Patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) receiving treatment at academic centers have an increased 2-year survival compared to patients treated at community-based centers, according to findings published by Ramalingam et al in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology. An...
By combining data on individuals’ lifetime sun exposure and their genetics, researchers may be able to generate improved predictions of their risk of skin cancer, according to findings presented by Fontanillas et al at the 2018 American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting (Abstract PgmNr ...
In a phase Ib study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Advani et al found that the combination of rituximab (Rituxan) and the CD47-blocking monoclonal antibody Hu5F9-G4 (or 5F9), a macrophage immune checkpoint inhibitor, was active in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. CD47, which is ...
Arthralgia is a common and debilitating adverse effect experienced by patients with breast cancer who are being treated with aromatase inhibitors, often resulting in poor adherence. And premature treatment discontinuation can negatively impact disease-free and overall breast cancer survival....
Earlier in 2018, nilotinib (Tasigna) was approved for the treatment of pediatric patients aged ≥ 1 year with newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome–positive chronic myeloid leukemia in chronic phase (CML-CP) or Philadelphia chromosome–positive CML-CP resistant or intolerant to prior tyrosine...
The information contained in this Clinical Trials Resource Guide includes actively recruiting clinical studies focused on immunotherapies in lung cancer. These trials are studying combination therapies, radiotherapy plus immunotherapy, cancer vaccines, identifying biomarkers to immunotherapy...
On November 2, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval to lorlatinib (Lorbrena) for patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)–positive metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease has progressed on crizotinib (Xalkori) and at least...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to LOXO-292, a selective RET inhibitor, for the treatment of patients with advanced RET fusion–positive thyroid cancer who require systemic therapy, have had disease progression following...
Neoadjuvant erlotinib (Tarceva) benefits selected patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who undergo complete resection of stage IIIA-N2 disease, according to a randomized study comparing erlotinib with gemcitabine plus cisplatin as...
The combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and low-dose ipilimumab (Yervoy) could become a new first-line treatment in patients with microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H), mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) metastatic colorectal cancer, following results from the CheckMate-142 trial reported ...
The phase I NRG Oncology clinical trial BR001 tested the hypothesis that stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) could be used safely in patients with oligometastatic disease characterized by multiple metastases. Results from the trial indicate that using SBRT is safe as treatment for patients with 2 ...
On October 30, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in combination with carboplatin and either paclitaxel or nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab)-paclitaxel (Abraxane) as first-line treatment of metastatic squamous non–small cell lung...
David Raben, MD, of the University of Colorado, discusses overall survival with durvalumab vs placebo after chemoradiotherapy in stage III non–small cell lung cancer (Abstract LBA10).
Daniel R. Gomez, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the final results of a phase II study on local consolidative therapy, which improved overall survival compared with maintenance therapy and observation in oligometastatic non–small cell lung cancer (Abstract LBA3).
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Maria I. Carlo, MD, of the Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer, and colleagues found a high prevalence of germline mutations in cancer susceptibility genes in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). In this cohort study,...
Radiation therapy for early-stage follicular lymphoma “is underused,” Joanna C. Yang, MD, MPH, and Joachim Yahalom, MD, declared in a recent editorial in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.1 This underuse of radiation therapy can result in overtreatment with systemic therapies or overconfidence in...
Recently, the term “personalized medicine” in oncology care has been overtaken by the more contemporary concept of “precision medicine.” According to the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, the newer terminology shifts the focus to improving...
Tony Mok, MD, of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, discusses two important studies in non–small cell lung cancer: FLAURA, which looked at the first-line activity of osimertinib and the mechanisms of resistance; and ALESIA, which examined crizotinib dosing.
In a phase I study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Strickler et al found evidence of activity of the antibody-drug conjugate telisotuzumab vedotin in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) overexpressing c-Met. The agent combines the anti–c-Met monoclonal antibody...
Arul Chinnaiyan, MD, PhD, of the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, has received an Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) that provides $6.5 million in funding over 7 years. The grant will fund research to create new bioinformatics resources and identify...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms of action, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On April 16, 2018, nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab...
“Patients with follicular lymphoma who relapse early after treatment are a minority of patients, fortunately, but they are clearly patients with a different disease,” according to Jonathon B. Cohen, MD, of Emory University School of Medicine. At Emory’s 2018 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and...
Formal discussant Antoinette Wozniak, MD, of UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, Pittsburgh, said, “KEYNOTE-407 is a very positive trial, showing improved overall and progression-free survival with the addition of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to standard chemotherapy.” In her opinion, evidence from this and...
The addition of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to a standard platinum doublet as first-line therapy improved overall and progression-free survival in patients with metastatic squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), in the primary analysis of KEYNOTE-407.1,2 Furthermore, it did not seem to matter...
Although ROS1-mutated lung cancer accounts for about 1% to 2% of all non–small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs), it is an important druggable oncogene, and new data show that it can be successfully targeted for clinical gain. In a pooled analysis of phase I and II trials in patients with ROS1-positive...
Several lung cancer trials have shown prolonged progression-free survival with checkpoint inhibitor therapy. For the first time, the phase III PACIFIC trial has found an overall survival benefit for the selective programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) checkpoint inhibitor durvalumab (Imfinzi) vs...
The combination of atezolizumab (Tecentriq), a programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor, plus carboplatin or cisplatin and pemetrexed (Alimta) as first-line therapy followed by pemetrexed plus atezolizumab maintenance therapy improved progression-free survival in patients with stage IV...
In an analysis presented by Davidson et al at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2018 Congress (Abstract 619PD_PR), data were pooled from four UK randomized controlled clinical trials of first-line chemotherapy in esophagogastric cancer, finding significant differences in a...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Tuminello et al found that video-assisted thorascopic surgery (VATS) was less likely than open resection to be associated with long-term opioid use in patients undergoing surgery for early-stage lung cancer. Study Details The study...
As reported at the recent International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 19th World Conference on Lung Cancer and in The New England Journal of Medicine by Paz-Ares et al, the phase III KEYNOTE-407 trial has shown that the addition of pembrolizumab to platinum-based chemotherapy...
As reported by Mitchell et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the combination of the oral indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) enzyme inhibitor epacadostat and the anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) therapy pembrolizumab (Keytruda) showed activity in advanced solid tumors in the ...
The cancer burden in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory with a 99% Hispanic population, is substantially different from that of Hispanics in the continental United States, according to Cancer Statistics for Hispanics/Latinos, 2018. The report, published every 3 years, found that men in Puerto Rico...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Amit M. Oza, MD, of the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, and colleagues found that quality of life based on patient-reported outcomes was not worsened with niraparib (Zejula) maintenance vs placebo in the phase III...
CHARLES SWANTON, PhD, FRCP, of The Francis Crick Institute, London, was recognized by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) at the 2018 IASLC World Conference on Lung Cancer with the Paul A. Bunn, Jr, Scientific Award, honoring his lifetime achievements in scientific...
Eight years ago, a survey of the preferences of Dutch patients with cancer for health care found that while gender was one aspect influencing how men and women approach cancer care, it was the most important, with men, generally, regarding most care aspects as less important than women. The study...
ON SEPTEMBER 27, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved dacomitinib tablets (Vizimpro) for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 19 deletion or exon 21 L858R substitution...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Barlesi et al, the phase III JAVELIN Lung 200 trial has shown no overall survival benefit with avelumab (Bavencio) vs docetaxel in patients with platinum pretreated programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1)–positive advanced non–small cell lung cancer...
Patients treated with more invasive surgical techniques for early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are more likely to become chronic opioid users than patients treated with minimally invasive surgery, highlighting the need for additional research into how pain management after surgery ...
The C-C chemokine receptor 4 (CCR4) is predominantly expressed in type 2 helper T (Th2) cells and regulatory T (Treg) cells.1 Under physiologic conditions and in response to its ligands, CCL17 (TARC) and CCL22 (MDC), CCR4 promotes T-cell migration to the skin.2 Of note, CCR4 is highly expressed in...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms of action, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. In April 2018, osimertinib (Tagrisso) was approved for...
Because neuroendocrine tumors are not one disease but a continuum of diseases, ranging from well-differentiated tumors to poorly differentiated and small cell tumors, treatment approaches can vary greatly. At the 2018 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology conference, held on Sea Island,...
The phase III PACIFIC trial showed significantly improved overall survival with durvalumab (Imfinzi) vs placebo after chemoradiotherapy in patients with unresectable stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Scott J. Antonia, MD, of the Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida, reported these...
The Beat AML Master Clinical Trial seeks to change the treatment paradigm and outcomes in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) by personalizing therapy and ultimately facilitating the approval of novel targeted agents. Co-investigator William Blum, MD, of the Winship Cancer Institute at the Emory...
These days it can be hard for physicians. Many in the physician workforce wonder whatever happened to the ideals and expectations that drew them to this noble profession. The genuine passion to heal the sick and infirm and in turn improve the health of the entire society The ability to touch human ...
Thermal ablation is a safe, effective treatment for early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with comparable results to traditional stereotactic radiotherapy, according to a study published by Uhlig et al in the journal Radiology. The results show that ablation may be an effective ...
A recent review of patient-caregiver communities focused on non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with genomic alterations showed that these groups are improving outcomes by supporting patients and caregivers, increasing awareness and education, and accelerating research. Patient advocate Janet...
Women diagnosed with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) live longer than their male counterparts, according to the results of a SWOG study presented by Kathy Albain, MD, the Huizenga Family Endowed Chair in Oncology Research at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, at the...
On September 27, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved dacomitinib tablets (Vizimpro) for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 19 deletion or exon 21 L858R substitution...
In a single-center study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Chooback et al found that central nervous system (CNS) metastases are frequent in patients with EGFR-mutant advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and are associated with increased health resource...
Findings from the IMpower132 trial demonstrate that the use of the programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor atezolizumab in combination with carboplatin plus pemetrexed as first-line therapy and pemetrexed as maintenance therapy improved progression-free survival in patients with stage IV...