As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Goetz et al, an interim analysis in the phase III MONARCH 3 trial has shown a significant progression-free survival benefit with the addition of the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitor abemaciclib (Verzenio) to a nonsteroidal aromatase...
A Swedish population-based observational study has shown that comorbidity is a significant factor in other-cause but not prostate cancer–specific mortality after adjustment for patient, tumor, and treatment factors among men with prostate cancer. The findings were reported in the Journal of...
In a Japanese analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Haratani et al found that development of immune-related adverse events was associated with improved survival among patients receiving nivolumab (Opdivo) for advanced or recurrent non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Study Details The study...
ON JULY 31, 2017, nivolumab (Opdivo) was granted accelerated approval for treatment of patients 12 years and older with DNA mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) and microsatellite instability– high (MSI-H) metastatic colorectal cancer progressing following treatment with a fluoropyrimidine,...
THE PHASE II CHECKMATE 142 TRIAL has shown that nivolumab (Opdivo) produces durable responses in previously treated recurrent or metastatic DNA mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR)/ microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) colorectal cancer. These study findings were reported in The Lancet Oncology...
THE PHASE III MSLT- II TRIAL showed that completion dissection was not associated with improved melanoma-specific overall survival vs observation in patients with sentinel-node metastasis, although a benefit was observed in regional disease control. The findings were reported in The New England...
In a study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Barbera et al found that a province-wide effort to improve symptom screening and management has increased the frequency of screening but has not improved opioid prescription rates in elderly cancer patients with severe pain. A previous study...
In the phase III SIMPLIFY-1 noninferiority trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mesa et al found that the selective Janus kinase (JAK) 1 and 2 inhibitor momelotinib was noninferior to ruxolitinib (Jakafi) in spleen response, but not symptom response, in JAK inhibitor–naive...
In a single-center study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, El-Jawahri et al found that inpatient palliative care during hematopoietic stem cell transplantation was associated with improvement in depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms at 6 months after...
The phase III ARCHER 1050 trial has shown superior progression-free survival with the second-generation irreversible epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor dacomitinib vs gefitinib (Iressa) in the first-line treatment of advanced EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung...
In a single-institution phase II trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Iyengar et al found that consolidative stereotactic ablative radiotherapy improved progression-free survival vs maintenance therapy alone in patients with limited metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Study Details...
As reported in JAMA by Giuliano et al, 10-year overall survival in the ACOSOG Z0011 (Alliance) trial with sentinel lymph node dissection (SLND) alone was noninferior to that with axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) in women with clinical T1 or T2 invasive breast cancer, no palpable axillary...
The phase III NRG Oncology RTOG 0436 trial has shown no survival benefit of adding cetuximab (Erbitux) to paclitaxel/cisplatin and radiation therapy in patients with esophageal cancer treated without surgery. These results were reported by Mohan Suntharalingam, MD, MBA, of the Marlene and Stewart...
In a retrospective study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sznol et al have provided a pooled safety profile of combination nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) treatment in patients with advanced melanoma. Study Details The study included data from 448 patients from a phase Ib...
The phase III RILOMET-1 trial showed no survival benefit of adding the MET inhibitor rilotumumab to first-line epirubicin, cisplatin, and capecitabine in patients with advanced MET-positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. These results were reported in The Lancet Oncology by...
A systematic review and meta-analysis has found no association between vasectomy and high-grade, advanced, or fatal prostate cancer but a weak association with any prostate cancer. These findings were reported in JAMA Oncology by Bimal Bhindi et al. R. Jeffrey Karnes, MD, of the Mayo Clinic,...
The phase III Checkmate 238 trial has shown improved recurrence-free survival with adjuvant nivolumab (Opdivo) vs ipilimumab (Yervoy) in patients with resected advanced melanoma. The findings were reported by Jeffrey Weber and colleagues in The New England Journal of Medicine. Study Details In the ...
Health-care systems use performance measures for cervical cancer screening based on guidelines from such organizations as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to monitor the appropriateness of cervical cancer screening. According to the performance measure in the Healthcare...
As reported in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology by Tim Meyer, MBBS, of the University College London, and colleagues, the UK phase III TACE 2 trial has shown no progression-free survival benefit with the addition of sorafenib (Nexavar) to transarterial chemoembolization in patients...
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 May 9, 2017, avelumab (Bavencio) was granted...
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 May 1, 2017, durvalumab (Imfinzi) was granted...
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 June 22, 2017, the combination of rituximab (Rituxan)...
A study using linked Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results–Medicare data has shown a significantly increased risk of all-cause mortality and a nonsignificantly increased risk of breast cancer–specific mortality in elderly breast cancer patients with preexisting severe mental...
Jemal et al found decreases in the percentage of uninsured patients and trends toward earlier diagnosis among nonelderly patients with cancer after implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Their findings were reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Study Details The study used...
In a phase II trial, the combination of dabrafenib (Tafinlar) plus trametinib (Mekinist) produced durable responses in a cohort of patients with previously untreated BRAF V600E–mutant metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The findings were reported in The Lancet Oncology by...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Motzer et al, the phase III PROTECT trial showed no significant disease-free survival benefit for adjuvant pazopanib at 600 mg vs placebo after nephrectomy in patients with localized or locally advanced renal cell carcinoma at high risk of relapse. ...
In a report from the St Jude Lifetime Cohort Study published in The Lancet, Bhakta et al detailed the burden of lifetime chronic health conditions in survivors of childhood cancers. The report included retrospectively collected data on chronic health conditions in 5,522 patients treated for...
An Australian phase I first-in-human trial has shown early activity of microRNA-loaded minicells in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. These findings were reported in The Lancet Oncology by van Zandwijk et al. The minicells (TargomiRs) are loaded with miR-16–based mimic microRNA...
The phase III MONET-A trial has shown that the addition of the multikinase/vascular endothelial growth factor receptor inhibitor motesanib to paclitaxel and carboplatin did not significantly improve progression-free survival in East Asian patients with stage IV/recurrent nonsquamous non–small ...
The phase III COMBI-AD trial has shown a significant improvement in relapse-free survival with the combination of the BRAF inhibitor dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and the MEK inhibitor trametinib (Mekinist) vs placebo as adjuvant therapy in patients with resected stage III melanoma with BRAF V600E or V600K ...
In a Children’s Oncology Group (COG) study (AALL06N1) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hardy et al found that age < 10 years at diagnosis was associated with poorer neurocognitive function in patients with high-risk B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) regardless of...
In a phase III trial (Cancer and Leukemia Group B 10603 [RATIFY]/Alliance) reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Stone et al found that the addition of midostaurin (Rydapt) to standard chemotherapy improved overall survival in patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML)...
A comparative analysis of outcomes with two different trastuzumab (Herceptin)-based adjuvant regimens in older women with early HER2-positive breast cancer found little difference in safety and efficacy between treatments. The study was reported by Katherine E. Reeder-Hayes, MD, MBA, of the...
The phase III Checkmate 238 trial has shown improved recurrence-free survival with adjuvant nivolumab (Opdivo) vs ipilimumab (Yervoy) in patients with resected advanced melanoma. The findings were reported by Weber and colleagues in The New England Journal of Medicine. Study Details In the...
As reported by Antonia et al in The New England Journal of Medicine, an interim analysis of the phase III PACIFIC trial showed improved progression-free survival with the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitor durvalumab (Imfinzi) vs placebo as consolidation in patients with unresectable...
On August 30, 2017, tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) was granted regular approval for the treatment of patients up to age 25 years with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that is refractory or in second or later relapse.1,2 Tisagenlecleucel is the first chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)...
On August 17, 2017, inotuzumab ozogamicin (Besponsa) was approved for the treatment of adults with relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data APPROVAL WAS BASED on complete remission rates in the open-label phase III INO-VATE ALL...
THE PHASE III MSLT- II TRIAL showed that completion dissection was not associated with improved melanoma-specific overall survival vs observation in patients with sentinel-node metastasis, although a benefit was observed in regional disease control. The findings were reported in The New England...
STAYING UP-TO-DATE in the fast-paced world of oncology literature is a daunting task at best. To assist with that task, The ASCO Post has assembled an assortment of studies recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) and the Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP). Future installments...
On April 27, 2017, the indications for regorafenib (Stivarga) were expanded to include treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who have been previously treated with sorafenib (Nexavar).1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data The new approval was based on the finding of improved overall survival...
New criteria for evaluating response in lymphoma clinical trials—RECIL 2017—have been developed by an International Working Group with the aim of harmonizing criteria with the RECIST criteria used for solid tumors.1 The new criteria were reported by Anas Younes, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering...
In a single-center study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Losk et al found that an intervention including surgeon initiation of gene-expression profile testing with Oncotype DX significantly reduced the time to testing, receipt of testing results, and initiation of chemotherapy in...
Overall survival outcomes in the phase III CheckMate 067 trial indicate improved survival with nivolumab (Opdivo)/ipilimumab (Yervoy) vs ipilimumab and with nivolumab vs ipilimumab in patients with previously untreated advanced melanoma. These findings were reported in The New England Journal of...
The final efficacy analysis of a trial of 9-valent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has shown a high preventive effect against disease due to the additional HPV pathogenic strains covered compared with the quadrivalent vaccine at up to 6 years. These findings were reported by Huh et al in The...
In a single-center phase II trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Jabbour et al found that the combination of inotuzumab ozogamicin (Besponsa) and low-intensity chemotherapy produced promising results in patients with relapsed or refractory Philadelphia chromosome (Ph)-negative acute lymphoblastic...
In a retrospective study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Reiss et al found that reducing the starting dose of sorafenib (Nexavar) was associated with noninferior overall survival, reduced cost, and lower risk of discontinuing treatment in patients with advanced hepatocellular...
A phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Leonard et al showed no significant progression-free survival benefit of adding bortezomib (Velcade) to R-CHOP (rituximab [Rituxan], cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone) in previously untreated patients with...
In the UK-Swiss phase III GeDDiS trial, the combination of gemcitabine and docetaxel did not significantly improve progression-free survival vs doxorubicin in first-line treatment of locally advanced or metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma. Findings were reported in The Lancet Oncology by Seddon et al....
In an analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Seisen et al found that adjuvant chemotherapy was associated with a survival benefit vs observation in patients with adverse prognostic features after neoadjuvant therapy and radical cystectomy for urothelial carcinoma of the bladder. Study Details The...
A phase II study has shown activity of recombinant adenovirus interferon-α with Syn3 (rAd-IFNα/Syn3), a replication-deficient recombinant adenovirus gene transfer vector, in patients with high-grade bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG)-refractory or -relapsed non–muscle invasive bladder ...