M. Alexander Otto began his reporting career early in 1999 covering the pharmaceutical industry for a national pharmacists' magazine and freelancing for the Washington Post and other newspapers. He then joined BNA, now part of Bloomberg News, covering health law and the protection of people and animals in medical research. Alex next worked for the McClatchy Company. Based on his work, Alex won a year-long Knight Science Journalism Fellowship to MIT in 2008-2009. He joined the company shortly thereafter. Alex has a newspaper journalism degree from Syracuse (N.Y.) University and a master's degree in medical science -- a physician assistant degree -- from George Washington University. Alex is based in Seattle.
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FDA hints at deadlines to meet accelerated approval requirements
In other countries, the public is protected from “stale claims of effectiveness.”
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Shorter courses of chemo treatment taking hold in colon cancer
The IDEA trial has led to a major change in stage III colon cancer treatment. Adjuvant colon cancer therapy is shifting toward the combination...
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Black patients now central to lung cancer screening guidelines
Guidelines were once written primarily with White patients in mind generalizing screening criteria across ethnically diverse populations which...
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Yescarta label updated: Prophylactic steroids to prevent CRS
New Yescarta labeling advises clinicians to consider using corticosteroids to ward off cytokine release syndrome.
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Can immunotherapy replace surgery for stomach cancer?
The complete pathologic response rate to neoadjuvant nivolumab/ipilimumab was 59%.
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‘Highly encouraging’ MRD results for zanubrutinib add-on in CLL
Blood and bone marrow MRD was undetectable in almost 90% of subjects after a median of 10 treatment cycles.
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Fitusiran: Great ‘leap forward’ in hemophilia treatment
Cost will be a major consideration if fitusiran is approved for the U.S. market.
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DLBCL: PFS but no OS benefit with polatuzumab-vedotin add-on
Pending additional follow-up for overall survival, is the extra cost worth it?
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ASH studies look at racial disparities in ALL care, outcomes
Findings of two studies on U.S. blood cancer care suggest that “structural racism” may play a role in worse outcomes among young Hispanic and...
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Talk early to patients with high-risk AML about end-of-life decisions
With nearly 40% of AML patients unable to take part in their own final code discussions, families struggle to guess what their loved ones would...
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Myeloid patients respond robustly to Moderna COVID vaccine
Among 46 patients, nearly all seroconverted after second shot.
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FDA approves new interferon for polycythemia vera
A longer half-life means dosing every 2 weeks, instead of weekly.
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Tolerability doesn’t explain why kids do better than adults on ALL regimens
Differences in tumor biology seem to be at play.
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Genes related to osteosarcoma survival identified
They predict survival and are also potential therapy targets.
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Better survival with extended letrozole in early-stage breast cancer
Guidelines for duration of endocrine therapy ‘should be updated.’