Data are limited on repeated unplanned hospital readmissions among patients with hematologic malignancies, so researchers analyzed baseline characteristics of patients with one or more 30-day unplanned readmissions, as well as factors related to these readmissions. Girish Kunapareddy, MD, at the Taussig Cancer Institute at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, discussed the findings at the ASH Annual Meeting.

Researchers conducted a randomized study to assess the impact of survivorship care plans (SCPs) on cancer survivors who underwent hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). They assessed confidence in survivorship information (primary analysis), as well as cancer treatment distress, knowledge of transplant exposures, health behaviors, healthcare use, and health general self-efficacy. Navneet S. Majhail, MD, MS, at the Taussig Cancer Institute at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, discussed the findings at the ASH Annual Meeting.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioners will commonly use their roles to enact new changes that can have a lasting effect on public health for years to come. Despite only being in his position for a few months, Scott Gottlieb, MD, is on track to make a real impression as the head of the FDA.

The presence of type 2 diabetes mellitus at the time of breast cancer diagnosis has been suggested to adversely affect survival—independent of breast cancer stage, grade, and tumor phenotype—but few of those studies included people of Hispanic descent. Researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore and the University of Louisville in Kentucky examined the association between self-reported diabetes history, breast cancer-specific and all-cause mortality among Hispanic and non-Hispanic white women diagnosed with breast cancer.

Exercise—preferably supervised—represents a viable intervention for prevention and treatment of fatigue among patients with breast cancer, a group of Australian, European, and U.S. researchers said. They presented their findings during a poster session on Saturday, December 9, during the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Unplanned hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits are an ongoing problem for patients with cancer. At the Taussig Cancer Institute, just 6% of all discharged patients accounted for more than 40% of unplanned readmissions (defined as a hospitalization occurring within 30 days of discharge). Those patients are also at high risk for future admissions, intensive care unit (ICU) stay, ED visits, overuse of chemotherapy, and underuse of hospice resources.

CPX-351 is a dual-drug liposomal encapsulation of cytarabine and daunorubicin that delivers a synergistic drug ratio. In a randomized, phase III study, researchers evaluated induction therapy with CPX-351 versus conventional cytarabine/daunorubicin (referred to as 7+3 regimen) in adults aged 60–75 years with newly diagnosed, treatment-related acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or AML with myelodysplasia-related changes. Bruno C Medeiros, MD, at Stanford University School of Medicine in California, discussed the findings at the ASH Annual Meeting.

Patients with multiple myeloma (MM) who receive proteasome inhibitors (PIs) are at an increased risk for herpes zoster infection, and National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines recommend antiviral prophylaxis for these patients. Researchers examined the use of and adherence to antiviral agents in this patient population. Siyang Leng, MD, at Columbia University Medical Center in Sunnyside, New York, discussed the findings at the ASH Annual Meeting.

Many lymphoma treatments are known to affect the immune system, so researchers assessed whether survivors of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) have an altered risk of developing autoimmune and infectious diseases compared to other cancer survivors. Tanaya Shree, MD, PhD, at Stanford University Medical Center in California, discussed the findings at the ASH Annual Meeting.

Ibrutinib is a first-in-class, once-daily inhibitor of Bruton tyrosine kinase that is approved for various B-cell malignancies. However, the drug is associated with increased rates of low-grade hemorrhage and sometimes serious hemorrhage, which is listed as a warning in the  prescribing information. Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), and mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) are at an increased risk for major hemorrhage (MH) compared to the general population.