Drug Updates

Ovarian cancer—including epithelial cancer, fallopian tube cancer, and primary peritoneal cancer—often affects women aged 55 to 64 years, with nearly 70% of all cases occurring in women aged ≥45 years. In 2020, an estimated 21,750 women will be newly diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and approximately 13,940 women will die from this disease in the United States. Read More ›

Lung and bronchus cancer is the second most prevalent form of cancer in the United States.¹ Representing 12.7% of all new cancer cases, lung cancer was diagnosed in 228,820 individuals in 2020. It is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in men and women, accounting for 22.4% of all cancer deaths. Read More ›

Epithelioid sarcoma is a rare subtype of soft-tissue sarcoma that most often occurs in the soft tissue of the fingers, hands, and forearms, but that can occur in other areas of the body. In 2005 in the United States, the incidence of epithelioid sarcoma was approximately 0.04 cases per 100,000 people. Epithelioid sarcoma predominantly affects young adults; however, it can affect individuals at any age and is more prevalent in males than in females. Characterized by slow tumor growth and benign manifestations at early stages, epithelioid sarcoma can be challenging to diagnose. Read More ›

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is one of the most common types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and the most common blood cancer. DLBCL accounts for approximately 33% of all lymphomas. DLBCL is an aggressive cancer that may start in the lymph nodes or outside the lymphatic system and may affect the bone, bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract, brain, breast, testes, liver, spleen, or other organs. Read More ›

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), a group of heterogeneous cancers that originate in the bile ducts that connect the liver and gallbladder to the small intestine, affects 2000 to 3000 individuals annually in the United States. The disease most often affects older people aged ≥65 years and occurs slightly more frequently in men than in women. Read More ›

Urothelial carcinoma, also known as transitional-cell carcinoma (TCC), is the most common subtype of bladder cancer. Based on data from 2016, more than 80,000 cases of bladder cancer were estimated to be diagnosed in the United States in 2019, and approximately 17,600 patients were expected to die from this disease. Read More ›

Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer in women in the United States, accounting for 15.3% of all new cancer cases. In 2020 alone, 276,480 women are estimated to be diagnosed with breast cancer and an estimated 42,170 women will die from this disease. Overall, the 5-year relative survival rate for women with breast cancer is 90%; however, the 5-year survival rate drops to 28.1% for patients with metastatic disease. Read More ›

On December 3, 2019, the FDA approved atezolizumab (Tecentriq; Genentech), in combination with paclitaxel protein-bound (Abraxane) and carboplatin chemotherapy, for the first-line treatment of adults with metastatic nonsquamous non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that does not harbor EGFR or ALK genomic mutations. Read More ›

On December 16, 2019, the FDA approved a new indication for enzalutamide (Xtandi; Pfizer, Astellas) for the treatment of patients with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer. Enzalutamide was previously approved for the treatment of patients with nonmetastatic and metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Read More ›

On December 27, 2019, the FDA approved a new indication for olaparib (Lynparza; AstraZeneca), for the maintenance treatment of adult patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline BRCA-mutated metastatic pancreatic cancer whose disease has not progressed on at least 16 weeks of a first-line platinum-based chemotherapy regimen. The FDA also approved the BRACAnalysis CDx test (Myriad Genetics) as a companion diagnostic to select patients with pancreatic cancer who are candidates for treatment with olaparib based on the identification of deleterious or suspected deleterious germline mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. Read More ›