After decades of unsuccessful efforts in inhibiting KRAS, promising clinical data targeting the mutation subtype G12C emerge. Since little is known about outcome with standard treatment of patients with G12C mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), we analyzed a large, representative, real-world cohort from Germany. Patients and methods: A total of 1039 patients with advanced KRAS-mutant or-wildtype NSCLC without druggable alterations have been recruited in the prospective, observational registry CRISP from 12/2015 to 06/2019

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EXtend and eXjange were prospective, 1-yr, non-interventional, observational, multicentre studies that investigated deferasirox, a once-daily oral iron chelator, in iron-overloaded chelation-naïve and prechelated patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), respectively, treated in the daily-routine setting of office-based physicians. No inclusion or exclusion criteria or additional monitoring procedures were applied. Deferasirox was administered as recommended in the European Summary of Product Characteristics. Haematological parameters and adverse events (AEs) were collected at two-monthly intervals. Data from 123 chelation-naïve patients with MDS (mean age 70.4 yrs) with median baseline serum ferritin level of 2679 (range 184–16 500) ng/mL, and 44 prechelated patients with MDS (mean age 69.6 yrs) with median baseline serum ferritin level of 2442 (range 521–8565) ng/mL, were assessed. The mean prescribed daily dose of deferasirox at the first visit was 15.7 and 18.7 mg/kg/d, respectively. Treatment with deferasirox produced a significant reduction in median serum ferritin levels in chelation-naïve patients with MDS from 2679 to 2000 ng/mL (P = 0.0002) and a pronounced decrease in prechelated patients with MDS from 2442 to 2077 ng/mL (P = 0.06). The most common drug-related AEs were gastrointestinal, increased serum creatinine levels and rash. These studies demonstrate that deferasirox used in physicians’ medical practices is effective in managing iron burden in transfusion-dependent patients with MDS.

The use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESA) in cancer patients is still under debate. However, little is known about rationales, strategies, objectives, and effectiveness of anaemia treatments in common practice. The Cancer Anaemia Registry prospectively surveyed about 2000 cancer patients with anaemia throughout Germany. The main objectives of anaemia treatment regardless of modality were to improve quality of life (QOL) and to correct haemoglobin (Hb) levels. The Hb threshold for any anaemia treatment (means ± SD: 9.4 ± 1.2 g/dL) but not for blood transfusions (8.7 ± 1.0 g/dL) depended on cancer type and treatment strategy. Physicians preferred ESA as first-line treatment to prevent transfusions in patients with solid tumours, if they thought that chemotherapy caused the anaemia. If they suspected other causes or patients had lymphoproliferative malignancies, physicians preferred transfusions or attempted to correct underlying disorders; both mainly to improve QOL or prognosis. Effectiveness of all strategies was comparable. However, ESA most effectively prevented transfusions; primary transfusions appeared less suitable for correcting Hb or improving QOL. Using supportive treatments for QOL improvement was common whereas diagnostic measures and intravenous iron therapy were underused. Prospective clinical trials using QOL as end point and evaluating diagnostics in cancer-associated anaemia are warranted.

Few data exist on health‐related quality of life (QoL) in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer (mPC) receiving first‐line chemotherapy (Awad L ZE, Mesbah M Boston, MA. Applying survival data methodology to analyze quality of life data, in Mesbah M, Cole BF, Ting Lee M‐L (eds): Statistical Methods for Quality of Life Studies: Design, Measurements and Analysis. Kluwer Academic Publishers 2002). The QOLIXANE study is a prospective, noninterventional, multicenter substudy of the Platform for Outcome, Quality of Life and Translational Research on Pancreatic Cancer (PARAGON) registry, which evaluated QoL in patients with mPC receiving first‐line gemcitabine and nab‐paclitaxel chemotherapy in real‐life setting. QoL was prospectively measured via EORTC QLQ‐C30 questionnaires at baseline and every month thereafter. Therapy and efficacy parameters were prospectively collected. Main objectives were the rate of patients without deterioration of Global Health Status/QoL (GHS/QoL) at 3 and 6 months. Six hundred patients were enrolled in 95 German study sites. Median progression‐free survival was 5.9 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.2‐6.3). Median overall survival (OS) was 8.9 months (95% CI, 7.9‐10.2), while median time to deterioration of GHS/QoL was 4.7 months (95% CI, 4.0‐5.6). With a baseline GHS/QoL score of 46 (SD, 22.8), baseline QoL of the patients was severely impaired, in most cases due to loss in role functioning and fatigue. In the Kaplan‐Meier analysis, 61% and 41% of patients had maintained GHS/QoL after 3 and 6 months, respectively. However, in the QoL response analysis, 35% and 19% of patients had maintained (improved or stable) GHS/QoL after 3 and 6 months, respectively, while 14% and 9% had deteriorated GHS/QoL with the remaining patients being nonevaluable. In the Cox regression analysis, GHS/QoL scores strongly predicted survival with a hazard ratio of 0.86 (P < .0001). Patients with mPC have poor QoL at baseline that deteriorates within a median of 4.7 months. Treatment with gemcitabine and nab‐paclitaxel is associated with maintained QoL in relevant proportions of patients. However, overall, results remain poor, reflecting the aggressive nature of the disease.