Sam Stevens

Haha thanks BG! I was kinda nervous but it was a lot of fun!

Great to talk to Josh from @HemOncToday about this work!

❓Is #TimeToxicity too negative? Patients, caregivers and oncologists say “toxicity” could communicate judgement on #cancer care choices. 📹 Time commitment, time impact or time trade-off may be more “approachable.” @SamuelXStevens @csoncol @queensu 🔗 bit.ly/40mtzR4

We invite those from the Pacific and beyond to join us for the inaugural webinar of the Common Sense Oncology Pacific Hub! Join us on Thursday, February 26 at 5 pm AWDT / 7 pm AEDT / 9 pm NZT to discuss the challenges and opportunities in oncology in the Pacific and how CSO can better serve the needs of the region. Register on Zoom: tinyurl.com/us5vbct9 #CommonSenseOncology #CancerCare

⁉️ Just out JCO OP: Stakeholder Perspectives on “Time Toxicity” 🕰️ “Time toxicity” has gained traction in oncology, highlighting the hidden burden of patients’ time. But does this language reflect stakeholder experiences of time spent on treatment? Read: ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/OP…

@oncology_bg No complaints from this Aussie 🇦🇺🇨🇦😜

Can we have a normal winter where the temperatures ONLY go down to -10C? These minus 20 degrees are physically painful. And we aren’t even in February yet.

We are proud to release our @OncologyBGLab’s 2025 Annual Report. You can read about all exciting things we did in 2025, and what we have in plans for 2026. oncologybg.com/wp-content/upl…

The NHMRC yesterday announced final allocations for the year. The 2025 success rate for Ideas grants was 10%, Investigator grants 13%, and Clinical Trials 9%. Australia's total spend on healthcare and technology innovation in medicine and biotech from the Medical Research Endowment Account and Medical Research Future Fund this year will equate to the cost of 0.004 submarines. We're spending more on a single submarine than we'll spend on medical research in 30 years. Medical research matters. A clever country invests in the things that matter.

Finally, good to see some positive development from this FDA. Requiring RCT with survival endpoint for CAR-T regular approval is a very positive step. Also, it continues to baffle me how papers coming out of FDA, NCI, etc can be behind a paywall. Why aren’t all these papers open access? jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/…

Minus eight is a lot warmer than you think

Running tests the resolve a bit in Canada! Here’s me after it has “warmed up” to -5oC.

@Eddie_Cliff @oncology_bg 😂😂😂

@oncology_bg @SamuelXStevens you forgot the one related to spiders 🕷️

I accept this as a valid surrogate endpoint. 😀

‘Shared Decision Making is about what makes sense for THIS patient; it is a method of care; it is NOT an extra thing to do. We need to create the conditions for care to occur in our health systems.’ Fantastic insights by Prof Victor Montori at ⁦@LHSCCanada⁩

The rise of subcutaneous immunotherapy isn’t just about convenience, it’s about patents, pricing strategies, and delayed biosimilars. Can healthcare systems afford years of high prices when IV biosimilars could generate huge savings? Brilliant and provocative viewpoint. @Timothee_MD @DoniaMarco #CancerCare #HealthEconomics #ImmunoOncology thelancet.com/journals/lanon…

New open access paper from @OncologyBGLab ! In this new paper led by my colleague @RamilaShilpakar and my trainee @brianshkabarii , we find that some cancer drugs’ prices in Nepal can vary by up to almost 1000% based on which hospital you go to or which brand you choose! Many drug’s are unavailable and when available, they are unaffordable. The ground reality of #globaloncology ! ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/GO…

My first paper as a single author is out in the European Journal of Cancer! "Identifying informative censoring from censoring patterns across successive follow-ups." Before a longer post on The Oncology Shot, here is a tweetorial. 1/7

Wow! Not one, 2 @JCO_ASCO articles in less than 2 months "defending" adjuvant CDK4/6 inhibitors in patients with early breast cancer! Parlty in response of our works @vkprasadlab Stakes are high, up to 40% of patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer could be eligible. 👉For an alternative perspective on the data, see The Oncology Shot ! (+ more on that topic soon, stay tuned)

#Movember puts men’s health in focus — from mental wellbeing to cancers affecting men. An NHMRC-funded global trial, led by A/Prof Peter Grimison (@sydneyuni), is testing a new chemo schedule to improve outcomes for advanced germ cell tumours, including testicular cancer, in young people. This research aims to boost cure rates and ease side effects for these types of cancers.

7⃣ If you have read this far: please check out supplementary appendix 2 from our paper which summarises stated preferences literature on treatment decision making in advanced cancer and supplementary appendix 3 which focuses on the influence of healthcare contact time.

6️⃣ What’s next 🚀 These insights underpin our discrete-choice experiment (TIME-DCE) — currently running at 10 centres in NSW, Australia. This will quantify the importance of time spent on healthcare vs other factors. Stay tuned for results! 📊 #Oncology #TimeToxicity

5️⃣ Why it matters Current frameworks for “value” rarely account for time spent in healthcare. Our findings highlight the need to further investigate the time spent on care alongside survival & toxicity when discussing benefit vs burden ⚖️