2018 February

<strong>IN THIS ISSUE, INVESTIGATORS FROM</strong> Emory Winship Cancer Institute describe their experience with the so-called &ldquo;abscopal effect,&rdquo; which describes the ability of locally delivered radiation therapy to trigger distant antitumor effects. R. H. Mole, BM, FRCP, first coined the term abscopal effect as &ldquo;an action at a distance from the irradiated volume but within the same organism&rdquo; in 1953.

A meta-analysis and systemic review&nbsp;specifically assessing carfilzomib-associated cardiovascular adverse events&nbsp;suggests an elevated risk in patients with multiple myeloma who are taking the proteasome inhibitor.

Using next-generation squencing methods, researchers are attempting to combine clinical and genomic biomarkers to identify patients with smoldering multiple myeloma who are at high risk for disease progression.

The optimal neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimen in triple-negative breast cancer has not been clearly defined. Achieving a pathologic complete response provides important prognostic information, and, especially in TNBC, is considered a surrogate endpoint for event-free survival.

The prognosis for patients with metastatic non&ndash;small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is poor.&nbsp;However, with recent trials showing improved overall survival with checkpoint inhibitors compared with standard chemotherapy, disease management is changing.

Cisplatin-based chemotherapy has been and remains the standard of care in advanced urothelial carcinoma, and can provide a cure for a small subset of these patients.