Young hematologists and medical oncologists in focus

Excerpt

In view of the constantly rising number of novel compounds and the increasing complexity of available treatment modalities, the spectrum of professional life in the field of oncology and malignant hematology has drastically changed in the last decade. While previously advanced malignant diseases were mainly approached by “classical” cytotoxic agents with a clearly estimated toxicity profile, novel treatments address often very specific targets in the cancer cell and tumor microenvironment accompanied by so far unknown toxicities, ranging from autoimmune reactions to complex cytokine release syndromes. In addition, not only novel agents but also completely newly engineered treatment strategies have been introduced starting from personalized treatment based on targeted sequencing panels to such outstanding concepts like chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T‑cell therapies; and while some of these approaches including the latter are currently bound to very specialized centers it is obvious that such specific concepts will require a high number of well-educated specialists in the near future. …