THE COMBINATION of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) plus venetoclax (Venclexta) achieved favorable responses in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), according to initial results of the phase II CLARITY trial presented at the 2017 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual ...
COMMENTING ON the ALCYONE trial for The ASCO Post, Keith Stewart, MB, ChB, the Carlson and Nelson Endowed Director of the Center for Individualized Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, said, “Daratumumab added to a combination of drugs that we don’t use much anymore in the United...
FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED multiple myeloma patients not eligible for transplant, the addition of the anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody daratumumab (Darzalex) to subcutaneous bortezomib (Velcade), melphalan, and prednisone (VMP) reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 50%, the phase III ALCYONE...
IN THE PHASE III BFORE trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Jorge E. Cortes, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues, the SRC/ABL kinase inhibitor bosutinib (Bosulif) improved response rates vs imatinib in the first-line treatment of patients with...
POSITIVE DATA about chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in lymphoma continue to accrue. Long-term follow-up of the pivotal ZUMA-1 trial shows that patients with refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) continue to have durable responses to the CD19-directed CAR T-cell therapy...
THE UNIVERSITY of Edinburgh Medical School was established in 1726 during the Scottish Enlightenment. As one of the oldest medical schools in the English-speaking world, it is interesting to reflect on the seminal contributions made centuries ago by several alumni that are still relevant to the...
On December 19, the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) released a Draft Evidence Report assessing the comparative clinical effectiveness and value of tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) and axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta). The draft report, along with draft voting...
On December 20, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted regular approval to the anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) monoclonal antibody nivolumab (Opdivo) for the adjuvant treatment of patients with melanoma with involvement of lymph nodes, or in patients with...
On December 20, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted regular approval to pertuzumab (Perjeta) for use in combination with trastuzumab (Herceptin) and chemotherapy as adjuvant treatment of patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer at high risk of recurrence. APHINITY...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Jeanne Carter, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues, ASCO has issued a clinical practice guideline adaptation of the Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) guideline on interventions to address sexual problems in people with cancer....
A phase II study (ACE-LY-004) reported in The Lancet by Wang et al showed durable responses with the Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor acalabrutinib (Calquence) in patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma. The study supported the recent approval of acalabrutinib in this setting....
On December 19, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted regular approval to cabozantinib (Cabometyx) for treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The FDA previously approved cabozantinib in 2016 for treatment of patients with advanced RCC who have received...
On December 19, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to bosutinib (Bosulif) for treatment of patients with newly diagnosed chronic-phase Philadelphia chromosome–positive chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). BFORE Trial Approval was based on data from ...
A study using California Cancer Registry data showed that survival improvements in patients with cancer between 1997 and 2014 have largely been limited to those with private or Medicare insurance. These findings were reported in JAMA Oncology by Libby et al. Study Details The study involved...
In the Asian phase III TERRA trial, trifluridine/tipiracil (Lonsurf) produced a significant improvement in overall survival vs placebo among patients with metastatic colorectal cancer refractory or intolerant of standard chemotherapies with or without exposure to biologic therapies. These findings...
On December 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for the use of osimertinib (Tagrisso)—a third-generation, irreversible epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor with clinical activity against central...
Howard A. “Skip” Burris III, MD, FACP, FASCO, a long-time member and volunteer, has been elected to serve as the President of ASCO for the term beginning in June 2019. He will take office as President-Elect during the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago in June 2018. Additionally, five...
The Federal Communications Commission’s Connect2Health Task Force (C2HFCC) has announced that the FCC and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have joined forces, signing a memorandum of understanding that will focus on how increasing broadband access and adoption in rural areas can improve...
In a study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Bickell et al found underuse of treatment for clinically significant prostate cancer was infrequent among white and black patients at two New York City hospitals, but black men accounted for nearly all such underuse of treatment. As noted by...
As reported at the recent American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting & Exposition and in The New England Journal of Medicine, Schuster et al found that chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy produced responses in a high proportion of patients with B-cell lymphomas refractory to or...
The phase III KEYNOTE-061 trial investigating pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as a second-line treatment for patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma did not meet its primary endpoint of overall survival (OS) (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.82, 95% confidence interval [CI] = ...
The American Medical Association (AMA) is reminding physicians that the Medicare reimbursement system has changed, and, if they have not done so already, they have until December 31, 2017, to take a few simple steps to avoid a Medicare payment penalty in 2019. The changes are part of the...
On December 6, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) delivered a letter from the current AACR President and Past Presidents—as well as Fellows of the AACR Academy that include 18 Nobel Laureates—to urge leaders in the House and Senate to “move quickly to finalize a...
On December 5, Clovis Oncology announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for rucaparib (Rubraca) and granted Priority Review status to the application, with a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) date of April 6, 2018. In...
At the Special Conference on Pediatric Cancer Research, convened in Atlanta by the American Association for Cancer Research, investigators announced updated clinical data from the larotrectinib (LOXO-101) pediatric phase I SCOUT trial. Bayer and Loxo Oncology are jointly developing larotrectinib,...
A Norwegian population–based cohort study indicated that the use of warfarin was associated with a reduced risk of cancer overall and site-specific cancers among patients aged > 50 years. The findings were reported in JAMA Internal Medicine by Haaland et al. As noted by the investigators,...
Ulixertinib (BVD-523) is an ERK1/2 kinase inhibitor with potent preclinical activity in BRAF- and RAS-mutant cell lines. Now, a multicenter phase I study investigating its safety and efficacy in the treatment of patients with advanced solid tumors has found that ulixertinib to have an acceptable...
On December 13, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted a supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for priority review of nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) to treat intermediate- and poor-risk patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma. The FDA also previously...
At the 59th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, Wang et al presented results from the open-label, single-arm phase II ACE-LY-004 clinical trial, which served as the basis for the recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accelerated approval of acalabrutinib...
At the 59th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, Hunger et al presented data from the phase II CA180-372 study in pediatric patients with newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome–positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treated with dasatinib (Sprycel) added ...
Updated results from the phase III ALCANZA clinical trial evaluating brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) in CD30-expressing cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) were presented by Horwitz et al at the 59th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 1509). The presentation...
In a study in the PETACC-8 trial population reported in JAMA Oncology, Taieb et al found that the risk of recurrence in patients with stage III colon cancer differed for the primary tumor location according to RAS- and BRAF-mutation status. Study Details A total of 2,559 patients were...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Patel et al, the anti–programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) antibody avelumab (Bavencio) produced durable responses in patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma after failure of platinum-based therapy in two expansion cohorts of...
People with cancer face an increased risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE). Under current guidelines, cancer patients who develop VTE are prescribed low–molecular-weight heparin, an anticoagulant that must be injected under the skin daily for several months. While effective, this regimen can...
In a phase III trial, patients with acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP), a rare blood clotting disorder, who received the investigational drug caplacizumab showed significant improvements in the time it took to normalization of their platelet count compared to those receiving a...
Results from a phase II clinical trial presented by Kean et al at the 59th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting (Abstract 212) show that the drug abatacept (Orencia) nearly eliminated life-threatening severe acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in patients receiving hematopoietic...
A study using National Cancer Database data has shown that the number of metastatic nodes is a primary independent factor associated with an increased mortality risk in patients with hypopharyngeal and laryngeal cancers. The study was reported in JAMA Oncology by Ho et al. Study Details The study ...
An analysis from the Children’s Oncology Group Study AREN0532 reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Fernandez et al showed that positive lymph nodes and loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at chromosome 1p or 16q are associated with poorer event-free survival in patients with stage III...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Mørch et al, a Danish study has shown that the risk of breast cancer is increased in hormonal contraception users vs nonusers, with the absolute increase in risk being small. Study Details The study assessed the association between the...
In the phase III MURANO trial, treatment with the targeted cancer drug venetoclax (Venclexta) in combination with rituximab (Rituxan) more than doubled the likelihood that patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) would survive for 2 years without cancer progression, compared to treatment...
The first randomized trial to evaluate the use of a monoclonal antibody for treating newly diagnosed multiple myeloma showed that adding the drug daratumumab (Darzalex) to one of the standard treatment regimens reduced the likelihood of disease progression or death by 50%. The regimen also induced...
In the first comprehensive analysis of clinical trial enrollment among older adults with blood cancers, researchers from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found significant gaps in participation among those aged 75 and older when considered against the incidence of these malignancies in...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Spratt et al have developed an integrated clinical-genomic risk classifier for predicting distant metastasis in patients with localized prostate cancer. The classifier uses National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN) risk categories and risk...
In a study using Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data reported in JAMA Oncology, Murphy et al found that among persons newly diagnosed with cancer, 25% of those aged ≥ 65 years and 11% of those aged < 65 years had a history of a prior primary cancer. Prevalence of Prior...
The phase III BELLE-3 trial has shown prolonged progression-free survival but a worse safety profile with the addition of the pan-phosphoinositide 3-kinase inhibitor buparlisib to fulvestrant (Faslodex) in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced breast...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jabbar et al found that mass spectroscopy proteomic analysis of the pancreatic cyst fluid biomarkers mucin-5AC (MUC5AC), mucin-2 (MUC2), and prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA) identified cystic pancreatic cancers and precursor lesions with...
Joseph M. Connors, MD, of the British Columbia Cancer Agency, discusses study findings on a new front-line option: brentuximab vedotin plus doxorubicin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine in patients with previously untreated stage III or IV Hodgkin lymphoma (Abstract 6).
Gilles A. Salles, MD, PhD, of the Université de Lyon, discusses study findings on rituximab maintenance after induction immunochemotherapy and the significant long-term progression-free survival benefit over observation (Abstract 486).
Andrew M. Evens, DO, of Tufts University, discusses findings on the effectiveness of DLBCL-based therapy for patients whose disease fell between diffuse large B-cell and classical Hodgkin lymphoma (Abstract 375).
According to research by the American Cancer Society, lung cancer is the second most common cancer in men and women in the United States and is the leading cause of cancer-related death. In addition, among all populations, African Americans tend to have the highest lung cancer incidence and...