Latest & Greatest
ABIM and ACCME
Partner to Produce
CME Finder Tool
Cancer Moonshot Panel Releases List of
Top 10 Ways to Fight Cancer
The Cancer Moonshot Initiative’s Blue Ribbon Panel, a 28-member panel of advisers that includes top cancer researchers and patient advocates, presented a report
to the National Cancer Advisory Board that included 10 transformative research
recommendations to meet the initiative’s goal of improving prevention, diagnosis,
and treatment of cancer over the next five years. The report was accepted and sent
to a Cancer Moonshot task force headed by Vice President Biden and composed of
almost two dozen officials from federal agencies and departments.
The recommendations include:
1. Establishing a network for direct patient involvement that encourages
patients to engage and contribute to their comprehensive tumor profile data
to expand knowledge about what therapies work, in whom, and in which
types of cancer.
2. Creating a clinical trials network devoted exclusively to discovering and
evaluating immunotherapy approaches.
3. Developing ways to overcome cancer’s resistance to therapy by identifying
therapeutic targets through studies that determine the mechanisms that
lead cancer cells to become resistant to previously effective treatments.
The American Board of Internal Medicine
(ABIM) and the Accreditation Council for
Continuing Medical Education (ACCME)
partnered to produce the CME Finder – a
web-based tool (cmefinder.org) that allows
physicians to search for continuing medical
education (CME) opportunities, providing
information such as activity provider and
type, end date, participation restrictions,
and associated fees on CME activities
registered for maintenance of certification
(MOC) credit. The tool also sends completion information directly to ABIM once a
physician completes a listed activity, and
physicians do not have to take any further
steps to record these MOC activities.
The tool also
sends completion information
directly to ABIM
once a physician completes a
listed activity, and
physicians do
not have to take
any further steps
to record these
MOC activities.
FDA Approv es Ofatumumab Combination
for Relapsed Chronic
Lymphocytic Leukemia
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ofatumumab in
combination with fludarabine and cyclophosphamide for patients with relapsed
chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
The approval was based on the
results of the open-label, phase III
COMPLEMENT-2 study that found
ofatumumab plus fludarabine and
cyclophosphamide resulted in a longer
median progression-free survival (PFS;
the study’s primary endpoint) than
fludarabine and cyclophosphamide alone.
A total of 365 patients were randomized to receive:
• 300 mg of ofatumumab on day 1 of
the first cycle followed by 1,000 mg
on day 8, with subsequent cycles
dosed at 1,000 mg on day 1 plus
fludarabine and cyclophosphamide
(triplet combination; n=183)
• fludarabine and cyclophosphamide
alone (control; n=182)
The task force also is working on a report about what the government can do
to support the Moonshot initiative.
View the complete Blue Ribbon Panel report at cancer.gov/research/
key-initiatives/moonshot-cancer-initiative/blue-ribbon-panel.
“We are expanding our collaboration to
encourage CME providers to continue to
innovate and create educational activities
that blend medical knowledge and practice
assessment opportunities, which allows us
to seamlessly recognize a physician’s journey through self-directed learning,” said
Richard J. Baron, MD, president and CEO
of ABIM, in a press release.
ABIM and ACCME plan to release
additional MOC opportunities in the
spring of 2017.
The overall response rate in the ofatumumab-treated group was 84 percent, compared with 68 percent in the
fludarabine and cyclophosphamide
group (p=0.0003). Complete response
rates were 27 percent versus 7 percent,
respectively.
The PFS in the ofatumumab-treated
group was 28.9 months, compared with
18.8 months for patients treated with
fludarabine and cyclophosphamide (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.67; 95% CI 0.51-0.88;
p=0.0032). The duration of response was
also longer in the triplet combination
group (29.6 months vs. 24.9 months for
the doublet; HR=0.77; 95% CI 0.56-1.05;
p=0.0878).
Treatment-related adverse events
(AEs) were similar in both study arms.
Grade ≥3 AEs occurred in 74 percent of
those treated with the triplet regimen
compared with 69 percent in the control
group. Fifty-three percent of patients
who received triplet therapy experienced
grade ≥3 neutropenia versus 39 percent
of those in the control group. Infusionrelated reactions occurred in 4 percent
of those treated with the ofatumumab
combination compared with <1 percent
in the control group.
Sources: National Cancer Institute, September 7, 2016; The Washington Post, September 7, 2016.
Source: American Board of Internal Medicine press release, August 29, 2016.
Source: Genmab press release, August 31, 2016.
4. Building a national cancer data ecosystem for sharing and analyzing cancer data so that researchers, clinicians, and patients can contribute data.
5. Intensifying research on the major drivers of pediatric cancers to improve
the understanding of fusion oncoproteins and use new preclinical models
to develop inhibitors that target them.
6. Minimizing cancer treatments’ debilitating side effects by accelerating the
development of guidelines for routine monitoring and management of
patient-reported symptoms.
7. Expanding the use of proven cancer prevention and early detection strategies to reduce cancer risk and cancer health disparities through approaches in development, testing, and broad adoption of these strategies.
8. Mining past patient data to predict future patient outcomes to standard
treatments.
9. Developing a three-dimensional cancer atlas of human tumor evolution to
document the genetic lesions and cellular interactions of each tumor as it
evolves from a precancerous lesion to advanced cancer.
10. Developing new cancer technologies to characterize tumors and test therapies.
12
ASH Clinical News
October 2016