scout

Vol. 18/No. 09

Emil J. Freireich, MD, DSc, was the originator of combination chemotherapy, the primary architect of the first cure for a systemic cancer, a major contributor to the cures for half a dozen other systemic cancers and, quite possibly, the man who did the most to transform MD Anderson from a minor facility to one of the world’s leading cancer centers.

After years of regulatory and legal wrangling, the development of biosimilars is starting to advance rapidly in the United States, particularly in the oncology sector where multiple versions of the most widely used cancer drugs are moving forward.

An investigational radiotracer that targets prostate-specific membrane antigen is being tested in patients with high-risk, recurrent, or metastatic prostate cancer to determine whether the novel agent can improve upon the sensitivity and specificity of conventional imaging.

Targeted therapies have improved outcomes for HER2-positive breast cancer, which is characterized by an aggressive tumor phenotype and lower overall survival. However, questions remain on how to predict which patients will benefit from neoadjuvant or extended HER2-targeted therapies and how to treat patients with triple-positive breast cancer.

Although biosimilar versions of branded medicines have been proliferating in other parts of the world for more than a decade, we’re still getting accustomed to the introduction of these new therapeutic options in the United States.