Issue 13 – The Cancer Letter

Conversation with The Cancer Letter
Hollander: Fix telehealth infrastructure—or America will be just as unprepared for the next pandemic
As U.S. health systems switch to telehealth to connect with patients—via phone calls and online video conferencing—during the COVID-19 pandemic, providers are quickly learning that the lack of a national infrastructure for telehealth is making it difficult to reach patients.
Conversation with The Cancer Letter
Knudsen, Flomenberg: Eliminate digital health disparities; we don’t want telemedicine to be for the one-percenters
The Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University has been developing a scalable telehealth program long before the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States.
Class of drugs used to treat CAR T-cell toxicity may reduce COVID-19 deaths
Two randomized trials announced
A class of drugs that has been used to treat adverse events associated with CAR T-cell therapy is emerging as a potential treatment for COVID-19.
Conversation with The Cancer Letter
Curigliano: Italy’s COVID-19 cases keep rising; maybe next week the curve will flatten
6,205 health professionals have tested positive and 44 have died
Week after week, Giuseppe Curigliano is waiting to see the first signs of a slowdown in Italy’s cases of COVID-19, and week after week, he is disappointed.
COVID-19 Updates
- ASCO 2020 annual meeting goes virtual
- Congress passes coronavirus relief bill, slating $4.3B for CDC, $3.5B for BARDA, $945M for NIH, $80M for FDA
- NCI on the state of clinical trials, funding
- AACI urges immediate implementation of Defense Production Act
- Nebraska Medicine develops method to reuse personal protective equipment
- Nebraska Medicine infectious disease experts release open-access book on quarantine and isolation
- NSGC urges Congress to recognize genetic counselors
- Breast cancer patient featured in The Cancer Letter receives testing for COVID-19, awaits results
- Resources/FAQs
In Brief
- UCLA, UT Southwestern join NCCN
- S. Michael Rothenberg joins Pfizer Boulder Research Unit
- Kathleen Goss named associate director for administration at University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center
Trials & Tribulations
Against all odds
Unrelated stem cell transplants in coronavirus times
The COVID-19 crisis has consequences not only for those who have become infected and the doctors and nurses who care for them. The care of other patients is also threatened by the increasing stress that national health systems and societies as a whole are under.
Clinical Roundup
- Venclexta combination improves OS in previously untreated AML
- Intense form of radiation slows disease progression in some men with prostate cancer
- Repurposed antidepressant may be a treatment option when prostate cancer comes back, USC study finds

6,205 health professionals have tested positive and 44 have died

Unrelated stem cell transplants in coronavirus times