After more than 93% of patients maintained nadir serum asparaginase activity in the therapy’s clinical trials, on June 30, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved asparaginase erwinia chrysanthemi (recombinant)–rywn (RylazeTM) for use as a component of a multiagent chemotherapeutic regimen for treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia and lymphoblastic lymphoma in adult and pediatric patients who have developed hypersensitivity to E. coli-derived asparaginase.
The Children’s Health Insurance Program helped drop the percentage of uninsured children from 15% to 3.7% since its authorization by Congress in 1997, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released in celebration of CHIP’s 25th anniversary in August 2022.
One hundred twenty years ago, the U.S. Congress initiated the country’s first steps “to regulate the sale of virus, serum, toxin, and analogous products,” passing the 1902 Biologics Control Act to codify, oversee, and regulate a burgeoning field. By 1906, the legislation expanded to the Food and Drug Act, which formally established the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Our understanding of cancer has come a great ways over the past few decades, and some of the progress can be traced back to the 1950’s film Challenge: Science Against Cancer, explained David Cantor, PhD, researcher at the Instituto de Desarrollo Económico y Social, Buenos Aires Argentina, adjunct professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Maryland, College Park, in a July 2022 essay for the National Library of Medicine.
An eight-week online symptom self-management program, which can be facilitated by a nurse, significantly improves symptom burden, sense of control, and quality of life among patients with ovarian cancer. Researchers reported the evidence in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Patterns of sugars at the surface of immune cells can affect a person’s vulnerability to HIV infection, according to results from a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings suggested it may be possible to locate infected immune cells with the last vestiges of HIV by reading sugar profiles on the surface, Lawrence Tabak, DDS, PhD, NIH acting director, said in a July 2022 blog post.
Sexual dysfunction is one of the most common side effects of cancer treatment, yet oncology professionals often under address patients’ sexuality and sexual dysfunction concerns. Providers cite lack of time, training, and resources as barriers to initiating important discussions about sexual side effects, and studies show that patients’ age and prognosis are additional hindering factors.
Patients have long lauded nurses’ essential role on their care team—and in an August 2022 podcast episode, healthcare agency leaders did too. Shannon Zenk, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN, National Institute of Nursing Research director, described nurses as important members of care teams during a short conversation with Griffin Rodgers, MD, MACP, National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease director.
On October 13, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported Exela Pharma Sciences, LLC’s, voluntary recall of 49 lots of sodium bicarbonate injection, USP, 8.4%, 50 mEq/50 ml vial, 20-count carton, to the consumer level because of potential vial breakage and flying glass when pressurized while preparing for administration.
Cancer-related pain, whether from the disease or its treatments, is a distressing symptom that persists through survivorship. Pain diminishes patients’ quality of life and negatively affects their cancer-related outcomes.