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Recent data reveals a concerning trend in England's cancer care. Pfizer's heatmap highlights that no Integrated Care Board (ICB) met the NHS's 85% target for treating cancer patients within 62 days of referral from July 2022 to June 2023. This variation in care is especially troubling for conditions like ALK+ lung cancer, often diagnosed at a late stage. At ALK+ UK, we're dedicated to supporting those affected by this challenging diagnosis. We recognise the urgent need for improvement in timely access to cancer treatments. We are committed to collaborating with healthcare providers, policymakers, and pharmaceutical organisations like Pfizer to address these disparities and enhance outcomes for all cancer patients. We want to ensure that everyone receives the timely cancer care they deserve. #CancerCare #HealthEquity #ALKPositive #LungCancerAwareness https://lnkd.in/e3nwasMg

As Bladder Cancer Awareness Month comes to an end, I can’t help but reflect on the rapidly changing landscape for this disease. Currently, there is a record-breaking number of approved therapies and clinical trials for the different stages of bladder cancer. These new advances also bring the need for CME and CE activities. Here are three exciting trial results: 🔬 The FDA approved a new combination therapy for first-line treatment of metastatic bladder cancer, leading to a change in the standard of care for newly diagnosed patients for the first time in 30 years. 🔬 Early clinical trial results suggest that patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer may soon have new treatment options that do not require bladder removal. 🔬 Targeted therapies, such as FGFR inhibitors, provide new treatment options for patients with specific genetic mutations, leading to more personalized and effective care. And here are three opportunities for CME content that relate to those results: 📖 Patient Selection for New Therapies: Education on selecting the right patients for new therapies is crucial for optimizing outcomes. 📖 Staying Up to Date with New Trial Results: Training on the latest clinical trial results and their implications for treatment options can help healthcare providers make informed decisions. 📖 Comprehensive Care Approaches: Developing CME programs that address the holistic care of bladder cancer patients, including management of side effects and supportive care strategies, can improve overall patient care. ============= 👋 Hello! I'm Alejandra, an independent medical writer, specializing in CME and patient education. I believe in the power of clear information and communication to strengthen the patient-provider relationship. 💡 If you need help with a needs assessment or other educational materials, let’s connect and discuss your next project!

EGFR-mutant positive lung cancer is one of those diagnoses that let people oftentimes wondering why. Why me if I don't smoke? why me if I am young? why me if I am fit and sporty? Unfortunately, cancer does not discriminate, and EGFR-mutant positive lung cancer is diagnosed in up to 20% and up to 60% of Caucasian and Asian patients with non-small cell lung cancer, respectively. A majority of them never smoked. Fortunately, there are efficacious therapies available for EGFR-mutant positive lung cancer, which reinforces the importance to test lung cancer patients for EGFR, something that we support and work on very much at AstraZeneca. In addition, our recent press release announcing strong positive results from our study LAURA (https://lnkd.in/g5h9_GrF) will put us in a position, together with our other regimens ADAURA, FLAURA and FLAURA2, to be able to offer patients an effective therapy against EGFR-mutant positive lung cancer in virtually every stage of disease in the near future. Thanks to the medical community, to patients and their families and to the highly committed AstraZeneca Teams, since we are all together in one day eliminating lung cancer as a cause of death.

ERX-315 CLINICAL TRIAL APPROVED BY HREC Etira is pleased to announce the approval of the ERX-315 Phase 1 clinical trial by the Australian Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC). This HREC approval enables the start of the clinical trial titled "A Phase 1 Trial of ERX-315 in Participants with Advanced Solid Tumors” The trial will begin to recruit patients at The Kinghorn Cancer Centre in Sydney and be overseen by the overall trial principal investigator, Dr. Rasha Cosman, the Head of Early Phase Clinical Trials Unit and the Clinical Lead of Oncology Clinical Trials at the Kinghorn Cancer Center.  The trial will evaluate the safety and tolerability of ERX-315 in in patients with advanced solid tumors, who have progressed on prior approved systemic therapies. ERX-315 is designed to target specific pathways that are critical for cancer cell survival and proliferation. This targeted approach helps to spare healthy cells, potentially reducing side effects commonly associated with cancer therapies. Interested individuals can learn more about the trial, eligibility criteria, and how to participate by visiting the link below: https://lnkd.in/ginG-Ewz Etira will provide updates on the continued progress of the ERX-315 clinical trial and activation in additional clinical trial sites in Australia. This clinical trial represents a significant step forward in Etira’s pursuit of effective treatments for patients with metastatic therapy-resistant cancers. 

Research shows that access to cancer experts improves treatment outcomes, yet too few Americans live close to cancer centers where these experts work. Healthcare systems should be leveraging technology to its full capacity so that patients can better connect with experts in their unique cancer type, regardless of their physical location. At Kaiser Permanente, we’re helping our 12.7 million members benefit from the breadth and depth of our clinicians’ cancer expertise no matter where they live. Over the past year and a half, we’ve built our virtual cancer center to connect our treating physicians with cancer subspecialists across our entire health system, leveraging our robust technology and shared electronic health record capabilities. We have this capability in 6 of our 8 markets, with plans to expand to the entire enterprise in the coming year. Dr Tatjana Kolevska, Medical Director of KP’s National Cancer Program, recently shared these thoughts with Becker's Healthcare. Read more about how Dr Kolevska and other #oncology leaders think cancer care needs to change:

🎗️ Join us for our next WEBINAR: Optimizing Treatment Selection: Exploring A New Technology To Personalize Therapy Beyond Any Standard Approach ➡️ REGISTER: https://bit.ly/3V5JSjm The Appendix Cancer PMP Research Foundation (ACPMP) is pleased to announce an opportunity for patients to participate in testing a potentially groundbreaking technology. ❗️Travera's mission is to bring hope to cancer patients who are running out of therapeutic options. Travera is offering its 2-day Rapid Therapy Selection™ test to patients with appendiceal and peritoneal cancers free of charge to help in their efforts to establish more treatment options and outcomes data. Travera is doing work in appendiceal cancer as part of its larger focus on other gastrointestinal cancers and gynecologic cancers. They assist oncologists in selecting treatments for their patients using a revolutionary cancer therapy selection test that predicts which cancer drugs are most likely effective for each cancer patient, a potentially valuable tool for patients with rare or advanced diseases. This novel technology invented at MIT has overcome the problems that have prevented the many previous generations of therapy selection tests from being effective in clinical practice. 🙏 We invite patients, families, and healthcare providers to join us to hear more about this offering in a webinar on June 13th at 7 pm Eastern. 🧬 If you’d like to learn more about testing and potentially initiate the testing process before the webinar, you can follow this link to learn more: https://lnkd.in/eT6ZZvGJ ➡️ Here is a brief test description to get you started: https://lnkd.in/e8rWpYYS

🥁 Two new measurements have been added to the Health Equity Report Card ( HERC )—a tool for improving the quality and equity of cancer care. The new measures were put forth by a multi-disciplinary working group of experts in community oncology, which is co-chaired by Dr. Jahan Aghalar, medical oncologist/hematologist at New York Cancer & Blood Specialists and past-chair of OneOncology's Genitourinary Disease Group. The measures were agreed to by the original Elevating Cancer Equity working group members who drafted the original HERC. ➕ Added to the original 17 actionable meaurers are: 1) Establish comprehensive survivorship programming, including a process for continuity of care when a patient is due for discharge/transfer of care. 2) Discuss Germline and Somatic Biomarker Testing with all patients and document through medical records. 🧠 Dr Aghalar: “We know health care providers are committed to implementing strategies and initiatives to advance equity across all facets of cancer care. By sharing this tool for measuring exactly where organizations have room to improve, we help them take a step toward offering better care for all patients going forward.” ⤵ Check out the full release. ⤵ https://lnkd.in/eJMK5Yv6

🌟 Exciting News from Merck's Keytruda Trials! 🌟 Merck's groundbreaking immunotherapy, Keytruda, continues to make waves in the fight against cervical cancer. A recent interim analysis from the KEYNOTE-A18 trial revealed promising results, indicating a significant improvement in overall survival for patients with earlier-stage cervical cancer when treated with Keytruda in combination with chemoradiotherapy (CRT). 📈 Expanding Treatment Options for Cervical Cancer Patients Keytruda's success in meeting its primary endpoint of overall survival marks a significant milestone in potentially broadening its approval to a broader population for the treatment of high-risk locally advanced cervical cancer. 💡 Unlocking Keytruda's Potential Across Cancer Types Gursel Aktan, Merck's VP of global clinical development, emphasized the company's dedication to exploring Keytruda's role across various cancer types and disease stages. These results underscore the ongoing efforts to improve outcomes for patients facing diverse cancer diagnoses. https://lnkd.in/eipNj62H #Merck #Keytruda #CervicalCancer #Immunotherapy #ClinicalTrials #MedicalInnovation #Healthcare #CancerResearch #PrecisionMedicine

Transforming Pancreatic Cancer Detection: Immunovia AB Announces Positive Results for Next-Generation Test Exciting news in the fight against pancreatic cancer! Immunovia AB, a diagnostics company dedicated to early detection, has announced positive results from a model-development study for its next-generation pancreatic cancer test. The study demonstrated impressive specificity of 98% and sensitivity of 75% in detecting early-stage pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) - the most common and aggressive form of pancreatic cancer. Notably, the new test outperformed the commonly used CA19-9 biomarker, a significant advancement as around 10% of patients do not produce CA19-9. Importantly, the next-generation test provides clear positive or negative results, eliminating the "borderline" outcomes that occurred with Immunovia's previous test. “Pancreatic cancer is a brutal and lethal cancer. People at risk for pancreatic cancer need a simple, fast, and easy blood test to detect cancer early. We are very excited about the potential of our test to meet this need and increase survival rates for these patients,” says Jeff Borcherding, CEO and President of Immunovia. Additionally, the new test is built on a widely used ELISA platform, enabling faster, more precise, and cost-effective testing.With an estimated 600,000 individuals in the U.S. at high risk of pancreatic cancer, this breakthrough has the potential to transform early detection and improve survival rates. As Immunovia moves forward with further validation and clinical studies, we're one step closer to a simple, reliable blood test that can save lives. https://lnkd.in/ekSTe_7N Be sure to follow Practical Patient Care on LinkedIn for more industry news and insights. #PracticalPatientCare #PancreaticCancer #EarlyDetection #MedicalInnovation

Today is World Pancreatic Cancer Day! In honor of the tens of thousands of patients and their families battling pancreatic cancer, we are very pleased to introduce TriCan Health, a free resource empowering patients to better understand their cancer and navigate clinical trial treatment options. We are just getting started on this journey to help patients and caregivers. Our clinical trial finder platform is the first step and we would welcome any input or constructive criticism. Please reach out to me directly with any feedback: kimya.harris@tricanhealth.com. What we’ve built is a way for patients… - To browse clinical trials in a more accessible way - To become more comfortable with the idea of enrolling in a trial not as a last resort, but as an option from Day 1 - To potentially gain access to targeted therapies and immunotherapies leveraging the latest medical advances - And, to share and discuss interesting trials with their medical team. 64,000 Americans are newly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year. While the overall rate of cancer diagnoses is declining, the prevalence of pancreatic cancer is increasing and impacting ever-younger patients. And this year, the 5-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer went up to 12%. This is progress, and we need to see more of it. By increasing equitable access to the most advanced therapies via clinical trials, we hope to see a continued increase in the survival rates. Please share https://lnkd.in/ef3m3bf9 (TriCanHealth.com) with anyone battling pancreatic cancer, and help us advance both scientific discovery and survivorship. Thank you!