Adjuvant pembrolizumab reduced the risk of recurrence in adults and children older than age 12 with high-risk stage II (AJCC 8th edition, stage IIB/IIC) melanoma vs placebo, according to a late-breaking interim analysis of the phase III KEYNOTE-716 trial, presented during the European Society for...
“The standard of care [in advanced cervical cancer] has been the addition of bevacizumab to platinum-based chemotherapy since 2014. Even with the addition of bevacizumab, we still need to do better. There is a substantial unmet need for new therapies,” said invited discussant Mansoor Raza Mirza,...
The addition of pembrolizumab to chemotherapy prolonged survival in recurrent, persistent, or metastatic cervical cancer, according to the results of the first interim analysis of the KEYNOTE-826 trial, presented at a Presidential Symposium during the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)...
As ASCO Annual Meeting attendees know by now, clinicians don’t have to be at McCormick Place to hear practice-changing findings and forward-looking advances in the field of oncology. Interesting content was no exception at the 2021 conference, so in addition to covering the biggest news from the...
Adjuvant pembrolizumab reduced the risk of disease recurrence in adults and children aged 12 years and older with high-risk stage II melanoma vs placebo, according to a late-breaking interim analysis of the phase III KEYNOTE-716 trial presented by Jason J. Luke, MD, and colleagues at the European...
The addition of pembrolizumab to chemotherapy prolonged survival in recurrent, persistent, or metastatic cervical cancer, according to results of the KEYNOTE-826 study presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2021 by Nicoletta Colombo, MD, and colleagues (Abstract...
New details about patients with cancer who have been infected with COVID-19 have emerged from the large observational OnCOVID study. According to data presented by Alessio Cortellini, MD, and colleagues at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2021 (Abstract 1560O_PR),...
Invited study discussant Jacqueline C. Barrientos, MD, MS, of Northwell Health Cancer Institute, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Great Neck, New York, commented: “The BTK [Bruton’s tyrosine kinase] inhibitors ibrutinib and acalabrutinib, along with the BCL2 inhibitor venetoclax, are ...
Acalabrutinib was equally efficacious with less toxicity when compared directly with ibrutinib in patients with previously treated relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), according to the results of an open-label, randomized, noninferiority phase III trial presented at the 2021...
An updated analysis of the PALOMA-3 randomized, placebo-controlled trial demonstrated continued superiority for the combination of palbociclib (CDK4/6 inhibitor) plus fulvestrant over fulvestrant plus placebo in women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer whose...
Invited discussant Guru Subramanian Guru Murthy, MD, MS, of the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, commented on the study of aspacytarabine in the first-line therapy for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) unfit for standard chemotherapy. “This study elegantly highlights there is still ...
Aspacytarabine, a cytarabine prodrug, was reported to be safe and effective as first-line therapy for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who were unfit for intensive induction chemotherapy, according to the results of a phase II study presented during the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 The...
Invited study discussant Lisa Horvath, PhD, MBBS, a medical oncologist at Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, University of Sydney, Australia, commented on the results of the EORTC 1333/PEACE III trial: “It was good to see the fracture rate in the radium-223 arm did, in fact, improve. However, what I found...
Prostate cancer experts have often stated it is important to add a bone-protecting agent for patients on treatment for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Recent evidence in support of this recommendation comes from a study presented during the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting, confirming a...
Invited study discussant Jaishri O. Blakeley, MD, Director of the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Neurofibromatosis Center, Baltimore, changed the title of her talk to “Finding Needles in Haystacks,” “because this is what we do with CNS [central nervous system] tumors,” she told listeners. “ALK...
Targeting mutations appears to be bearing fruit in the treatment of some difficult-to-treat tumors. For instance, in one study of adult-onset neuroblastoma, targeting ALK mutations in ALK-positive tumors demonstrated activity, even in patients who had not responded to their first ALK inhibitor. Of...
Invited discussant of the VISION trial, Mary-Ellen Taplin, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, commented on the study, noting that she was a co-investigator of the trial. “Patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer have a number of treatment options. There are 10...
Lutetium-177–PSMA-617 (LuPSMA)—an investigational radiolabeled small molecule—significantly improved radiographic progression-free survival and overall survival when added to the standard of care compared with the standard of care alone for men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer...
Invited discussant Nicolas Girard, MD, PhD, of the Curie Institute, Paris, said, “A major challenge in NSCLC is what happens when osimertinib resistance develops.” “A key takeaway point from this study is that the efficacy is driven by resistance mechanism. The overall response rate was 47% in the ...
Combination targeting of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) with amivantamab/lazertinib achieved durable responses in more than one-third of chemotherapy-naive patients with EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that had progressed on osimertinib, according to a cohort analysis of the ...
The invited discussant of the phase I trial of lisaftoclax (APG-2575), Jacqueline C. Barrientos, MD, of Hofstra/Northwell, Great Neck, New York, commented on the positive findings: “The 15 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia [CLL] had an objective response rate of 80% and a median time to...
The novel, selective BCL2 inhibitor lisaftoclax (APG-2575) has shown activity in the treatment of relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in a phase I study reported at the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 Preliminary data suggest that lisaftoclax stands out for its favorable safety...
Invited discussant Jacqueline C. Barrientos, MD, MS, of Northwell Health Cancer Institute, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell in Great Neck, New York, noted that, although both ibrutinib and venetoclax have shown superior results to chemotherapy, each drug is associated with toxicity....
The combination of fixed-duration, first-line treatment with ibrutinib plus venetoclax achieved complete responses in more than half of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)/small lymphocytic leukemia (SLL), based on the primary analysis of the fixed-dose cohort of the phase II CAPTIVATE ...
Invited discussant of the KEYNOTE-564 trial, Rana R. McKay, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Urology at the University of California San Diego, offered these comments about these trial results. “This is a positive study, showing a 32% reduction in the risk of recurrence or death with...
Adjuvant pembrolizumab following surgery significantly improved disease-free survival compared with placebo among patients with high-risk clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC), according to the international phase III KEYNOTE-564 study presented at the Plenary session during the 2021 ASCO Annual...
Mark G. Kris, MD, FASCO, Chief of the Thoracic Oncology Service and the William and Joy Ruane Chair in Thoracic Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, commented on the excitement in the field of lung cancer about the new drugs targeting KRAS. Sotorasib is one of several new...
The breakthrough KRAS-specific inhibitor sotorasib achieved responses in patients with KRAS G12C–mutated non–small lung cancer (NSCLC) who had experienced disease progression on platinum-based chemotherapy, immunotherapy, or both treatments. The objective response rate was 37.1%, and responses...
Formal discussant of OlympiA, Nadine M. Tung, MD, Director of Breast Medical Oncology and the Cancer Genetics and Prevention Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, was enthusiastic about the ability of olaparib to improve invasive disease–free survival and...
Adjuvant therapy with the PARP inhibitor olaparib for 1 year extended disease-free survival in patients with high-risk early-stage HER2-negative breast cancer with BRCA1/2 germline (inherited) mutations, according to a prespecified interim analysis of the phase III OlympiA trial presented at the...
Atezolizumab given after chemotherapy to patients with resected stage II to IIIA non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) significantly improved disease-free survival compared with best supportive care alone in patients whose tumors expressed PD-L1.1 These results of the global phase III IMpower010 trial ...
Invited discussant Christine Lovly, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Ingram Associate Professor of Cancer Research, Vanderbilt University Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, discussed progress in targeted therapies for NSCLC. “We have a tremendous amount of knowledge about driver mutations in ...
Even though next-generation sequencing is recommended by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) for biomarker testing for patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the uptake among community oncology practices is suboptimal, and the uptake is even lower among Black patients with...
Immunotherapy following surgery significantly improved disease-free survival compared to placebo among patients with high-risk clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC), according to results from the international phase III KEYNOTE-564 study presented at the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting by Toni K....
Lutetium-177–PSMA-617 (Lu-177–PSMA-617)—an investigational radioligand therapy—significantly improved radiographic progression-free survival and overall survival when added to standard of care compared with standard of care alone for men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer whose...
One year of adjuvant therapy with the PARP inhibitor olaparib extended disease-free survival in patients with high-risk, early-stage, HER2-negative breast cancer with BRCA1/2 germline mutations, according to a prespecified interim analysis of the phase III OlympiA trial presented by Andrew Tutt, MB ...
In 1996, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) published its first set of Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology®, covering eight tumor types. Guidelines are now published for more than 60 tumor types and topics. During the NCCN’s 26th Annual Conference, which was held virtually...
“This study is interesting, and the results were a little surprising,” said Patrick Y. Wen, MD, Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Center for Neuro-Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. “The prognosis of these tumors in children and adolescents is so terrible...
Treatment with genetically engineered oncolytic herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) G207 alone or with radiation resulted in encouraging outcomes in a small study of pediatric patients with high-grade glioma. In a phase I trial, responses were observed in 11 of 12 children, and median overall...
Formal discussant of the -LIBRETTO-001 trial, Ezra E.W. Cohen, MD, Associate Director for Translational Science and Leader of the Solid Tumor Therapeutics Research Program at the Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health, was encouraged by this trial and said that detection of genetic...
The selective RET inhibitor selpercatinib is now approved for RET fusion–positive lung and thyroid cancers. New evidence presented at the virtual edition of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2021 shows that selpercatinib is active against other RET fusion–positive...
Formal discussant Stefania Scala, MD, of the Istituto Nazionale Tumori IRCCS Fondazione Pascale, Naples, was impressed by the findings of KEYNOTE-629. “The second interim analysis for the locally advanced disease cohort and updated data for the recurrent/metastatic disease cohort of KEYNOTE-629 had ...
Single-agent pembrolizumab achieved durable responses and promising survival in patients with locally advanced or recurrent/metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, according to the second interim analysis of the phase II KEYNOTE-629 study, which was presented at the virtual American...
The combination of dabrafenib plus trametinib led to encouraging and durable responses in patients with low- and high-grade gliomas harboring BRAF V600E mutations, according to the results of the phase II basket study known as ROAR. Results were presented during the virtual edition of the American...
Formal discussant of CheckMate 915, Alexander Eggermont, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology, Utrecht, Netherlands, suggested that the lower doses of ipilimumab used in the current study may explain the lack of effect on relapse-free survival. The...
The addition of ipilimumab to nivolumab failed to improve outcomes compared with nivolumab alone as adjuvant therapy for resected melanoma, according to the results of the CheckMate 915 trial, presented at the virtual edition of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting...
“With current therapies, the median survival for people with follicular lymphoma [FL] is about 20 years. Most people with FL will live as long as the general population, as it is a disease of morbidity more than mortality. That said, there is still room for improvement,” said formal CHRONOS-3...
The combination of the PI3K inhibitor copanlisib plus the monoclonal antibody rituximab reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 48% compared with placebo plus rituximab in patients with relapsed indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), according to the results of the phase III CHRONOS-3...
This is the first randomized trial that is positive for overall survival in uveal melanoma, and I’m very excited about the results, which I consider seminal and practice-changing,” said formal discussant Caroline Robert, MD, of Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France. “This is such a rare tumor, but it...
Treatment with tebentafusp—a novel bispecific fusion protein—reduced the risk of death from metastatic uveal melanoma by half, compared with available treatments, in a phase III study presented at the virtual American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2021.1 This is the first...