Journal: Annals of internal medicine
The article is a 2025 overview piece aimed at nononcologists who co-manage patients with cancer. It synthesizes 10 key oncology studies from that year and organizes them around two major themes:
1. Therapeutic advances in common cancers
- New data in lung, colorectal, and breast cancer that refine systemic treatment choices.
- Emphasis on practical impact on everyday co-management (e.g., toxicity profiles, expected benefits, survivorship considerations), rather than only oncologic endpoints.
2. Evidence-based treatment and surveillance de-escalation
- Reducing mammographic surveillance intensity in older breast cancer survivors, aligning follow-up with life expectancy, recurrence risk, and competing comorbidities.
- Omitting autologous stem cell transplant in selected multiple myeloma patients who achieve measurable residual disease (MRD) negativity, reinforcing MRD as a key biomarker to tailor intensity of therapy.
- Reduced-dose apixaban for extended treatment of cancer-associated thrombosis, suggesting a potential balance between thrombosis prevention and bleeding risk in the long-term management phase.
- Validation of elinzanetant as a nonhormonal option for vasomotor symptoms, relevant for patients with hormone-sensitive cancers where estrogen-containing therapies are contraindicated.
Overall, the article underscores a shift toward personalized, biomarker- and risk-adapted care, and emphasizes that realizing the benefits of these advances requires close collaboration between oncology and other specialties in both acute treatment and survivorship care.