have been presented. Intravesical BCG has been used for non-MIBC (NMIBC) in patients with carcinoma in situ and high-grade Ta/T1 tumours. BCG induces innate and adapted immune response and upregulation of PD-L1 in preclinical models.

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Background: Patient preferences for treatment outcomes are important to guide decision-making in clinical practice, but little is known about the preferences of patients with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC).

Objective: To evaluate patient preferences regarding the attributed benefits and harms of systemic treatments for mHSPC and preference heterogeneity between individuals and specific subgroups.

Design Setting And Participants: We conducted an online discrete choice experiment (DCE) preference survey among 77 patients with metastatic prostate cancer (mPC) and 311 men from the general population in Switzerland between November 2021 and August 2022.

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Background: Abiraterone acetate plus prednisolone (herein referred to as abiraterone) or enzalutamide added at the start of androgen deprivation therapy improves outcomes for patients with metastatic prostate cancer. Here, we aimed to evaluate long-term outcomes and test whether combining enzalutamide with abiraterone and androgen deprivation therapy improves survival.

Methods: We analysed two open-label, randomised, controlled, phase 3 trials of the STAMPEDE platform protocol, with no overlapping controls, conducted at 117 sites in the UK and Switzerland.

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Background: While the addition of androgen receptor signaling inhibitors (ARSIs) to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) results in better of overall survival in patients with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC), information regarding health related quality of life (HR-QoL) is sparse. We aimed at summarizing current evidence on the impact of ARSIs on HR-QoL.

Methods: We performed a systematic review of the published literature on PubMed/EMBASE, Web of Science, SCOPUS, and the Cochrane libraries between January 2011 and April 2022.

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Background: Patients with advanced prostate cancer have a poor prognosis, and well-tolerated new treatment strategies are required to improve survival outcomes. Apalutamide is a novel androgen signalling inhibitor developed to be used in combination with continuous androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for the treatment of patients with advanced prostate cancer. Based on evidence from two phase 3 pivotal clinical trials in non-metastatic castration-resistant (nmCRPC; SPARTAN) and metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC; TITAN), ADT plus apalutamide significantly extends overall survival compared with the standard of care.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigated the effectiveness of different dosing strategies for cabazitaxel in treating metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), contrasting a standard dose with a dose monitored through therapeutic drug monitoring.
  • - Results showed that the standard dosing (arm A) had a clinical feasibility rate of 69.4%, while the monitored dosing (arm B) showed a slightly lower rate of 64.3%, but arm B had significantly better outcomes in terms of progression-free survival (9.5 months vs. 4.4 months) and overall survival (16.2 months vs. 7.3 months).
  • - The study concluded that using a pharmacokinetic-guided approach for dosing cabazitaxel is
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Unlabelled: The tumour markers alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), beta human chorionic gonadotropin (βHCG), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) have established roles in the management and follow-up of testicular cancer. While a tumour marker rise can serve as an indicator of relapse, the frequency of false-positive marker events has not been studied systematically in larger cohorts. We assessed the validity of serum tumour markers for the detection of relapse in the Swiss Austrian German Testicular Cancer Cohort Study (SAG TCCS).

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