Repeal and replace? How about retain, review, and refine?

In regard to symptom management, we can never have enough about nausea and vomiting prevention. Schwartzberg and colleagues report on a trial in which they evaluated the clinical benefits of APF530, a subcutaneous formulation of granisetron, compared with ondansetron in patients who had received cisplatin therapy. This longer-acting formulation of granisetron performed very well against a standard of care and might give our patients another option in the clinic for highly emetogenic chemotherapy.

Still on the topic of symptom management, preventing and treating mTOR-inhibitor–associated stomatitis (mIAS) is the subject of a review by Ramchandran and colleagues. The inhibitors have been approved for treatment in renal cell, neuroendocrine, and breast cancers, but of course, many of our newer molecules have some associated toxicity. Based on their literature scan, the authors report that management of mIAS should focus on three major approaches: prevention, early aggressive treatment, and, when needed, more aggressive pain management. Early recognition and diagnosis of mIAS facilitate early intervention to limit potential sequelae of mIAS and minimize the need for mTOR inhibitor dose reduction and interruption.

In a way, stress management could also fall under the symptom management category. I often remember being told during my training that we should always discuss with your patients their level of anxiety and depression. But I think sometimes we are so busy addressing the cancer, its treatment, and treatment side effects, we overlook the fact that the patient is suffering psychologically and might need additional intervention in the form of talk therapy and/or medication. Ramírez-Solá and colleagues describe in our How We Do It section the process of developing and implementing a psychosocial distress management program at their institution in Puerto Rico. The authors also summarize the results of a pilot study to validate the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) as a measure to improve the process of emotional distress management in particular.

In recent years, the number of approvals and new indications for therapies for different cancer types has increased significantly. We highlight two such approvals in this issue. One is the PARP inhibitor, rucaparib, which was approved in both the platinum-sensitive and -resistant settings for BRCA1- and BRCA2-mutant patients with ovarian cancer. The other is the new CD38 antibody daratumumab, which was originally approved as a single-agent therapy for relapsed myeloma and which has now received a second approval with demonstrated improvement of progression-free survival when given with the lenalidomide-dexamethasone or bortezomib-dexamethasone combinations.

When it comes to new therapies, immunotherapies are at the cutting edge. Who hasn’t heard of the new checkpoint inhibitor drugs for a range of cancers that have either been approved or are in trial? Until now, we have used these immunotherapies as single agents, but Jane de Lartigue writes of the potential of combining more than one immunotherapy drug and/or combining an immune checkpoint inhibitor with a chemotherapy drug. The key behind this concept is that the more antigenic differentiation and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes in the system, the better the immunotherapy might work.

In the previous issue of the journal, one of our Editors, Thomas Strouse, discussed the issue of physician aid in dying (PAD)⁴ and asserted he had come to view “active non-participation” in legal PAD as a “toxic form of patient abandonment.” This is, of course, a very challenging and complex topic, and one that we likely have to address on a weekly basis with some of our cancer patients: if palliative care and end-of-life is the goal, how can we most humanely achieve that ethically and legally in concert with our patients’ wishes? Is it right or wrong to aid in some way in the dying process? Dr Alva Weir responds to Dr Strouse’s editorial, taking the view point that physician-assisted suicide is toxic abandonment. Dr Strauss responds, and I encourage you to read this very interesting exchange that highlights the point-counterpoint views of physician involvement in the dying process.

We round off the issue with a bumper crop of Case Reports. They include two that document diagnostic challenges: one in a patient with pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma presenting as a necrotizing cavitary lung lesion and another in which atraumatic splenic rupture is the initial presentation of CML. Also included is a report on a case of primary cardiac prosthetic valve-associated lymphoma and another on how a collaborative effort between oncologists and dermatologists contributed to the resolution of palmoplantar exacerbation of psoriasis in a patient who had been treated with nivolumab.