The topics covered include diagnosis, primary prevention in the surgical and nonsurgical settings and treatment in the acute, long-term and extended phases, as well as the prevention and management of catheter-related VTE.

This was the first study to compare two neurokinin 1 (NK 1 ) receptor antagonist (RA)-containing (fosnetupitant vs. fosaprepitant) antiemetic regimens beyond the 120 h time point for prevention of cisplatin-based highly emetogenic CINV.

Alok Khorana (Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute, Ohio, USA) therefore believes that the biggest question in the field “is not which risk-based approach or which anticoagulant is the best for primary prevention,” but “what is stopping patients with cancer from being offered thromboprophylaxis in the first place?”

Two opposing sets of phase III results regarding the effect of denosumab on the recurrence of hormone receptor-positive nonmetastatic breast cancer have been presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting 2018 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Chen et al conclude that their findings “provide evidence that high-dose B 6 and B 12 supplements should not be taken for lung cancer prevention and, in fact, may increase risk of this disease in men.”

This paper reviews the role of the neurokinin-1 (NK 1 ) receptor antagonists in the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea. Summary Assessment of nausea is challenging due to its subjective nature. As a result many studies have evaluated nausea as either part of a complete response or as a secondary endpoint to emesis. Overall, studies have not shown any consistent superiority of the addition of aprepitant/fosaprepitant to a serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine-3; 5-HT3) receptor antagonist and dexamethasone for the control of nausea after highly or moderately emetogenic chemotherapy. Aprepitant/fosaprepitant has been shown to be as effective as prochlorperazine in delayed nausea control, while olanzapine was superior to aprepitant/fosaprepitant both in the delayed phase and overall. During the delayed phase, no significant differences were observed in rates of nausea or in maximum nausea severity or nausea duration in patients receiving aprepitant/palonosetron/dexamethasone before chemotherapy who were randomized to receive aprepitant or dexamethasone on days 2–3. Similar results were shown for the delayed phase in a study comparing aprepitant on days 2–3 with metoclopramide on days 2–4. Regarding the use of rolapitant, discrepancies between studies mean that no clear conclusions can be drawn regarding its use in nausea associated with highly emetogenic chemotherapy. NEPA is a fixed-combination antiemetic comprising netupitant and palonosetron, which has found to be associated with significantly better nausea control compared with oral palonosetron. Additional factors to consider when selecting an NK1 receptor antagonist for the control of chemotherapy-induced nausea include: Safety Schedule and convenience of administration, and implications of such for patient compliance The choice of 5-HT3 receptor antagonist International guideline recommendations. Studies are needed to define the overall potential for chemotherapy-induced nausea in individual patients, including factors related to the patient and the disease, as well as to the specific anticancer treatments. Bošnjak SM et al. Support Care Cancer  2017. doi: 10.1007/s00520-017-3585-z

“HPV vaccines likely provide benefits beyond prevention of anogenital cancer,” presenting author Maura Gillison, from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, USA, commented at a press conference.

Discussing the results, the team suggests that prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection “should be prioritized” among those with the lowest level of antibody-derived protection “to minimize impact on their cancer treatments.”

The team collated data for 92,431 participants (mean age, 69.4 years) of the US Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort who were also enrolled in Medicare between 1999 and 2017.