Activity Rationale and Purpose
This program is designed to provide up-to-date information and easily applied clinical tools that will ensure familiarity with emerging EGFR inhibitor therapeutic options and integration into clinical practice. This knowledge will enable oncology clinicians to optimize outcomes for patients undergoing therapy with EGFR inhibitors.
A critical element of side effect management is comprehensive patient and family education designed to promote self-management in the home setting. Patients and their families must be prepared to anticipate, identify, characterize, and report side effects in a timely manner. They must also be empowered to use self-care strategies to minimize the intensity of side effects, as well as to alleviate mild to moderate effects that may occur. Ultimately, patients and their families will know what side effects they can manage independently and when health care team intervention will be required to minimize the development of more severe complications.
As therapeutic regimens become more complex, associated toxicities and side effects often intensify. Anticipation, early identification, and management of therapy-induced side effects are critical to optimal patient outcomes. Dermatologic effects, which may be useful in predicting tumor response, remain a key treatment management challenge and are an area of emerging management strategies. These effects are further complicated when EGFR inhibitors are given with radiation therapy, which itself can cause radiation dermatitis. Ocular toxicities occur in approximately one third of patients and can cause significant discomfort. Other adverse effects include diarrhea, interstitial lung disease, hypersensitivity reactions, electrolyte disturbances, nausea, and myelosuppression. Anticipatory and effective side effect management can improve tolerability and patient safety and subsequently enhance patient adherence to often difficult therapies, thereby providing the best opportunity for optimal therapeutic response.
Increased understanding of the biologic basis of resistance mechanisms, interactions between cytotoxic agents and targeted therapies, potential application of gene sequencing and expression profiling, identification of new targets, and other advances in the state of the knowledge on EGFR inhibitors are opening the doors to expanded application of EGFR inhibitor therapy. Current exploration of novel approaches includes (1) clinical studies of possible new applications to other tumor types, such as pancreas, non–small cell lung, and head and neck cancers, (2) application of profiling to patient selection for therapy, and (3) timing, combination, and sequencing strategies to truly personalize cancer therapy. Evidence suggesting that EGFR inhibitors be introduced earlier in therapeutic regimens and in unique combinations with chemotherapeutic agents and other targeted therapies is emerging. The use of EGFR testing and predictors of response or resistance may help to enhance the role of EGFR inhibitor therapy. As the use of EGFR inhibitor therapy develops in new directions and its integration evolves, oncology clinicians must keep abreast of the effect of new information on the standard of patient care and need to be prepared for associated treatment management challenges. |
