Checkpoint inhibitors can be lifesaving for many patients with advanced melanoma, but those who experience disease progression currently have few treatment options. The combination of a tyrosine kinase inhibitor and an anti–PD-1 agent may offer some hope in this setting, according to a study of...
As first-line therapy for advanced esophageal cancer, pembrolizumab added to chemotherapy improved overall survival in the KEYNOTE-590 population. Not only did patients with high PD-L1 expression benefit, the value of checkpoint inhibition was observed for the whole population, the trial’s...
In KEYNOTE-177, the anti–PD-L1 antibody pembrolizumab reduced the risk of disease progression by 40% vs chemotherapy in a targeted subset of previously untreated patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Now, in terms of health-related quality of life, pembrolizumab is also the clear favorite,...
Although KRAS is one of the most frequently mutated oncogenes in human cancers, an almost 4-decade long search for drugs that hit this target has been elusive—until now. Sotorasib (formerly called AMG-510), a small-molecule inhibitor of the KRAS G12C mutation, demonstrated clinical activity and...
The rate of obesity is rising dramatically in the United States and Europe, with more than 60% of women in the United States1,2 and 50% of women in Europe3 classified as overweight or obese based on their body mass index (BMI). Obesity is associated with an increased risk of hormone...
On October 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the antiviral drug remdesivir (Veklury) for use in adult and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older and weighing at least 40 kg for the treatment of COVID-19 requiring hospitalization. Remdesivir should only be administered...
In the Chinese phase II CLAP study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lan et al found that the combination of the anti–PD-1 antibody camrelizumab and the VEGFR inhibitor apatinib produced high response rates in previously treated women with advanced cervical cancer. Study Details The...
The benefit of anti–PD-1 antibodies in the adjuvant treatment of patients with stage III or stage IV melanoma continues to be observed at around 4 years for both pembrolizumab and nivolumab, according to updates of pivotal trials presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Virtual ...
On October 14, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) extended the approval of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for the following indications: Adult patients with relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma Pediatric patients with refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma or classical Hodgkin...
A recent review of scientific literature showed that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted virtually every aspect of cancer care and research—from introducing new risks for patients to disrupting the delivery of treatment and the continuity of research. The report, published by Ziad Bakouny, MD, and...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Takashi Kojima, MD, and colleagues, the phase III KEYNOTE-181 trial has shown that second-line pembrolizumab improved overall survival vs investigator’s choice of chemotherapy in patients with advanced or metastatic esophageal cancer with a PD-L1...
In the Spanish phase II NADIM trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Provencio et al found that the addition of nivolumab to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and the use of adjuvant nivolumab were associated with high 24-month rates of progression-free survival in patients with resectable stage IIIA...
On September 4, 2020, pralsetinib (Gavreto) was granted accelerated approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of adults with metastatic RET fusion–positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) as detected by an FDA-approved test.1,2 The FDA simultaneously approved the...
The ASCO Post is pleased to present Hematology Expert Review, an ongoing feature that occasionally quizzes readers on issues in hematology. In this installment, the authors highlight the most common type of systemic amyloidosis in the United States: immunoglobulin light chain [or amyloid light...
In the post-trastuzumab era, a number of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved targeted agents for metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer are available, but there is no preferred option for third-line treatment and beyond. At the 2019 Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium, Shanu Modi, MD,...
New agents for the treatment of advanced HER2-positive breast cancer should be coming soon to your clinic, according to Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, Director of the Breast Cancer Clinical Research Program and Associate Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Alexander M.M. Eggermont, MD, PhD, and colleagues, adjuvant pembrolizumab maintained a significant recurrence-free survival benefit vs placebo in patients with high-risk stage III melanoma after a median 3-year follow-up in the phase III EORTC...
Pembrolizumab monotherapy induced responses in patients with rare sarcomas that varied by histotype, according to findings presented by Jean-Yves Blay, MD, at the ESMO Virtual Congress 2020 (Abstract 1619O). Methods Dr. Blay presented first results from a cohort of patients with rare sarcomas in...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Jean-Jacques Grob, MD, PhD, of Aix-Marseille University, France, and colleagues, the first interim analysis of the phase II KEYNOTE-629 trial has shown the achievement of durable responses with pembrolizumab treatment of recurrent or metastatic...
Liquid biopsies using circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) have the potential to personalize medicine for patients with lymphoma, going beyond traditional markers and risk factors to provide dynamic assessments over time. Expanded applications of ctDNA liquid biopsy beyond diagnosis include early response ...
A prospective biomarker analysis of the multicohort phase II KEYNOTE-158 trial reported by Marabelle et al in The Lancet Oncology found that patients with previously treated advanced solid tumors were more likely to respond to pembrolizumab monotherapy if they had high tissue tumor mutational...
Immune therapy for advanced gastroesophageal cancer has taken a leap forward by showing its value in the first-line setting, according to two studies in which nivolumab and pembrolizumab, both given with chemotherapy, significantly improved overall survival vs chemotherapy alone. The studies,...
Findings from the JAVELIN Bladder 100 trial were published by Thomas Powles, MD, and colleagues in The New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers reported that the PD-L1 inhibitor avelumab led to a 31% reduction in risk of death, and extended median survival by more than 7 months in patients with ...
In a phase II trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Sara M. Tolaney, MD, MPH, and colleagues found that the addition of pembrolizumab to eribulin did not improve progression-free survival in women with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer. As stated by the...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Kohei Shitara, MD, and colleagues, the phase III KEYNOTE-062 trial showed no significant improvement in overall or progression-free survival with first-line pembrolizumab with or without chemotherapy vs chemotherapy alone in patients with PD-L1–positive advanced...
In a French Head and Neck Radiotherapy Oncology Group phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Sun et al found that the addition of Debio 1143 (a small-molecule antagonist of inhibitor of apoptosis proteins) to high-dose cisplatin chemoradiation improved locoregional disease control in...
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a new study that specifically examines how COVID-19 is affecting American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN), one of the racial and ethnic minority groups at highest risk from the disease. The CDC found that in 23 selected states, the...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Vicky Makker, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, and colleagues, findings from a phase Ib/II trial indicate that the combination of lenvatinib and pembrolizumab is active in patients with previously treated advanced...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Alicia Léon-Castillo, MD, of Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands, and colleagues identified outcomes associated with molecular subgroups of patients with high-risk endometrial cancer enrolled in the PORTEC-3 trial of adjuvant...
Results of the NRG Oncology phase III clinical trial NRG-GY004 indicated that the addition of the investigational agent cediranib to olaparib and standard platinum-based chemotherapy did not improve progression-free survival outcomes for women with platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer; however,...
the final results of the phase II KEYNOTE-100 study of pembrolizumab in women with advanced and recurrent ovarian cancer showed that pembrolizumab monotherapy produced modest clinical activity. Ursula Matulonis, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, reported the data at the...
In women with advanced ovarian cancer responding to first-line chemotherapy, maintenance therapy with the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor niraparib significantly reduced the risk of disease progression by 38% overall and by 60% in women with BRCA mutations. Even patients without a...
A number of new drugs and novel indications were added to the treatment armamentarium for gynecologic cancers over the past year. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals are noted here. Olaparib, PARP Inhibitor On May 8, 2020, the FDA expanded the indication of olaparib (Lynparza) to...
In a single-institution phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Rogers et al found that the combination of obinutuzumab, ibrutinib, and venetoclax produced high response rates in both treatment-naive and relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Study Details A total ...
A consensus statement published in JAMA Dermatology by an international group of melanoma researchers evaluated the use of prognostic gene-expression profile testing to guide clinical management of melanoma.1 The group cautioned against the routine use of currently available gene-expression...
A vaccine for COVID-19 is currently the Holy Grail, but even if an effective vaccine were developed on a fast-track timetable, it may be effective in only a percentage of people, judging by existing flu vaccines, which show efficacy rates of approximately 45% and vary year by year. Until we have a...
The explosion of 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate near the port of Beirut, Lebanon, on August 4 leveled whole sections of the city. The blast killed at least 200 people, injured more than 6,000, and left hundreds of thousands homeless. The blast also severely damaged Beirut’s already fragile...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Jacqueline Vuky, MD, of Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, and colleagues, long-term follow-up in the phase II KEYNOTE-052 study has shown durable responses with first-line pembrolizumab in cisplatin-ineligible locally advanced or...
In a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,1 Matthew D. Galsky, MD, of The Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, and colleagues found that maintenance pembrolizumab produced additional responses and improved progression-free survival vs...
Extended analysis of the phase III KEYNOTE-426 study upholds pembrolizumab plus axitinib as a preferred front-line regimen over sunitinib in patients with advanced sporadic renal cell carcinoma.1 These updated results were presented during the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program by Elizabeth R....
Two recently reported phase III trials have shown the benefits of combination therapy vs sunitinib in the first-line treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma. As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Brian I. Rini, MD, of Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute, and colleagues, the ...
Pembrolizumab Plus Axitinib: On April 19, 2019, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was approved for use in combination with the small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor axitinib (Inlyta) for the first-line treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma. Approval was based on findings in the phase...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Kim N. Chi, MD, of BC Cancer and Vancouver Prostate Centre, and colleagues, the first analysis of the phase III TITAN trial has shown that the addition of apalutamide to androgen-deprivation therapy improved radiographic progression-free and...
Initial results of the randomized phase II TheraP trial showed that therapy directed to prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) with lutetium-177–labeled PSMA-617 (LuPSMA) significantly improved prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response compared with cabazitaxel in men with metastatic...
In the French phase II CARSKIN trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Maubec et al found that pembrolizumab monotherapy produced durable responses in the first-line treatment of unresectable cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. Study Details In the multicenter trial, 39 patients (primary ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Léon-Castillo et al identified outcomes associated with molecular subgroups of patients with high-risk endometrial cancer enrolled in the PORTEC-3 trial of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy vs radiotherapy alone. Study Details The study involved...
On June 24, 2020, pembrolizumab was approved for treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma that is not curable by surgery or radiation.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on findings in the multicenter, multicohort, open-label KEYNOTE-629 trial ...
On June 29, 2020, pembrolizumab was approved for the first-line treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) colorectal cancer.1 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on findings in the randomized,...
To complement The ASCO Post’s continued coverage of the virtual edition of the 25th European Hematology Association Annual Congress (EHA25 Virtual), here are a few abstracts selected from the meeting proceedings focusing on clinical research in Hodgkin and marginal zone lymphomas. Omission of...
On June 18, 2020, the EZH2 inhibitor tazemetostat was granted accelerated approval for the treatment of adults with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma (FL) whose tumors are positive for an EZH2 mutation, as detected by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved test, and who have...