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Tobacco-related cancer incidence and mortality and commercial tobacco use have decreased steadily in recent decades, but improvements have not been equitably experienced across population subgroups. A complex interaction across socioecological domains of individual, interpersonal, community/organization, and societal/policy factors influence disparities in tobacco use, treatment, and related health outcomes. NCI’s Cancer Center Cessation Initiative (C3I) provides an ideal platform to examine and intervene on multilevel influences across the cancer control continuum to reduce any disproportionate tobacco-related burden and eliminate tobacco-related disparities. The C3I Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Working Group encourages cancer centers to develop, evaluate, and adopt evidence-based practices regarding DEI for prevention and treatment of commercial tobacco use across the cancer control continuum. This paper highlights how 3 C3I sites intervene to address socioecological influences on tobacco use among racially, ethnically, socioeconomically, and geographically diverse patient subgroups. It then outlines ways in which DEI considerations could be integrated into research with patients with cancer who use tobacco and practices related to standards of cancer care. Incorporating DEI considerations in the pursuit of optimal tobacco treatment could facilitate elimination of inequities in population-level cancer outcomes, spanning the full continuum of cancer care from prevention to survivorship.

Individuals from the family and social support network of patients with cancer can have a pivotal role in reinforcing patients’ efforts to become and remain tobacco-free. This support is critical along the entire continuum of cancer care. Although NCI-designated Cancer Centers across the United States are increasingly offering tobacco cessation services as a result of the NCI Cancer Center Cessation Initiative (C3I), engaging patients’ family and other support network in tobacco treatment is not yet a routine practice. To facilitate the consideration and involvement of patients’ social support systems (including family, peers, and non–healthcare provider caregivers), we formed the C3I Family and Social Support Systems Working Group. This paper describes the current practices and challenges among C3I cancer centers centers in engaging the support systems of patients with cancer in order to reduce tobacco use and/or secondhand smoke exposure. Building on this knowledge, this Working Group proposes a research agenda to facilitate support persons’ involvement in tobacco treatment as part of oncology care. The research priorities identified include establishing (1) evidence-based strategies for engaging family and social support systems in patients’ cessation efforts, (2) interventions to provide cessation treatment options to support persons, and (3) best practices to routinely identify and engage family and social support systems in patients’ cessation efforts.

Numerous treatment options are available for patients with early relapsed multiple myeloma. Clinicians should consider using a monoclonal antibody for patients who have not yet received one, or changing either the immunomodulatory drug, the proteasome inhibitor, or both. Clinical trials are another option, or clinicians can refer transplant-naïve patients for autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). For patients with late relapse, a clinical trial is recommended, if possible, but many patients are ineligible due to poor blood cell counts or other factors. Additional treatment options include selinexor combinations, belantamab mafodotin-blmf, melflufen, or CAR T-cell therapy. Salvage ASCT should also be considered for this challenging population.

Mantle cell lymphoma remains incurable despite recent treatment advances, and most patients experience relapsed/refractory disease. BTK inhibitors are the preferred choice in the relapsed setting, especially in patients with early relapse. For patients with high-risk features such as TP53 mutation, early referral for CAR T-cell therapy should be considered, even in those with stable disease on a BTK inhibitor. Patients without high-risk features may be monitored and initiate CAR T-cell therapy after clinical disease progression. CAR T-cell therapy is an effective treatment with high rate of complete remissions. For patients who do not achieve a complete remission 3 months after CAR-T therapy, bridging therapy with chemotherapy or targeted therapy agents and referral for allogeneic transplant are recommended.

Minimal residual disease (MRD) in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is defined as <1 CLL cell per 10,000 leukocytes (0.01%; <10⁻⁴). Flow cytometry and next-generation sequencing have demonstrated high sensitivity in MRD detection. MRD assessment may help to determine prognosis after fixed-duration regimens; this has been established in the contexts of chemoimmunotherapy and venetoclax/antibody combinations. In the short term, MRD status does not seem to inform prognosis in patients treated with a BTK inhibitor plus venetoclax-based regimens; however, long-term data will be needed to determine whether it is beneficial in this population. Numerous trials have demonstrated that MRD may be used to guide therapy. It is unclear whether using an MRD-guided treatment strategy is better than using fixed-duration therapy; ongoing and future studies are warranted.

Mutations are a critical piece in understanding how myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) occur, specifically the pathobiology of JAK/STAT activation. Mutations play such an important role, in fact, that they are a key part of the diagnostic classification for these diseases. Furthermore, the mutational landscape of MPNs affects both the prognosis and the biology of disease progression. Current research in the field is focused on understanding how and why these mutations occur, as well as how to attack them to address disease at the time of progression or even before disease progression has occurred.

In the last decade, a better understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas has resulted in the development of novel targeted therapies, such as small molecule inhibitors of select kinases in the B-cell receptor pathway, antibody–drug conjugates, and small molecules that target a variety of proteins (eg, CD-19, EZH2, and XPO-1–mediated nuclear export). Anti-CD19 CAR T-cell therapy, first approved for relapsed/refractory (R/R) diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, has also emerged as a novel treatment option for R/R follicular lymphoma and mantle cell lymphoma. These NCCN Guideline Insights highlight the new targeted therapy options included in the NCCN Guidelines for B-Cell Lymphomas for the treatment of R/R disease.