JCO oncology practice最新文献

Purpose: Adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients with cancer frequently receive intensive measures at the end of life; many also express care goals that align with a palliative approach. We sought to understand the extent to which AYAs are referred to palliative care before death, the timing of referrals, and associations between referral timing and end-of-life care outcomes.

Methods: Review of electronic health data and medical records for 1,918 AYAs age 12-39 years who died after receiving care at one of the three sites between 2003 and 2019. Patients who received palliative care but lacked documentation of referral timing were excluded.

Results: Most included AYAs were White (61%); 12% were Asian, 8% Black, and 27% Hispanic. Nearly three quarters (73%) were referred to palliative care before death. Thirty-six percent of palliative care referrals took place before the last 90 days of life; 30% were in the last month of life. Palliative care referrals and their timing were associated with care received at the end of life, with earlier referrals associated with fewer intensive measures near death, including chemotherapy in the last 14 days of life (P = .001) as well as intensive care unit admissions, emergency room visits, and hospitalizations in the last month of life (P < .001 for all). Patients who were referred to palliative care were more likely to have symptoms assessed in the last 90 days of life, including pain, dyspnea, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, depression, and anxiety (P < .001 for all).

Conclusion: Although many AYAs receive intensive measures at the end of life, most are also referred to palliative care. Earlier referrals have potential to reduce care intensity and enhance attention to symptoms and quality of life near death.

Purpose: Immediate side effects after chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy are well documented and include cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and immune effector-cell-associated neurotoxicity (ICANS). However, long-term patient-reported outcomes are understudied. Using a social determinants of health (SDoH) framework, we described the long-term health-related quality of life (HRQoL), cognitive function, and symptom burden of patients in sustained remission after CAR T-cell therapy and examined the relationship between acute CRS and ICANS and long-term cognitive function and symptom burden.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included adults in remission after CAR T-cell therapy for multiple myeloma or B-cell lymphoma who were within 1-5 years post-treatment. We used bivariate analyses to measure associations between clinical and SDoH variables and long-term outcomes and linear regression to examine the relationship between ICANS and CRS toxicity and longer-term outcomes.

Results: Participants (n = 58) were a median of 67 years of age (22-88), 72% had lymphoma, 28% had multiple myeloma, and they were a median of 2 years (1-4.7) post-CAR T-cell infusion. Most of the participants reported good HRQoL. Over one third of participants reported mild-to-moderate impairment in physical function, social roles and activities, or pain domains. Higher income and employment were significantly associated with better physical HRQoL (P < .05). Participants reported low symptom burden, with fatigue most commonly reported. Neither CRS nor ICANS toxicity predicted long-term cognitive function or symptom burden.

Conclusion: Patients in long-term remission after CAR T-cell therapy have good HRQoL and cognitive function with minimal symptom burden. Importantly, there was no relationship between CRS and ICANS and long-term symptom burden or cognitive function. Results support the long-term clinical benefit of CAR T-cell therapy.

Purpose: Many cancer survivors consume alcohol above recommended limits, increasing their risk of recurrence, second cancers, and cancer-related mortality. Alcohol screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) is a guideline-recommended strategy for reducing unhealthy alcohol consumption among adult primary care patients. To our knowledge, no prior studies have evaluated SBIRT's reach among cancer survivors.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of adults who completed the National Survey on Drug Use and Health from 2015 to 2022. We examined past-year receipt of alcohol screening and-among respondents who endorsed unhealthy alcohol use-brief intervention and treatment. All outcomes were examined among cancer survivors and those with no cancer history. We used modified Poisson regression to assess the associations of cancer history with each outcome, adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics.

Results: The cohort included 86,410 respondents with no history of cancer and 9,963 cancer survivors. The percentages of respondents endorsing past-year receipt of alcohol screening (approximately 40%), brief intervention (approximately 8%), and treatment (approximately 2%) were similarly low in both groups. After adjustment, there was a small but statistically significant difference in alcohol screening, with cancer survivors more likely than people without a history of cancer to receive alcohol screening (adjusted risk ratio [aRR], 1.07; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.13). Among those with unhealthy alcohol use, cancer survivors were no more or less likely than people without a history of cancer to receive brief alcohol intervention (aRR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.93 to 1.07) or alcohol treatment (aRR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.47 to 1.69).

Conclusion: Results reveal an important opportunity to improve SBIRT uptake across the board and especially for cancer survivors, who are at increased risk of alcohol-related adverse health effects and, potentially, more motivated to change cancer-related health behaviors.

Purpose: Given the impact of cancer treatment on fertility among adolescents and young adults (AYAs: 15-39 years), it is important to ensure AYAs access to fertility preservation (FP). However, the availability of FP services for AYAs treated in community settings is unknown. We examined FP access at National Cancer Institute Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) practice groups.

Methods: The 2022 NCORP Landscape Assessment survey captured available resources and cancer care services including FP services at practice groups. We described FP services as accessible (on-site or off-site) versus not accessible by AYA-treating status (as previously defined). Univariable and multivariable analyses were used to evaluate associations between FP services and practice characteristics (NCORP classification [minority/underserved or community] and proportion of Medicaid or uninsured above/below the national average).

Results: Among 271 practice groups responding to the survey, 100 were categorized as AYA-treating, of which 32% had neither male nor female FP services available. Sperm banking was available at 59 AYA-treating practices, among which 43 (73%) referred for sperm banking off-site. Although approximately half of AYA-treating practices reported accessible female FP services (embryo = 54%, oocyte = 55%, ovarian tissue = 40%), most of them referred patients off-site (embryo = 72%, oocyte = 80%, ovarian tissue = 83%). The odds of access to male FP were lower at minority/underserved practices (odds ratio, 0.34 [95% CI, 0.13 to 0.88]; P = .026; ref = community); however, this same relationship was not seen for females.

Conclusion: Despite guidelines surrounding FP discussions before cancer therapy, and strong consensus regarding the importance of FP access, many AYA-treating practices in community settings lack access to FP services. Understanding how to leverage available services and broadly expand access is urgently needed to facilitate guideline-concordant, high-quality cancer care for AYAs.

Purpose: Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) can have deleterious effects on mobility and quality of life in people with cancer. Vibration therapy shows promise as a CIPN intervention but is understudied. We investigated the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of low-intensity vibration (LIV) in cancer survivors with CIPN.

Methods: We conducted a pilot randomized controlled trial in adult cancer survivors with persistent CIPN symptoms. Participants were randomly assigned to twice-daily LIV sessions (10 min/session; 30 Hz, 0.4 g) for 12 weeks or usual care (UC). We assessed feasibility by accrual, retention, adherence, and adverse event (AE) reporting. We evaluated preliminary efficacy by changes in patient-reported CIPN symptoms (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy/Gynecologic Oncology Group Neurotoxicity), pain (Brief Pain Inventory), fatigue (Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System Fatigue), and physical functioning (Late-Life Function and Disability Instrument) and objectively measured physical functioning (chair stand time, gait speed), stability (postural sway), and mobility (Timed-Up-and-Go). Linear regression models were used to generate effect size estimates (Cohen's d).

Results: We accrued 95% of our target sample (n = 38, mean age: 62.6 ± 9.9 years, 89% female, median time since chemotherapy completion: 18 [6-39] months), with 20 participants randomly assigned to LIV and 18 to UC. Trial retention was 97% and mean adherence to LIV was 77% ± 18%. There were no serious AEs. Compared with UC, LIV participants reported greater improvements in sensory neuropathy symptoms (LIV, +1.4 ± 3.3 points; UC, +0.2 ± 2.8 points; Cohen's d = 0.45) and basic lower extremity function (LIV, +5.3 ± 8.5 points; UC, -0.7 ± 9.2 points; Cohen's d = 0.80), with moderate-to-large effect sizes for changes in stability, mobility, and gait (Cohen's d = 0.60-0.66).

Conclusion: LIV is safe, feasible, and shows preliminary efficacy for CIPN symptom relief and improving physical functioning in cancer survivors with CIPN.

Purpose: For patients with newly diagnosed AML not suitable for intensive induction chemotherapy, venetoclax (VEN) plus azacitidine (AZA) is a standard of care therapy. This study describes real-world (rw) treatment patterns and outcomes of patients with AML receiving initial VEN-based therapy.

Methods: Patients age ≥18 years diagnosed with AML who received first-line (1L) VEN-based therapy and had available dosing information were included from the COTA rw, electronic health records-based database. Patients with missing/imprecise key study dates were excluded. The index date for the study was the date of 1L initiation, unless otherwise noted. Rw time to next treatment, rw event-free survival, and rw overall survival (rwOS) were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method.

Results: A total of 331 patients met the inclusion criteria, of which the majority were male, White, and treated in community practices. In patients with available molecular data for the given marker, 8.8%, 19.7%, 11.0%, and 19.7% had mutations in IDH1, IDH2, FLT3-ITD, and NPM1, respectively. Following 1L, 115 patients initiated second-line (2L) therapy, of which 26.1% received intensive chemotherapy, 60.9% received low-intensity regimens, and 8.7% received investigational therapy. The median rwOS overall was 13.9 months and differed by mutation status (13.1 months for IDH1-positive patients, 42.0 months for IDH2-positive patients, not reached for FLT3-ITD-positive patients, and 42.0 months for NPM1-positive patients).

Conclusion: The median rwOS for this study was comparable with results in the VIALE-A trial, despite the community-based nature of these data. There was no clear standard of care for patients who received 2L+ therapy. These data highlight the need for novel treatment for patients with AML following 1L VEN-based therapy.

Testicular cancer is the most common malignancy in males age 15-40 years and one of the most curable cancers, with a cumulative 10-year survival rate exceeding 90%. Management strategies depend on the histologic subtype, stage at diagnosis, sites of disease, tumor markers, and risk classification. Germ cell tumors, including seminomas and nonseminomas, constitute the majority of testicular cancers and require distinct therapeutic approaches. For localized disease, radical orchidectomy remains the cornerstone of treatment, followed by active surveillance, chemotherapy, or primary retroperitoneal lymph node dissection, depending on the histology and the risk of relapse. Seminomas are highly curable, with low-stage patients often managed through surveillance or postoperative single-agent carboplatin. By contrast, nonseminomas typically require adjuvant multiagent chemotherapy, such as bleomycin, etoposide, and cisplatin, particularly in higher-risk patients. For metastatic disease, chemotherapy remains the standard of care, achieving excellent cure rates even in patients with bulky tumors. Surgical resection of residual masses is especially critical in nonseminomatous germ cell tumors to remove viable cancer or teratoma components. The treatment of refractory or relapsed disease frequently involves second-line standard-dose or high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem-cell transplantation, ideally performed in specialized high-volume centers. Before, during, and after treatment, multidisciplinary care is essential to addressing psychosocial challenges, optimizing fertility preservation, and enhancing quality of life. After curative treatments, long-term management involves regular follow-up to monitor for recurrence, late toxicities, and secondary malignancies, with survivorship programs playing a crucial role in meeting patients' ongoing needs. Advances in molecular diagnostics for early relapse detection and the introduction of targeted therapies continue to improve outcomes, particularly in resistant patients.