Issue 22 – The Cancer Letter

Conversation with The Cancer Letter
Ramon Parsons: How Mount Sinai did good science amid the COVID-19 deluge
The first COVID-19 patient walked into a Mount Sinai ER on March 1.
Over the three months that followed, half of Mount Sinai’s cancer doctors became COVID doctors, taking care of the sick at the hospital system’s 45 COVID centers, contributing to the standards of managing the disease.
Guest Editorial
CCC19 data point to extensive use of hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, or both, by patients with cancer and COVID-19
Nicole Kuderer and colleagues are to be congratulated for their report—in The Lancet and at the ASCO 2020 Annual Meeting—on the impact of COVID-19 on a cohort of patients with cancer.
Radiation oncology appointments plummeted in the COVID-19 pandemic—but seem to be rising again
Radiation visits—much like preventative screenings, surgery, chemotherapy and screening—were delayed or canceled at the peak of COVID-19 in the United States.
Conversation with The Cancer Letter
John Cleveland: How Moffitt will heal from conflict of interest trauma—and from COVID-19
As a freshly-minted director of H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, John Cleveland has two items on top of his to-do list.
COVID-19 Updates
- Study: Hydroxychloroquine doesn’t improve survival in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, but tocilizumab does
- Genentech begins phase III trial of tocilizumab + remdesivir in hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia
- UMich develops app that calculates risk of delaying cancer care during COVID-19
- ACS CAN survey: cancer patients increasingly face COVID-19 health impact
In Brief
- Catherine Alfano, Stacy Sanchez, Joseph Herman, Martin Karpeh recruited by Northwell Cancer Institute
- Pamela Hull joins Markey as associate director of population science and community impact
Clinical Roundup
- AI could predict risk of lung cancer recurrence
- Study confirms effective, less toxic alternative to standard treatment for adults with Burkitt lymphoma
- Fox Chase researchers investigate perceived barriers to discussing sexual issues in breast cancer patients
- Evidence from two studies demonstrates efficacy of Immunoscore
- MK-6482 induced positive response in Hippel-Lindau disease–associated kidney cancer
Drugs & Targets
- Opdivo + Yervoy receive FDA approval combined with limited chemotherapy as first-line treatment of metastatic or recurrent NSCLC
- Brigatinib receives FDA approval for ALK-positive metastatic NSCLC
- CLR 131 receives fast track designation in lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma/Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia