The Oncology Minute

Could a blood test help identify treatment resistance before cancer growth appears on a scan? In this episode of The Oncology Minute, oncology pharmacist Nahal Ghahremani explores Etcamah (camizestrant) and its role in certain patients with advanced hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.

Learn how ESR1 mutations can drive resistance, what the SERENA-6 trial found, and how molecular testing may guide an earlier treatment switch. We also cover how Etcamah works and key side effects to know.

For educational purposes only; not a substitute for individualized medical advice.

#TheOncologyMinute #Etcamah #Camizestrant #BreastCancer #ESR1 #SERENA6 #TargetedTherapy #PrecisionOncology #LiquidBiopsy #CancerEducation #OncologyPharmacist #OncologyPodcast

FDA approved doesn’t always mean preferred, and off-label doesn’t automatically mean unsupported.

In this episode of The Oncology Minute, I break down one of the most important distinctions in oncology treatment decision-making: the difference between FDA approval and where a therapy actually fits in current clinical practice.

FDA approval tells us that a drug has demonstrated safety and efficacy for a specific indication. But in oncology, that is often only one piece of the picture. Clinical guidelines, trial data, biomarkers, prior therapy, line of treatment, histology, performance status, and the individual patient all influence whether a treatment is truly the right choice.

I also discuss why an FDA-approved option may not necessarily be the preferred option, why multiple approved therapies are not always clinically equivalent, and why off-label use in oncology can still be strongly evidence-based and guideline-supported.

This becomes especially important in utilization management, where oncology review should go beyond a simple “FDA approved: yes or no” or “NCCN listed: yes or no.” The real question is whether the therapy is appropriate for the specific patient, in the specific disease setting, at that specific point in treatment.

The Oncology Minute is a short-form podcast focused on practical oncology topics, clinical decision-making, and the real-world considerations that shape cancer care.

Two patients can have the exact same type of cancer and still receive completely different treatments. That’s because in oncology today, we’re not just looking at where the cancer started , we’re also looking at the biology of the tumor.

In this first episode of The Oncology Minute, I break down the role of biomarkers in cancer care and why they have become such an important part of treatment decision-making. We’ll talk about what biomarkers are, what they can tell us about a tumor, and how biomarker testing can help determine which therapies may be more appropriate for a particular patient.

Precision oncology has changed the way we think about cancer treatment. Instead of treating every patient with the same diagnosis the same way, we can increasingly use molecular and tumor-specific information to personalize therapy.

My goal with The Oncology Minute is simple: take complex oncology topics and make them clear, practical, and easy to understand, one topic at a time.