Medication Abortion Through Telehealth Is Safe and Effective

In 2000, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the medication mifepristone, an antiprogesterone oral medication used with misoprostol to induce abortion. Before mifepristone, most abortions that occurred within the medical system in the US were done using either procedural abortion or medication abortion that used methotrexate or misoprostol only, both of which can have higher adverse event profiles and lower efficacy rates than the mifepristone-misoprostol combined regimen. Mifepristone’s approval advanced treatment options for patients needing abortion care and those undergoing miscarriage management, improved the efficacy and availability of medication abortion, and increased the power of patients to manage their own abortions in the place and time of their choosing.

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Impacts of Immunotherapy on Patients With Aggressive Thyroid Carcinomas

Immunotherapy has represented a novel and cutting-edge approach to treating patients with many types of metastatic cancers in recent years, transforming outcomes for patients who previously had limited options. Immunotherapy enhances the body’s natural defenses to target and eliminate cancer cells. The agents used are immune checkpoint inhibitors that target specific sites within the immune system, particularly focusing on T cells and their interactions with cancer cells or antigen-presenting cells. The primary sites at T cells of action include the programmed cell death 1 (PD-1)/programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) axis and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte–associated protein 4 (CTLA-4). The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved several immunotherapy agents, and each could have different modes of action targeting these sites in various cancers. In 2020, pembrolizumab, a PD-1 inhibitor, was approved for the treatment of patients with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. In 2 nonrandomized phase 2 clinical trials in this issue of JAMA Oncology, Sehgal et al and Cabanillas et al explored the applications of immunotherapy in treating patients with aggressive thyroid cancer.

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