2017 ESMO Congress
Metastatic Gastric Cancer: Dual HER2-Targeting Study Does Not Meet Primary Endpoint
Dual HER2 targeting in metastatic gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancers did not significantly improve outcomes over trastuzumab (Herceptin) alone—both in combination with chemotherapy—accordin...
About One in Four Women With Small Breast Tumors May Benefit From Chemotherapy
A large subset analysis of the MINDACT trial suggests that oncologists may be undertreating women with small (< 1 cm) node-negative breast tumors, which are clinically considered to be low risk but...
Pathologic Complete Response Rates Not Improved With Neoadjuvant Letrozole/Palbociclib
As neoadjuvant treatment of women with high-risk luminal breast cancer, the combination of letrozole and palbociclib (Ibrance) did not reduce the residual cancer burden or improve the rates of breast...
First ESMO Award for Immuno-Oncology Presented to Laurence Zitvogel, MD, PhD
The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) has granted the newly established ESMO Award for Immuno-Oncology to Laurence Zitvogel, MD, PhD, for her innovating and internationally recognized achi...
Pembrolizumab Benefits Patients With Recurrent Metastatic Head and Neck Cancer, Mainly High PD-L1–Expressing Tumors
Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) may be a better choice than standard of care for patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, especially those whose tumors express programmed ...
Resectable Pancreatic Cancer: Neoadjuvant or Adjuvant Therapy?
For potentially curable treatment of resectable pancreatic cancer, adjuvant therapy remains the standard “for now,” but evidence is growing that neoadjuvant therapy may be more beneficial, at least in...
International Trials Reveal New Findings in the Management of Breast and Ovarian Cancers
The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress, held in Madrid, featured important news including at least seven practice-changing or potentially practice-changing trials, which are co...
Quick Takes on Studies in Noncolorectal Gastrointestinal Cancers
In this roundup, The ASCO Post offers a glance at key findings from studies in noncolorectal gastrointestinal malignancies presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress f...
Anti–PD-1 Agents Gaining Momentum in Gastric Cancer
In updates of two important studies in metastatic gastric cancer reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress, nivolumab -(Opdivo) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) demonstrat...
In Patients With Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer, Tumor Mutation Load Emerging as Biomarker for Immunotherapy
Tumor mutation burden is emerging as a biomarker for selecting non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients for immunotherapy, according to Naiyer Rizvi, MD, the Price Family Chair of Clinical Translat...
Expert Point of View: Markus Joerger, MD, PhD, and Domenica Lorusso, MD, PhD
PRESS CONFERENCE MODERATOR Markus Joerger, MD, PhD, of St. Gallen Cancer Center, Switzerland, indicated that prior to the current study, it was unclear whether chemotherapy followed by surgery would ...
Standard of Care Upheld for Locally Advanced Cervical Cancer
THE FIRST FORMAL comparison of two acceptable approaches to locally advanced cervical cancer has concluded that standard chemoradiotherapy is preferable to neoadjuvant chemotherapy plus surgery. The ...
Expert Point of View: Alexander Eggermont, MD, PhD
BASED ON THE RESULTS of COMBI-AD1 and CheckMate 238,2 invited discussant Alexander Eggermont, MD, PhD, Professor of Oncology at Gustave Roussy in Paris, commented: “It’s a good day for melanoma!” In...
CheckMate 238: Nivolumab Shows Benefit as Adjuvant Melanoma Treatment
IN THE TREATMENT of malignant melanoma, immune checkpoint inhibitors are no longer just for metastatic disease, and the best type may be agents targeting the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), ac...
Adjuvant BRAF/MEK Inhibition Improves Survival in Resectable Melanoma
FOR PATIENTS with locally advanced, resectable melanoma harboring BRAF mutations, adjuvant treatment with BRAF/ MEK inhibition significantly improves overall survival, results of the COMBI-AD trial ha...
Expert Point of View: Luis Paz-Ares, MD
FORMAL DISCUSSANT of the ALEX and ALUR trials, Luis Paz-Ares, MD, Professor of Medicine at the Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid, said that the ALEX trial is “good news” for patients. “Imp...
Alectinib Yields Favorable Results in Phase III Trials of ALK-Positive NSCLC
RESULTS OF TWO separate phase III trials confirm the activity of alectinib (Alecensa) in the central nervous system (CNS) in patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive non–small cell lung...
Expert Point of View: Stéphane Oudard, MD
DURING A DISCUSSION of Dr. Vale’s poster, Stéphane Oudard, MD, Professor of Oncology and Chief of the Oncology Clinical and Translational Research Unit at Georges Pompidou Hospital in Paris, France, ...
Expert Point of View: Cora Sternberg, MD
FORMAL DISCUSSANT of the STAMPEDE trial, Cora Sternberg, MD, Chief of the Department of Medical Oncology, San Camillo Forlanini Hospital, Rome, commended the study design. “This multiarm, multistage ...
Abiraterone or Docetaxel: Which Is Optimal for Hormone-Sensitive High-Risk Prostate Cancer?
ABIRATERONE ACETATE (Zytiga) plus prednisone and docetaxel have moved up from the castrate-resistant metastatic setting to earlier in the course of disease as treatment of high-risk hormone-sensitive ...
Expert Point of View: Yohann Loriot, MD, PhD
FORMAL DISCUSSANT of the RANGE trial at the ESMO 2017 Congress, Yohann Loriot, MD, PhD, of the Institut Gustave Roussy and University of Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, Paris, said that although the study m...
Positive Early Data on Second-Line Ramucirumab/Docetaxel in Platinum-Refractory Advanced Urothelial Cancer
RAMUCIRUMAB (CYRAMZA) added to docetaxel improved progression-free survival and almost doubled the overall response rate compared with docetaxel alone in patients with advanced or metastatic urotheli...
Expert Point of View: Maria De Santis, MD
THE 2017 EUROPEAN SOCIETY for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress spokesperson Maria De Santis, MD, of the University of Warwick, Coventry, and Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Cancer Center, in Birmingham, UK...
Second-Line Pembrolizumab Extends Survival in Urothelial Cancer
PEMBROLIZUMAB (KEYTRUDA) extended survival by about 3 months in patients with advanced urothelial cancer whose disease progressed on platinum-based chemotherapy vs investigator’s choice of therapy, a...
Expert Point of View: Nadia Harbeck, MD, PhD, and Sibylle Loibl, MD
NADIA HARBECK, MD, PhD, of the Breast Center at the University of Munich, Germany, said the findings of LORELEI are among a growing list of indications that “the future is bright for endocrine-based ...
Selective PI3K Inhibitor Boosts Effect of Letrozole in Neoadjuvant Setting
FOR THE first time, an inhibitor of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway (taselisib) used in combination with endocrine therapy in the neoadjuvant setting improved response rates over endocri...
Expert Point of View: Sandro Pignata, MD
FORMAL DISCUSSANT of ARIEL3, Sandro Pignata, MD, of the IRCCS National Cancer Institute, “Fondazione G. Pascale,” Naples, Italy, said: “This is new evidence for maintenance therapy with rucaparib [Ru...
Strong Showing for Rucaparib Maintenance Therapy for Platinum-Sensitive Ovarian Cancer
EVIDENCE CONTINUES to mount for the benefits of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibition in ovarian cancer. Rucaparib (Rubraca) maintenance therapy after response to platinum-containing therapy ...
Expert Point of View: Paul Baas, MD, PhD
INVITED DISCUSSANT Paul Baas, MD, PhD, of The Netherlands Cancer Institute, called the MAPS2 trial an “excellent example of how studies in mesothelioma should be run.” As Dr. Baas pointed out, both ...
Relapsed Mesothelioma Controlled by Checkpoint Inhibition
IN PATIENTS with malignant pleural mesothelioma, combination immunotherapy with two checkpoint inhibitors in the second or third line of treatment extended survival to at least 15 months in the MAPS2...
‘Clinically Meaningful’ Results With First-Line Osimertinib in EGFR–Positive NSCLC
OSIMERTINIB (TAGRISSO) showed encouraging results as first-line therapy for patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)–mutated non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the phase III FLAURA tr...
Expert Point of View: Tony Mok, MD, FASCO
“IN 2008, I presented the IPASS results. FLAURA has beaten me to the ground. The results exceeded expectations, and FLAURA is undoubtedly a positive study,” stated formal discussant Professor Tony Mo...
‘Clinically Meaningful’ Results With First-Line Osimertinib in EGFR–Positive NSCLC
OSIMERTINIB (TAGRISSO) showed encouraging results as first-line therapy for patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)–mutated non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the phase III FLAURA tr...
Expert Point of View: Manuela Schmidinger, MD
FORMAL DISCUSSANT, Manuela Schmidinger, MD, of the Medical University of Austria, Vienna, commented on the CheckMate 214 findings. “We have just seen a change in the paradigm in the treatment of meta...
Nivolumab Plus Ipilimumab vs Sunitinib Alone as First-Line Therapy for Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma
A CHANGE IN PARADIGM may be on the horizon for the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma. According to the results of CheckMate 214, the combination of ipilimumab (Yervoy) plus nivolumab (Opdi...
Expert Point of View: Nicholas Turner, MD
NICHOLAS TURNER, MD, of The Royal Marsden and the Institute of Cancer Research in the UK, called the findings of MONARCH 3 “practice-changing.” The cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK4/6) inhibitors hav...
Abemaciclib Plus Endocrine Therapy Extends Progression-Free Survival in First-Line Therapy for Advanced Breast Cancer
THE VALUE OF cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK4/6) inhibitors in advanced breast cancer became ever more certain with the announcement of interim data from MONARCH 3, which evaluated abemaciclib in co...
Expert Point of View: Johan Vansteenkiste, MD, PhD
FORMAL DISCUSSANT of this trial, Johan Vansteenkiste, MD, PhD, Head of the Respiratory Oncology Unit at the University Hospital KU Leuven, Belgium, was enthusiastic about the PACIFIC trial results. “...
PD-L1 Inhibitor Consolidation Therapy for NSCLC: New Standard of Care?
THE PROGRAMMED CELL DEATH ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor durvalumab (Imfinzi) improved progression-free survival by 11.2 months compared with placebo in patients with locally advanced, unresectable stage...
Expert Point of View: Reinhard Dummer, MD, and Jeffrey Weber, MD, PhD
ASSUMING THE regimens evaluated in COMBI-AD and CheckMate 238 are both approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of high-risk resected melanoma, clinicians may be faced wit...
Significant Improvement in Outcomes Reported With Adjuvant Therapy for Melanoma
FOR PATIENTS with malignant melanoma, the significant improvement in outcomes with targeted agents and antibodies against the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) has now been observed in the adjuva...
ESMO 2017: KEYNOTE-045: Updated Results Support Pembrolizumab as Second-Line Treatment in Advanced Urothelial Cancer
Mature results from the KEYNOTE-045 trial presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract LBA37_PR) confirmed significantly longer survival in patients ...
ESMO 2017: 'Triggers': A New Tool to Assess Patients’ Palliative Needs
A new tool to identify patients who would benefit from early palliative care was presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract LBA54_PR). The so-call...
ESMO 2017: Patients Struggle With Key Aspects of Clinical Trial Methodology
Clinical trials are fundamental to the development of new treatments for cancer, yet the annual accrual to cancer clinical trials worldwide is low, estimated at 3%–5%. A nationwide study in Irel...
ESMO 2017: KEYNOTE-040 Evaluates Pembrolizumab in Head and Neck Cancer
Immunotherapy with the checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) may be a better option than standard treatments for patients whose head and neck cancer has spread or recurred after an initial rou...
ESMO 2017: Abdominal to Peripheral Fat Ratio May Predict Risk of Cancer Diagnosis in Postmenopausal Women
Body fat distribution in the trunk is more influential than body weight when it comes to cancer risk in postmenopausal women, according to a study presented at the European Society for Medical Oncolog...
ESMO 2017: MONARCH 3: Abemaciclib as Initial Therapy Improves Outcome in Endocrine-Sensitive Advanced Breast Cancer
The results of the MONARCH 3 trial, presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract 236O_PR), showed that adding the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 i...
ESMO 2017: NOR-CAYACS Trial: Factors That May Limit Work Ability of Young Adult Cancer Survivors
Factors that may limit the ability of young adult cancer survivors to work were reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract 1110PD_PR). Late side ef...
ESMO 2017: Study Confirms Chemoradiation Is Best Treatment for Locally Advanced Cervical Cancer
A 14-year randomized trial in more than 600 patients has concluded that chemoradiation should remain the standard treatment for patients with locally advanced cervical cancer. The findings were report...
ESMO 2017: Patients May Feel Psychosocial Impact of Chemotherapy More Acutely Than Physical Side Effects
The preliminary results of a study presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid show that sociopsychological factors have become more significant for patients ...
