Severe Breakthrough Infections; New Type of CAR-T Therapy; Global Cancer Toll Rises

A study of fully vaccinated patients with cancer showed that breakthrough COVID infections were often severe, requiring hospitalization in two-thirds of cases. (Annals of Oncology)

A hockey fan has a $10,000 start on funding medical school after she spotted a suspicious-looking mole on a Vancouver Canucks’ staff member during a game and encouraged him to get the growth checked out: It turned out to be melanoma. (CNN)

A blood test identified cancers in about 90% of patients who had suspicious but nonspecific symptoms, such as unexplained weight loss or fatigue. (Clinical Cancer Research)

Updated guidance from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network recommends COVID-19 vaccination for all patients with cancer, with a preference for mRNA-based vaccines.

An immunotherapy combination doubled progression-free survival in untreated advanced melanoma as compared with a single immune checkpoint inhibitor. (University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, New England Journal of Medicine)

A new type of CAR T-cell therapy acts as a “micropharmacy” to deliver cancer-killing drugs directly to tumor cells and continues to produce the drug even after reaching the point of T-cell exhaustion, when conventional CAR-T therapy stops working. (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center)

The worldwide cancer toll reached 10 million deaths and 23 million new cases during 2019. (University of Washington, JAMA Oncology)

Monitoring levels of troponin, a protein produced in response to heart muscle damage, can identify early signs of myocarditis caused by cancer immunotherapy. (Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer)

The lack of effective therapies for T-cell lymphoma will likely continue for the next 10 years. (GlobalData)

In a year dominated by COVID, the FDA managed to approve 55 new drugs, including multiple agents used in the management of cancer. (Fierce Pharma)

Speaking of drug approvals, the FDA Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee will meet next month to consider an approval application for the Chinese-developed PD-1 inhibitor sintilimab for untreated advanced lung cancer.