Investigators of a phase 2 study comparing 2 dosing schedules of sunitinib (Sutent) as first-line therapy for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) concluded that clinicians should stay with the currently approved dosing regimen of 50 mg daily for 4 weeks followed by a 2-week break. Robert Motzer, MD, attending physician, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, who presented the findings, said the data add to a growing body of evidence favoring the dosing regimen that the US Food and Drug Administration approved for sunitinib.
Interim results of a randomized, controlled, phase 3 trial showed that abiraterone acetate significantly prolonged overall survival (OS) in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) who progressed after docetaxel-based chemotherapy. The survival benefit was consistent across all prespecified subgroups. Lead author Howard Scher, MD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, said abiraterone is poised to become a new standard of care.
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Adding androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) to dose-escalated external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) for men with intermediate-risk prostate cancer improves biochemical failure-free survival but not overall survival (OS), according to a retrospective study. Researchers from Emory University School of Medicine and the Atlanta Veterans Administration in Georgia conducted the study. Read More ›
Extravasation is always a risk when administering medicines intravenously. This is when the infused drug infiltrates the tissue surrounding the injection site. The resulting injury can range from mild to lifethreatening, depending on whether the drug involved is classified as an irritant or a vesicant.
The Infusion Nurses Society (INS) defines a vesicant as “an agent capable of causing injury when it escapes from the intended vascular pathway into the surrounding tissue.”1
A call came from a nurse attending to 3 patients in the infusion clinic. One patient had received a full dose of doxorubicin (60 mg/m2) via the vein in the dorsum of her hand. Afterward, the nurse detected a trace of blood in the infusion tube. While administering post-dose hydration, she noticed that the patient’s hand was completely swollen.
Contra Costa Regional Medical Center is a public hospital with 167 beds. Despite our hospital’s cost-conscious approach to formulary management, it was one of the first in the area to add the dexrazoxane for injection (Totect) emergency treatment kit to its formulary. This addition predated the On cology Nursing Society guidelines on managing anthracycline extravasation and followed a long process involving presentations to 4 hospital committees.
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