A manuscript by Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County’s Dr. Banu Symington and several of her colleagues recently was accepted and published online by the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The manuscript, “Hepatitis B Virus Screen and Management for Patients with Cancer Prior to Therapy: ASCO Provisional Clinical Opinion Update,” was published online July 27, 2020, at https://ascopubs.org/journal/jco. Symington is one of 14 contributors to the piece.
The manuscript presents a clinically pragmatic approach to hepatitis B virus (HBV) screen and management, according to the authors. They agree all patients anticipating anticancer therapy should be tested for HBV using three separate tests. It further discusses risk assessment, therapy, monitoring, treatment guidance and consistent follow-up.
“It turns out that many people are at risk for reactivation of hepatitis B during chemotherapy, and they and their doctors did not know it,” Symington said, a hematologist/oncologist and medical director at Sweetwater Regional Cancer Center. “This hepatitis reactivation could have severe consequences, as it could be confused for metastatic disease or chemotherapy toxicity and, if untreated, could lead to death.
“It will be important in the future to get the word out to non-oncologists – such as gastroenterology, renal, lupus and blood specialists, who might be using chemo or biotherapy to treat non-cancerous conditions.”
Symington and two other physicians will be working on this topic for their next publication.
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