Why multidisciplinary tumor board review matters in cancer care, how fragmented care adds cost and delay, and questions to ask before treatment. ...
Most patients trust their cancer diagnosis. That trust is often warranted — but it probably shouldn't be unconditional, particularly when the initial findings are subtle, ambiguous, or delivered quickly in a busy clinical setting. A 2013 study in BMJ Quality & Safety estimated that roughly 12 million American adults experience a diagnostic error in outpatient care every year. In that same journal, a separate 2013 analysis found that cancer was the leading source of serious harm in diagnostic malpractice claims — not surgical errors, not medication mistakes, but diagnostic failures. According to the National Academy of Medicine's 2015 report Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, most Americans will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime — and cancer sits at the severe end of that spectrum, where errors carry the heaviest consequences and the least margin for delay.
[caption id="attachment_76345" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Photo by Thirdman [/caption]
Stage 4 liver metastases used to signal a narrow set of options and a predictable clinical trajectory. For years, treatment meant systemic therapy alone, and outcomes depended almost entirely on how long those drugs could hold the disease in check. But over the past decade, liver-directed oncology has changed faster than almost any other area in metastatic care.
Techniques that were once reserved for rare cases — targeted radiation, image-guided ablation, selective internal radiotherapy — are now used routinely in major centers. So the previously unrealistic question is now being asked in a serious manner: is a functional cure possible for some patients with liver metastases?
[caption id="attachment_74965" align="aligncenter" width="267"] Photo by Tranmautritam:[/caption]
Photo by RDNE Stock project[/caption]
Early detection of prostate cancer improves outcomes, expands treatment options, and preserves quality of life. Learn why proactive screening and awareness can make a life-saving difference....
Pexels[/caption]
Preclinical evaluation is an integral part of the development of investigational new drugs (IND), including radiopharmaceuticals. Radiopharmaceuticals are radio-labelled formulations used for diagnostic, therapeutic, and disease monitoring purposes within the context of both nuclear medicine and pharmaceutical research. While diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals are used to image organ function, trace biological processes, and quantify metabolism or IND target engagement, therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals are typically used in the field of oncology, whereby ionising radiation of a conjugated radionuclide induces targeted cell death. Because radiopharmaceuticals require the use of radioactive compounds, regulatory bodies such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) require stringent controls around their development, manufacturing, handling, transport, and use. This article will consider guidance specifically surrounding the development of preclinical radiopharmaceutical research studies, considering imaging requirements, dosimetry, and toxicology, and highlighting how sponsors can enable IND success through partnership with a preclinical imaging provider experienced in nuclear medicine.
Editor's Note: Cannabis laws and regulations vary by country, state, and territory. This interview is for educational purposes only. Cannabis products discussed here are not endorsed by MedicalResearch.com. Patients should consult their oncologist or healthcare provider before using any cannabis or cannabinoid product, particularly during cancer treatment. Cannabis products should not be used while driving, by children, if pregnant, nursing or planning to become pregnant or mixed with other substances that can affect cognition. Cannabis products may also be contraindicated in other medical conditions or situations.
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Raphael E. Cuomo, PhD
Associate Professor
University of California, San Diego
Developer and Host, Cannabis and Cancer (Apple TV Documentary)
Dr. Avishek Kumar[/caption]
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Avishek Kumar, MD
Board-Certified Medical Oncologist and Hematologist
Edison, NJ (NYC Metro)
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this announcement?
Response: Pancreatic cancer has been one of the hardest cancers to treat in all of oncology.
It is often found late. It spreads early. For decades, it has not had the kind of breakthroughs we have seen in lung cancer, melanoma, breast cancer, or other tumors.
In the majority of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, treatment has mostly meant chemotherapy. Regimens like FOLFIRINOX or gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel can help. They can extend life. They can shrink cancer. But the benefit is often limited, and the side effects can be tough.
Once the cancer grows after first-line treatment, the options get even more narrow. That is why the daraxonrasib data matter.
Daraxonrasib, also known as RMC-6236, is an investigational oral targeted drug. It is designed to block active RAS signaling. That is a big deal because pancreatic cancer is one of the most RAS-driven cancers we see. Most pancreatic cancers have a KRAS mutation or another alteration in that pathway.
For years, KRAS was considered "undruggable." We knew it was driving the cancer. We just did not have a good way to hit it.
This new data suggests that may be changing.
In previously treated advanced RAS-mutated pancreatic cancer, daraxonrasib appeared to improve median overall survival compared with standard chemotherapy. Reports have described survival of about 13.2 months versus 6.7 months. In pancreatic cancer, that is not a small finding. That is meaningful. Very meaningful.
Dr. Fuemmeler[/caption]
Bernard F. Fuemmeler, PhD, MPH
Professor and Gordon D. Ginder, MD Chair in Cancer Research
Associate Director of Population Science, Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center
Director of Research, Family Medicine and Population Health
[caption id="attachment_73640" align="alignleft" width="125"]
Dr. Tatum[/caption]
Kristina L. Tatum, PsyD, MS
Instructor
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
School of Public Health
A large population-based analysis of more than 841,000 breast cancer patients across the United States examines whether GLP-1 receptor agonist use is associated with improved survival and lower recurrence risk — with findings that researchers describe as very promising.
Dr. Pathiyil[/caption]
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Mythili Menon Pathiyil, MBBS
Gastroenterology Fellow
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Colorectal cancer mortality is currently the leading cause of cancer-related death in individuals below the age of 50 in the United States. A new analysis presented at DDW 2026 quantifies those patterns and identifies which populations are most at risk — with the goal of informing earlier recognition, targeted screening, and equity-focused prevention.
BTK inhibitors have become an important class of targeted therapies for several blood cancers, including CLL, mantle cell lymphoma, and Waldenström's macroglobulinemia, with ongoing research expanding their potential role in hematology....
Source[/caption]
Cancer research is entering a new phase. For years, scientists focused on how cancer cells grow and divide. That model still matters, but it is no longer enough. New research shows something deeper: cancer cells are not fixed. They can change their identity and shift how they behave based on internal signals.
One of the strongest of those signals is metabolism. Emerging research shows that metabolism does more than provide energy — it also controls how genes are turned on and off, which means it can shape what a cancer cell becomes. This is a major shift in thinking, and it changes how researchers approach treatment and discovery.
Solid tumors are masses of tissue that grow in the organs, muscles or bones and are abnormal. Solid tumors are different from hematologic cancers, solid tumors do not involve blood or bone marrow. Depending on where they come from, they can be categorized as different types of cells, and they arise from either site. Early detection and proper classification of solid tumors have an impact on the treatment and the outcome of the patient. Today, there is medical research and techniques that healthcare professionals have that can diagnose cancer and improve cancer treatment. Information on Solid Tumor Types can assist healthcare professionals in a better understanding of tumor classifications and their implications regarding treatment.
Dr. Koh[/caption]
Andrew Y. Koh, M.D.
Associate Professor, Pediatrics and Microbiology
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Director of Pediatric Cellular and ImmunoTherapeutics Program
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Children's Health
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: We asked the basic question how does a bacteria in your gut help your immune system fight a cancer outside the gut (extraintestinal tumor). Based on work that our group and others have published in the infectious diseases, microbiology, and inflammation fields, we knew that certain conditions (e.g. inflammation, infection) promote gut microbiota to move from the gut to the mesenteric lymph nodes. So we hypothesized that immune checkpoint therapy (which essentially induces inflammation to promote tumor killing) might induce gut microbiota translocation to the mesenteric lymph nodes and that this might be the first step by which gut bacteria can engage with host immune cells.
Shoshana Rosenzweig[/caption]
Shoshana Rosenzweig
Medical Student
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Would you briefly describe the Phantosmia phenomenon?
Response: Phantosmia is an olfactive disorder resulting in the perception of a foul-smelling odor without odorant stimulus.
This study was spearheaded by Dr. Suzanne Wolden, a pediatric radiation oncologist and the senior author of the research. She noticed that patients receiving proton beam therapy were complaining of this phenomenon more than her patients receiving photon therapy. Through this research, the team hoped to characterize radiation treatment induced phantosmia in pediatric, adolescent and young adult patients treated with proton beam therapy and we hoped to identify potential clinical and treatment-related characteristics that may correlate with the development of phantosmia.
Dr. Bhardwaj[/caption]
Nina Bhardwaj MD PhD
Director of Immunotherapy
Tisch Cancer Institute
Icahn School of Medicine at Mt Sinai
Ward-Coleman Chair in Cancer Research
Professor of Hematology and Oncology
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Neoantigens are novel antigens expressed by tumors as a result of somatic mutations or frame shift mutations. They can be very immunogenic and consequently they are being incorporated into cancer vaccine platforms. In most cases it is necessary to determine each patient’s individual mutations and customize their vaccine antigens accordingly. We sought to identify shared mutations in cancer antigens which are deficient in DNA repair mechanisms namely microsatellite unstable tumors. These tumors have mutations in genes that normally are responsible for ensuring that DNA is properly replicated. Because these genes encode proteins that ensure proper repair around micro-satellite areas (which contain short repeated sequences of DNA and are present in similar regions from one person’s genome to the next), when they are mutated, these regions may not be repaired. Consequently due to nucleotide deletions and insertions one gets frame shift mutations which result in new protein expression which can be shared across tumors, as has been observed for a few regions. We therefore did a comprehensive study of a subset of tumors to determine the breadth of shared frame shift mutations.
Dr. AlDubayan[/caption]
Saud H AlDubayan, M.D.
Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Attending Physician, Division of Genetics,
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Computational Biologist, Department of Medical Oncology,
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Associate Scientist, The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The overall goal of this study was to assess the performance of the standard method currently used to detect germline (inhered) genetic variants in cancer patients and whether we could use recent advances in machine learning techniques to further improve the detection rate of clinically relevant genetic alterations.
To investigate this possibility, we performed a head to head comparison between the current gold-standard method for germline analysis that has been universally used in clinical and research laboratories and a new deep learning analysis approach using germline genetic data of thousands of patients with prostate cancer or melanoma. This analysis showed that across all different gene sets that were tested, the deep learning-based framework was able to identify additional cancer patients with clinically relevant germline variants that went undetected by the standard method. For example, several patients in our study also had germline variants that are associated with an increased risk of ovarian cancer, for which the surgical removal of the ovaries (at a certain age) is highly recommended. However, these genetic alterations were only identified by the proposed deep learning framework.
Dr. Guy Jerusalem[/caption]
Guy Jerusalem MD PhD
Medical Oncology, CHU Sart Tilman Liège and University of Liège
Liège/BE
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: COVID-19 pandemic impacted healthcare systems globally and resulted in the interruption of usual care in many healthcare facilities exposing vulnerable cancer patients to significant risks. Our study aimed to evaluate the impact of this pandemic on cancer care worldwide. A 95 items survey was constructed and distributed worldwide by 20 oncologists from 10 of the most affected countries. 109 representatives from oncology centers in 18 countries filled out the survey between June 17 and July 14.
Dr. Haffty[/caption]
Bruce G. Haffty, MD FACR FASTRO FASCO
Associate Vice Chancellor Cancer Programs
Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences
Professor and Chair, Dept. Radiation Oncology
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson and New Jersey Medical Schools
Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? : What are the main findings?
Response: That at peak times of COVID in NJ, in a tertiary care hospital with lots of COVID patients, where cancer patients still need to get treated, there was no evidence of surface COVID contamination, which should be reassuring to patients requiring radiation treatment in a busy hospital with a high in patient population of COVID patients.
It should be noted that patients and staff were routinely mask wearing, observing social distancing and routinely hand washing as well as screening patients as they came in to the department with temperature checks and questions regarding symptoms.
Dr. Galsky[/caption]
Matthew Galsky, MD
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
New York, NY
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Would you explain what is meant by switch maintenance immunotherapy?
Response: For decades, platinum-based chemotherapy has been standard first-line treatment for metastatic urothelial (bladder) cancer. The standard approach to first-line chemotherapy is to administered approximately 6 cycles of treatment (in the absence of disease progression or prohibitive side effects), and then to stop treatment and monitor. Unfortunately, virtually all patients with metastatic disease will experience disease progression after stopping chemotherapy. However, we know that if we just continue the same platinum-based chemotherapy until progression of cancer (rather than stopping after ~6 cycles), the side effects continue to accumulate but the benefits plateau.
Approximately 5 years ago, the first new systemic therapies were approved to treatment metastatic urothelial cancer in decades, immune checkpoint inhibitors (PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitors). In fact, 5 PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors have been approved by the FDA for the treatment of patients with metastatic urothelial cancer progressing despite prior platinum-based chemotherapy. Given that these drugs are non-cross resistant with chemotherapy in at least a subset of patients (i.e., they can provide benefit even when chemotherapy is no longer working), and because they are well tolerated by a large proportion of patients, a logical question is rather than waiting until cancer progresses after stopping first-line chemotherapy, what if we started immunotherapy immediately. Switch maintenance refers to switching from chemotherapy to a different class of drug (e.g., immunotherapy) and maintenance refers to trying to "maintain" the response achieved with initial chemotherapy.
Dr. Asim Ahmed MD
co-author of the study
Senior medical director at Karius
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Would you briefly explain the basis of the Karius Test?
Response: The Karius Test is a non-invasive blood test that uses next-generation sequencing of microbial cell-free DNA to rapidly detect over 1,400 bacteria, DNA viruses, fungi, and other pathogens. Doctors primarily use the test to detect specific causative pathogens, complicated pneumonia, cardiovascular infections, and infections in immunocompromised hosts.
The Karius Test is transforming how doctors diagnose infectious diseases by helping doctors identify the precise pathogens infecting patients.
The Karius Test offers a higher diagnostic yield and faster time-to-diagnosis than conventional tests - with the potential to eliminate invasive diagnostic procedures like biopsies.
Dr. Graca Dores (left) and Dr. Perez-Vilar (senior author)[/caption]
Dr. Graca Dores MD MPH
US Food and Drug Administration
Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research
Office of Biostatistics and Epidemiology
Division of Epidemiology
Silver Spring, Maryland
Oklahoma City, OK
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Would you briefly explain what Sipuleucel-T is used for?
Response: Sipuleucel-T was the first therapeutic vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2010. It is indicated for the treatment of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic, metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC; prostate cancer that spreads while an individual is on hormone-blocking therapy). During the preparation of this product, the patient’s cells are collected (leukapheresis), sent for processing to generate a dose of patient-specific vaccine, and then administered intravenously back to the patient. This process is repeated approximately every two weeks for a total of three doses.
Except for the pre-marketing clinical trials that were reviewed during the sipuleucel-T approval process, post-marketing studies that have evaluated the safety profile of sipuleucel-T are scarce. Therefore, we used the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) database to summarize the adverse events reported to FDA by industry, medical professionals, and consumers. We also assessed whether sipuleucel-T and specific adverse events (product-event pairs) were reported more than expected compared to all other drug/biologic-adverse event pairs in the FAERS database.
Dr. Boffa[/caption]
Daniel Boffa, MD
Professor of Surgery
Yale School of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: We have previously demonstrated that top-ranked hospitals are significantly safer than their affiliates for complex cancer surgery (patients 1.4 times more likely to die after cancer surgery at affiliate hospitals). A logical extension of this work was to compare affiliate hospitals to hospitals that were not affiliated with a top ranked hospital.
Dr. Stasenko
Dr. Sanford[/caption]
Nina Niu Sanford, M.D.
Assistant Professor
UT Southwestern Department of Radiation Oncology
Dallas TX 75390
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The background for this study is that we know cancer survivors are at risk for uninsurance or underinsurance and the most commonly cited reason for this is cost of insurance. However, there have been no prior studies assessing from the patient perspective the reasons for not having insurance.
In addition, there has been further recent controversy over the Affordable Care Act, including threats from the current administration to dismantle it. Thus assessing the impact of the ACA among at risk populations including cancer survivors is timely.
Dr. Mak[/caption]
Raymond H Mak, MD
Radiation Oncology
Brigham and Women's Hospital
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Dr. Weiss[/caption]
Dr. Stephanie E. Weiss MD FASTRO
Chief, Division of Neurologic Oncology
Associate Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology
Director, Radiation Oncology Residency and Fellowship Training Program
Fox Chase Cancer Center
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Brain metastasis are the most common form of brain tumor.
Historically all patients received whole brain radiation as the primary therapy. Patients required neurosurgery to remove lesions if there was a question of diagnosis, what the diagnosis is and if there was a mass effect not relieved with steroids. Surgery was also indicated for patients with a single brain lesion because this offers a survival benefit over just receiving whole brain radiotherapy.
In 2003 a randomized trial proved that radiosurgery offers a similar benefit. So the question taxing patients and doctors at tumor boards since has been: which is better? If neurosurgery is superior, we are under-treating a lot of patients with radiosurgery. If radiosurgery is superior, we are subjecting a lot of patients to unnecessary brain surgery. Attempts to study this in a head-to-head randomized trial have failed. Patient and physician preference for one treatment or the other has proven to be a barrier to randomization and accrual. The EORTC 22952-2600 trial was originally designed to compare outcomes with and without whole brain radiation for patients receiving surgery or radiosurgery for brain metastasis.
We used this as the highest-quality source data available to compare local control of brain metastasis after surgery or radiosurgery, adjusted for by receipt or not of whole brain radiation.
![MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Cole Wayant Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences ‐ Analytical and Institutional Research Tulsa, OK MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: New FDA-approved oncology drugs are essential to oncology practice. These drugs may immediately change clinical care by offering better treatments for common, lethal forms of cancer. But, new FDA-approved oncology drugs are expensive and have been shown to have variable efficacy. Given the importance of new FDA-approved oncology drugs to patients and physicians, the trials that underpin the FDA-approval of these drugs must be free from bias and transparent. Therefore, we investigated the financial relationships between oncologist-authors of clinical trials that underpin FDA-approvals. MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report? Response: The key takeaway from our study is that oncologist-authors often do not fully disclose their financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies. Financial disclosures are important for the reasons of transparency and trust between physicians and other stakeholders, such as patients. Disclosing conflicts of interest helps readers interpret the findings of a research study, especially given the fact that drug companies finance their own drug trials. MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this work? Response: In the future, beyond recommending that authors fully disclose all financial relationships with the sponsor of the trial, I recommend that journals use the Open Payments Database to verify the accuracy and completeness of author disclosure statements. Doing so is a small first step toward mitigating the potential for financial bias in the oncology literature.” Disclosures: I do not have anything else to add. None of the authors have conflicts of interest - financial or otherwise. Citation: Financial Conflicts of Interest Among Oncologist Authors of Reports of Clinical Drug Trials [wysija_form id="3"] [last-modified] The information on MedicalResearch.com is provided for educational purposes only, and is in no way intended to diagnose, cure, or treat any medical or other condition. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health and ask your doctor any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. In addition to all other limitations and disclaimers in this agreement, service provider and its third party providers disclaim any liability or loss in connection with the content provided on this website.](https://medicalresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/Cole-Wayant.jpg)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_44205" align="alignleft" width="142"] Cole Wayant[/caption]Cole Wayant BS Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences ‐ Analytical and Institutional Research Tulsa, OK MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: New FDA-approved oncology drugs are essential to oncology practice. These drugs may immediately change clinical care...
This image depicts the gross appearance of a cutaneous pigmented lesion, which had been diagnosed as superficial spreading malignant melanoma (SSMM). Note the roughened edges of this mole, and its heterogeneous, mottled, multicolored appearance, which are all characteristics that should evoke suspicions about its classification.MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_42120" align="alignleft" width="183"] Dr. Sood[/caption] Dr. Anil K. Sood M.D. Professor and Vice Chair for Translational Research in the Departments of Gynecologic Oncology and Cancer Biology and co-director of the Center for RNA Interference and Non-Coding RNA MD Anderson Cancer Center MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Cancer survivorship...