Immunoglobulin light-chain (AL) amyloidosis is a malignancy of the plasma cells which express CD38 and produce misfolded proteins that lead to organ damage, primarily of the heart and kidneys. The standard treatment of AL amyloidosis is bortezomib, cyclophosphamide, and dexamethasone which is ...
On August 13, 2021, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded the Emergency Use Authorization for the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to recommend a third dose for certain immunocompromised patients.1 This recommendation was based on data suggesting that these patients experienced ...
Starting physician assistant (PA) school certainly presented its obstacles. How would I, a fresh college graduate, be able to tackle an intense medical education within the span of 27 months? The answer was almost too simple – one semester at a time. Fifteen months of didactic education came and ...
Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) is one of most common, yet severe, consequences of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Occurring in up to 70% of patients, cGVHD is the leading cause of non-relapse mortality after allogeneic transplantation. Two new agents, belumosudil ...
A thorough assessment of the patient with a hematologic malignancy is essential for the delivery of quality care. Almost every medical condition, symptom or complication will be caused by the patient’s underlying disease, a medication they have been prescribed, or an infection. Taking time to ...
The term “targeted therapy” in cancer refers to drugs or treatment strategies that direct anticancer treatment to specific genes or proteins that influence the growth, proliferation and/or survival of cancer cells. Antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) are a targeted strategy that has rapidly evolved in ...
Multiple myeloma (MM) is a neoplasm characterized by the clonal proliferation of plasma cells that remains an incurable disease. The treatment of relapsed or relapsed/refractory MM continues to be a challenge despite numerous therapeutic advances. B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) is a cell-surface ...
Both health care professionals and patients regularly refer to systemic oncology treatments as “chemo”, although every month this term becomes less representative. Some medications clearly fit into certain categories: cisplatin & methotrexate (traditional chemotherapy), imatinib & ...