Posts are written by library staff and reflect their personal opinions not necessarily those of MSK.
Dr. Carol Brown. Photo: Richard DeWitt.
Recently, MSK’s Dr. Carol Brown, Nicholls-Biondi Chair for Health Equity, sat down with HemOncToday’s Oncology Overdrive podcast to discuss equity in the healthcare workplace, research, and care. Learn more about the state of these issues today and strategies for progress by listening to this wide-ranging 40-minute interview.
Tania Bubb, PhD, RN, CIC, FAPIC. Photo by Richard DeWitt.
In a video interview of Dr. Tania Bubb, MSK’s Director of Infection Control, Infection Control Today features a study she presented at the annual conference of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).
Infection preventionists (IPs) were invited to fill out surveys regularly from March through July 2020. IPs from 16 US states and three other countries reported both exhaustion at the peak of the COVID pandemic and increased empowerment and value at their institutions. They noted that the pandemic led their colleagues to take hand hygiene and use of personal protective equipment (PPE) more seriously than ever before, at the same time expressing frustration with PPE shortages.
Dr. Bubb closed the interview by applauding IPs as unsung heroes of the pandemic:
They may not have taken care of patients directly, but their policies, their procedures, their vigilance, and their enthusiasm for their jobs supported those who took care of the patients and laid the groundwork for how those who took care of the patients would remain safe.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of two new advances promise to transform the detection of prostate cancer and the treatment of lung cancer.
On May 26, the FDA approved Pylarify, a molecule injected prior to positron emission tomography (PET) imaging that reveals prostate cancer cells on the scan. Pylarify does not replace prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening, but will allow physicians to determine the extent of prostate cancer in patients suspected of having or diagnosed with the disease. Dr. Michael Morris led the phase III clinical trial at MSK. Read more from NBC News, Healio.com, and MSK.
On May 28, the FDA approved the use of sotorasib (Lumakras) in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who have the KRAS-G12C genetic mutation and have already tried another treatment modality. This treatment was the culmination of almost 40 years of research, and was spearheaded through clinical trials by MSK’s Dr. Bob Li. Learn more from Good Morning America, TargetedOnc.com, and MSK.