Darcy Lewis

CHICAGO — Two early-phase clinical trials released data at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2025 annual meeting that suggest their premise — an elranatamab-based triplet regimen and a new trispecific regimen — shows good potential in multiple myeloma (MM).

Research from the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy explores whether community pharmacists could help the gap — and what’s standing in the way
By Darcy Lewis
Imagine you’re one of the 20% of individuals incarcerated in the U.S. with opioid use disorder (OUD), and you’ve recently been released. Re-entering society is difficult, as you’re balancing competing needs and obligations while attempting to overcome barriers to employment, transportation, and housing. And, unfortunately, you have many more...

CHICAGO — Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) remains challenging to treat in older adult patients due to biological factors and poor treatment tolerance. But a variety of treatment approaches beyond chemotherapy-only regimens are making inroads in this challenging disease.
That’s the message Elias Jabbour, MD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, delivered during an educational session at American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2025.

CHICAGO — The anticipated release of 5-year overall survival (OS) data from the CARTITUDE-1 trial showed that the use of ciltacabtagene autoleucel (cilta-cel) in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) met or exceeded expectations.
“We already knew from our initial publication that 98% of patients who got cilta-cel responded to therapy and that the majority of those responses were complete responses.

If you’re a caregiver for someone considering a clinical trial, you may have a lot of questions. These might include:
What are the benefits of clinical trials?
How can my loved one find a clinical trial?
How should my loved one talk to their doctor about clinical trials?
How can I support my loved one before and during a clinical trial?
As a caregiver, doctors might consider you an informal part of the study team. That’s because you may have been the first to notice changes in your loved one.

If you or a loved one has received a cancer diagnosis, you might wonder if joining a clinical trial is a smart move. Clinical trials are a type of medical research that enlists volunteers to test whether new medical treatments are safe and effective.
Many people who take part in clinical trials first learn about them from their doctors. But you don’t have to wait for your doctor to mention a clinical trial. You should feel free to raise this important issue yourself.

The antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) pivekimab sunirine (PVEK) yielded high response rates with good durability in patients with blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN) in the phase 1/2 CADENZA trial.“We conclude that PVEK represents a potentially practice-changing paradigm for patients with the rare disease BPDCN,” said study author Naveen Pemmaraju, MD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, during an oral abstract session at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2025 annual meeting.

Even people familiar with the adage that expertise in science and medicine often correlates with musical talent have been surprised at the booming success of the Penn Medicine Symphony Orchestra. It has become a vibrant part of campus life—and now, the wider Philadelphia medical community—in less than a decade.
Two brothers, Daniel “Dan” Zhang, MD, PhD, and MD-PhD student David Zhang, have played key roles in helping guide and shape the orchestra’s growth.

If Benjamin “Kyle” Potter, MD, who arrived at Penn Medicine last year from a military career to lead the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, has learned anything, it’s that life is full of unexpected detours.
In 2023, Potter completed 22 years of active-duty service to the U.S. Army, retiring as a Colonel. Then, last year, he wrapped up stints heading up the Walter Reed Department of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University (USU) and the Department of Defense Limb Optimization and Osseoint...

When Natalie Mesnier, M.D., first heard about minimally invasive bunion surgery at the major medical meetings about 10 years ago, she was skeptical. “I figured this was just a fad and would be debunked shortly,” she said. “But then it struck me that performing minimally invasive bunion repair could solve many problems we often see."

An experimental antibody helped people recover body mass lost due to cancer and treatment.
March 13, 2025
CACHEXIA IS A COMMON AND CONCERNING PROBLEM facing people with advanced cancer. This poorly understood condition—marked by substantial and unintentional loss of body mass—causes people to lose fat, muscle and bone and can be severely debilitating.

Since 2018, the standard of care for people with stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that cannot be treated with surgery has been to receive chemotherapy and radiation, followed by one year of the immunotherapy drug Imfinzi (durvalumab). However, several studies have indicated immunotherapy is less effective for patients with an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation, which occurs in up to one-third of NSCLC cases.

When you’re an expert in medical CT imaging, two things are bound to happen, says Peter Noël, PhD, associate professor of Radiology and director of CT Research at the Perelman School of Medicine. One: You develop an insatiable curiosity about the inner workings of all kinds of objects, including those unrelated to your research. And two: Both colleagues and complete strangers will ask for your help in imaging a wide variety of unexpected items.

Robotic-assisted navigation (RAN) and augmented reality (AR) showed superior accuracy for pedicle screw placement when compared to conventional freehand techniques during surgeries to treat degenerative spine conditions, according to the findings of a prospective clinical and radiographic analysis performed at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS).

Among the career highlights of William “Bill” N. Hait, MD, PhD, FAACR, one that stands out is his work as the founding director of the Rutgers Cancer Institute, the first and still only National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in New Jersey.

“Bill was the fifth person hired and nine years later he had a fully comprehensive … cancer center,” said Michael A. Caligiuri, MD, FAACR, Immediate Past President of City of Hope National Medical Center and the Treasurer and...