Wildfires and Lung Cancer Survival; Poverty and ALL; Cancer Link to Overseas Service

Exposure to wildfire smoke was associated with worse overall survival in patients recovering from lung cancer surgery, a cohort study found. (JAMA Oncology)

Increased skin cancer screening for people of color is not enough to overcome disparities in melanoma outcomes. (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, JAMA Dermatology)

Children living in extreme poverty during maintenance therapy for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have nearly a twofold greater risk of relapse compared with those not living in extreme poverty. (University of Alabama at Birmingham, Blood)

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that veterans under 40 are now eligible for breast cancer assessments and mammograms if exposed to burn pits and other toxic exposures.

The VA is also reviewing whether there is a possible link between acute leukemia, chronic leukemia, and multiple myeloma and toxic exposures while serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Yemen, Uzbekistan, and all of the Southwest Asia theater of operations.

The Community Oncology Alliance filed a lawsuit over a recent change in federal health policy that restricts cancer practices from delivering drugs to patients.

Injectable forms of widely-used cancer drugs may avoid Medicare pricing negotiations. (Reuters)

UroGen announced that the phase III ATLAS and ENVISION trials of UGN-102 — an investigational formulation of mitomycin — for the treatment of patients with low-grade, intermediate-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer met their primary endpoints.

COVID-19 vaccination in the U.K. reduced deaths from the virus in cancer patients by 84%, a new study found. (University of Birmingham, Scientific Reports)

Moderna and Merck are enrolling patients in a phase III study evaluating the personalized mRNA-based cancer vaccine mRNA-4157 (V940) in combination with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as an adjuvant treatment for patients with resected high-risk melanoma.

And Merck said the phase III KEYNOTE-756 trial met its primary endpoint, with the addition of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to neoadjuvant chemotherapy significantly improving pathologic complete response rate in high-risk, early-stage estrogen receptor (ER)-positive/HER2-negative breast cancer.

Meanwhile, Gilead announced it will discontinue its phase III ENHANCE trial of magrolimab plus azacitidine in higher-risk myelodysplastic syndromes following a futility analysis.

A study of 1,325 women with dense breasts showed that the use of a commercial artificial intelligence tool provided no additional benefit when added to mammography with supplementary breast ultrasound. (American Journal of Roentgenology)

The Biden administration has launched an effort under the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to develop novel technologies that will allow surgeons to remove cancerous tumors with more precision and accuracy.

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