touchREVIEWS in Oncology & Haematology – Volume 20, Issue 2 – 2024

It is with great pleasure that we present the latest edition of touchREVIEWS in Oncology & Haematology. This issue highlights the remarkable progress and innovation shaping the fields of oncology and haematology, featuring articles that delve into both emerging therapies and the evolving understanding of complex malignancies. We open with an editorial by Mohammad Ammad […]

The incidence rate of breast cancer (BC) is the highest in Pakistan among all Asian countries.1 In 2018 alone, 2.1 million cases were diagnosed, although the exact number is likely much higher due to poor reporting in rural areas and the lack of a formal national cancer registry.1,2 Over the last decade, multiple non-governmental organizations and large […]

Endocrine therapy (ET) has changed the natural history of hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancer (BC) and is the cornerstone of the treatment of HR+ BC. There are several ETs approved for the treatment of BC, including selective oestrogen receptor modulators (SERMs; tamoxifen), aromatase inhibitors (AIs; anastrazole, letrozole and exemestane) and selective oestrogen receptor degraders (SERDs; fulvestrant […]

Trifluridine/tipiracil (FTD/TPI) is a novel oral formulation of two drugs with promising results in the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).1 Trifluridine is a thymidine-based nucleoside analogue that, after intracellular phosphorylation, gets incorporated into DNA, causing DNA dysfunction.2 It was first identified by Callahan et al. in 1996 as an active impurity in the herbicide trifluralin, which […]

Rat sarcoma virus (RAS) proteins are a family of prototypical oncogenes frequently mutated in human cancers. Mutations in the RAS gene account for 19% of all pathogenic alterations and are the subject of extensive research in molecular and clinical oncology.1 The RAS family consists of three major isoforms, namely the Harvey rat sarcoma virus (HRAS), the neuroblastoma RAS […]

Oesophageal cancer is the eighth most commonly diagnosed cancer and is the sixth leading cause of cancer death worldwide.1,2 Worldwide, around 604,100 new instances of oesophageal cancer were recorded in 2020, leading to approximately 544,100 deaths. This translates to a standardized incidence rate of 6.3 per 100,000 people and a mortality rate of 5.6 per 100,000. […]

Highlights Immunotherapy, especially combinatory immunotherapy, has shown promise with prolonged survival for patients with advanced mesothelioma in the first-line setting (see the sections on ‘Systemic treatment and immunotherapy debut’ and ‘Randomized immunotherapy trials of mesothelioma’). Histology-based therapy is important to consider, with non-epithelioid subtypes responding better to immunotherapy than to chemotherapy (see the section on […]

Metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) represents the most formidable stage of prostate cancer (PCa) and is responsible for the majority of PCa-related mortalities. This advanced form of the disease typically evolves from less aggressive stages.1 PCa is broadly categorized into various stages, from early stage to metastatic castration-resistant, each presenting unique clinical challenges. Notably, metastatic […]