Communicating the Risk of Disease Relapse to the Patient After Curative CRC Resection
August 20th 2025Experts discuss how initial postoperative visits after colorectal cancer surgery integrate pathology review, recurrence risk assessment, and timely ctDNA testing to personalize prognosis and guide surveillance, emphasizing the importance of surgical quality indicators and molecular tools in shaping follow-up care.
The Oncology Surgeon’s Role in Postoperative Surveillance Following CRC Resection
August 20th 2025Experts discuss how postsurgical surveillance for colorectal cancer varies by setting, with multidisciplinary teams leading coordinated care in academic centers, whereas surgeons in rural or resource-limited areas often take on expanded roles to ensure follow-up and monitoring are not compromised.
Patient Perspectives: Response and Adverse Effects to CAR T in R/R MM
August 20th 2025Panelists discuss how patients typically respond well to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy with manageable adverse effects (AEs), including expected cytokine release syndrome (CRS) presenting as fever, whereas rare neurotoxicity is closely monitored through frequent cognitive testing and treated with steroids and late immune system effects like urinary tract infections (UTIs), respiratory infections, and shingles occur in the first 6 months post treatment but resolve with appropriate medications and prophylactic treatments, with outcomes improving significantly when CAR T is used earlier in treatment lines rather than after patients have exhausted all other options.
Karen's Advice: What Every MM Patient Should Know
August 20th 2025Panelists discuss how patients with multiple myeloma can achieve excellent quality of life with bispecific therapies like talquetamab despite manageable adverse effects, with Karen sharing her advice to embrace treatment opportunities, accept a "new normal," and focus on the meaningful life experiences these innovative therapies enable, including her recent trip to Italy and time with 6 grandchildren she wouldn't have met without these advancing treatments.
Nursing Perspectives on Ensuring Patient Success for CAR T Therapy in R/R MM
August 20th 2025Panelists discuss how nursing support for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy success involves providing comprehensive educational materials covering everything from collection to survivorship, conducting virtual CAR T classes, and adapting to new outpatient CAR T protocols where patients receive cells and go home with vital sign monitoring equipment for caregivers. The panelists also celebrate recent FDA regulatory changes that reduced required stay times from 4 weeks to 2 weeks and driving restrictions from 8 weeks to 2 weeks, making CAR T therapy more accessible by allowing patients to return to work and normal life sooner, with reduced financial burden on families.
Exploring Bispecific Combinations: REDIRECTT ASCO 2025 Highlights
August 18th 2025An expert discusses that combining the bispecific antibodies teclistamab and talquetamab has shown promising efficacy and manageable toxicity in heavily pretreated multiple myeloma patients—including those with extramedullary disease—offering a compelling dual-targeted option for high-risk cases while allowing flexibility in sequencing for slower-progressing disease.
Recent Research and Future Directions in IDH-Mutant Gliomas
August 15th 2025Panelists discuss how voracidinib shows superior brain penetration compared to other IDH inhibitors and explore exciting combination approaches with immunotherapy and vaccines that target the immunosuppressive effects of 2-HG in the tumor microenvironment.
Monitoring and Managing Adverse Events With IDH Inhibitors
August 15th 2025Panelists discuss how to implement hepatotoxicity monitoring protocols, counsel patients about avoiding hepatotoxic substances, and manage the infrequent but manageable liver enzyme elevations that typically occur within the first 6 months of treatment.
Bispecifics in R/R MM: Key Takeaways
Panelists discuss how their key takeaways emphasize the importance of communication and collaboration between academic centers and community practices to ensure equitable access to bispecific therapies, highlighting that it’s an exciting time in myeloma treatment with patient-friendly options that can be administered closer to home, and concluding that virtually no patient should be denied exposure to bispecific therapy before discontinuing treatment, while anticipating that de-escalated Q4 weekly schedules and trispecific agents will transform current practice patterns in the coming years.
Comprehensive Care: Essential Supportive Care Strategies for GPRC5D Bispecifics
August 13th 2025Panelists discuss how comprehensive supportive care strategies for GPRC5D bispecifics like talquetamab involve managing unique toxicities including taste and smell changes, skin and nail effects, and gastrointestinal issues, with one patient emphasizing her philosophy of addressing adverse effects as they arise rather than anticipating them, while highlighting the importance of continued research funding for innovative treatments that have extended her survival beyond initial prognosis.
Shared Clinical Decision-Making in CAR T Therapy for R/R MM
August 13th 2025Panelists discuss how shared clinical decision-making in chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy involves seamless coordination between physicians and nurse coordinators who streamline the referral process for patients after first-line therapy failure, with coordinators managing logistics like condensing multiple appointments, arranging travel and lodging benefits through CAR T companies for out-of-state patients, providing clear communication in “nurse talk” rather than medical jargon, and emphasizing that the referral process is straightforward—encouraging oncologists not to wait but to send patients immediately after 1 line of therapy so the team can handle insurance approval and T-cell collection while patients return home during the 4- to 8-week manufacturing period.
R/R Multiple Myeloma: Patient Perspectives and Clinical Guidance Upon Diagnosis
August 13th 2025Panelists discuss how patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) multiple myeloma experience the challenging process of confirming disease recurrence through bone marrow biopsies and PET scans, often struggling with difficult treatment regimens like immunotherapy and daily lenalidomide (Revlimid) that cause severe illness, leading patients to advocate for themselves by researching alternative therapies like chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy through educational materials and videos, ultimately seeking second-line treatments that offer the appeal of “one and done” therapy with less ongoing chemotherapy compared with traditional lifelong treatment approaches.
Inside the Clinic: The Step-Up Strategy in talquetamab Therapy
August 13th 2025Panelists discuss how the step-up dosing strategy for talquetamab involves graduated dose escalation from 0.01 to 0.06 mg/kg before reaching therapeutic levels to minimize severe cytokine release syndrome, with real-world data showing 85% to 86% of patients can safely receive outpatient step-up dosing, though one patient’s inpatient experience was chosen due to her drug allergies and travel distance considerations.
Teclistamab in Practice: Real-World Efficacy and Infection Risks
August 11th 2025An expert explains that teclistamab has proven to be a highly effective and well-tolerated therapy for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma in real-world settings, with outcomes mirroring clinical trials and improved infection management strategies enhancing its safety and accessibility for a broader range of patients.