Longer follow-up of the LEAP-004 trial in metastatic melanoma upheld the benefit seen with the VEGF kinase inhibitor lenvatinib plus the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab for patients experiencing disease progression on prior checkpoint blockade, investigators reported at the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 ...
The invited discussant of APACT,1 Thomas Seufferlein, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine at the University of Ulm in Germany, said the updated overall survival data “suggest an improved outcome with nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine vs gemcitabine alone…. The combination improves long-term survival and...
Five-year outcomes in the APACT trial uphold the overall survival benefit with nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine in the adjuvant treatment of patients with resected pancreatic cancer, according to Margaret A. Tempero, MD, Director of the University of California San Francisco Pancreas Center, who...
Invited discussant of the BOOSTER trial,1 Edward B. Garon, MD, MS, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Thoracic Oncology Program, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles, said the study’s research question is appropriate, since osimertinib was established...
For the second-line treatment of advanced EGFR T790M–mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the performance of osimertinib alone was not found to be different from that of osimertinib plus bevacizumab in the phase II ETOP 10-16 BOOSTER trial, reported at a European Society for Medical...
In patients with triple-negative breast cancer who have residual disease after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, adjuvant capecitabine remains the standard of care. In the multicenter randomized noninferiority EA1131 trial, which included primarily basal tumors, noninferiority of adjuvant platinum over...
Invited discussant of the C-144-01 study,1 Jason J. Luke, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Cancer Immunotherapeutics Center, University of Pittsburgh Hillman Cancer Center, Pittsburgh, noted that lifileucel is “clearly an active regimen in the post–PD-1/CTLA-4 setting and one ...
Despite the fact that we have made significant progress in metastatic melanoma with immune checkpoint inhibitors—now the standard of care—most patients experience disease progression and are left without approved treatments. There is a need for newer treatments with clinical benefit. Lifileucel, an ...
The first overall survival analysis of the WGS-ADAPT HER2+/HR– study, which evaluated neoadjuvant therapy in patients with hormone receptor–negative, HER2-positive disease, showed that treatment with pertuzumab and trastuzumab plus paclitaxel—or with the chemotherapy-free regimen of...
The invited discussant of the Alliance A21501 findings, Rebecca A. Snyder, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Surgical Oncology at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, Greenville, described the overall survival associated with modified FOLFIRINOX (fluorouracil [5-FU], leucovorin, ...
In the treatment of borderline resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, the Alliance A021501 trial established neoadjuvant treatment with modified FOLFIRINOX (fluorouracil [5-FU], leucovorin, irinotecan, oxaliplatin) as a new benchmark. However, it failed to show the benefit of adding...
With several pivotal trials providing evidence for the escalation and de-escalation of anti-HER2 therapy in certain early breast cancer scenarios, personalized treatment is possible. How can clinicians optimize treatment by applying the studies’ findings? Debu Tripathy, MD, Professor and Chair of...
Because of their well-established efficacy, inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinases 4 and 6 (CDK4/6) are the standard of care in the treatment of hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer. The question now is this: after disease progresses on a CDK4/6 inhibitor and endocrine...
Women with dense breasts are increasingly being screened with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which is clearly the best way to detect small cancers in this population, according to Elizabeth Morris, MD, FACR, FSBI, FISMRM, Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiology at the University of...
Invited discussant Kemi Doll, MD, MSCR, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, University of Washington, Seattle, commented on the results of the survey on workplace bullying and harassment reported by Dr. Temkin. Dr. Doll is also Project Lead of the...
Female gynecologic oncologists have reported in a survey that having a department chair of the same gender is no buffer against gender harassment or discrimination in the workplace. The information comes from a survey of the “Women of Gynecologic Oncology” Facebook group and was reported in March...
David Cunningham, MD, Consultant Medical Oncologist, Head of the Gastrointestinal and Lymphoma Unit, and Director of Clinical Research at The Royal Marsden in London and Surrey in the United Kingdom, discussed CheckMate 6481 as well as the ESCORT-1st study of the PD-L1 inhibitor camrelizumab in...
As first-line treatment of advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, nivolumab-containing regimens improved overall survival over standard-of-care chemotherapy, according to the first results of the global phase III CheckMate 648 trial presented at the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting by Ian Chau, MD,...
Comments on the OUTBACK trial were provided by invited discussant Kunle Odunsi, MD, PhD, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dean for Oncology, and Director of the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center. Lilian T. Gien, MD, MSc, Associate Professor of Oncology at the...
In women with locally advanced cervical cancer, adjuvant chemotherapy adds no benefit to standard cisplatin-based chemoradiation, results of the international phase III OUTBACK study have shown,1 as reported at the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting by Linda R. Mileshkin, MD, Professor of Medical Oncology at ...
The invited discussant of the JUPITER-02 study was Anthony TC Chan, MD, the Li Shu Fan Medical Foundation Professor of Clinical Oncology at Hong King Cancer Institute and Sir YK Pao Centre for Cancer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He noted that anti–PD-1/L1 therapies are at the forefront...
A new first-line standard of care may be emerging for recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma, based on the findings of the global phase III JUPITER-02 trial presented at the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting by investigators from China.1 In the study, toripalimab, an anti–PD-1 monoclonal antibody, ...
Zanubrutinib—a second-generation Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor—significantly improved response rates and delayed disease progression as compared to the standard of care, ibrutinib, in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma...
In the treatment of relapsed/refractory follicular lymphoma, a comparison of data from the ZUMA-5 trial with those of the external control cohort of the SCHOLAR-5 trial showed substantial improvement in all clinical endpoints with axicabtagene ciloleucel. John G. Gribben, DSc, FRCP, FRCPath,...
In an updated analysis of the phase III MAIA trial, the addition of daratumumab to lenalidomide and dexamethasone resulted in a statistically significant overall survival benefit over lenalidomide/dexamethasone alone in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma who are ineligible for...
The invited discussant of EMPOWER-Cervical 1 was Mansoor Raza Mirza, MD, Chief Oncologist at Copenhagen University Hospital and Chairman of the European Network of Gynaecological Oncology Trials group (ENGOT). Dr. Mirza called the findings “amazing” and predicted they will “usher in a new era” in...
The PD-L1 inhibitor cemiplimab-rwlc has become the first immunotherapy to yield a statistically significant and clinically meaningful survival benefit in recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer progressing after first-line platinum-containing chemotherapy. Patients were enrolled irrespective of...
Although once again, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) 2021 Annual Conference could not take place on site in Orlando, researchers presented their work virtually in the form of almost 100 posters. The ASCO Post has summarized some that we found particularly interesting. Many...
The first overall survival analysis of the WSG-ADAPT HR-/HER2+ study, which evaluated neoadjuvant therapy in patients with hormone receptor (HR)-negative, HER2-positive breast cancer, showed that treatment with pertuzumab and trastuzumab plus paclitaxel—or the chemotherapy-free regimen of...
Omid Hamid, MD, Chief of Translational Research/Immuno-Oncology at The Angeles Clinic & Research Institute, Los Angeles, and Co-Director of the Cutaneous Malignancy Program at Cedars-Sinai Cancer Institute, shared his thoughts on the RELATIVITY-047 study1 for The ASCO Post, referring to them as ...
Immune checkpoint inhibition has been established as an effective treatment for patients with metastatic melanoma. A novel immunotherapeutic combination—this one targeting the LAG-3 (lymphocyte-activation gene 3) and PD-1 immune checkpoints—delayed time to disease progression significantly more...
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...
The invited discussant of the studies, Jamie N. Bakkum-Gamez, MD, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Co-Lead of the Women’s Cancer Program at Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, Rochester, Minnesota, first reminded attendees of the scope of the problem: an estimated 40% or so of women slated for...
Frailty is a better predictor than age of poor outcomes in patients with ovarian cancer, according to studies reported at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer. Researchers found that frail patients are less likely to undergo surgery, have more...
Long-term cardiac safety and efficacy have been confirmed for the combination of pertuzumab plus trastuzumab in patients with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer, according to the final analysis of the phase II BERENICE trial reported by Chau T. Dang, MD, and colleagues at the ESMO Breast...
Invited discussant Federico Cappuzzo, MD, Director of Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute Regina Elena in Rome, said the study reported by Peters et al is “important” and “provocative,” but he raised some concerns. “From this study, we cannot answer from a scientific point of view...
Except in patients with no smoking history, the addition of chemotherapy to immunotherapy does not add benefit as a first-line treatment in patients with stage IV nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and high expression of PD-L1, according to real-world experience. Outcomes from the U.S. ...
Long-term analysis of the Short-HER trial showed that 9 weeks of adjuvant trastuzumab conveyed benefits comparable to a 1-year course in patients with early HER2-positive breast cancer deemed to be at low or intermediate risk for disease recurrence. High-risk patients, however, derived considerably ...
In the phase III KAITLIN trial, replacing adjuvant taxane and trastuzumab with ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) did not result in a significant improvement in invasive disease-free survival in the node-positive or intent-to-treat population, as reported by Harbeck et al at the 2020 ASCO Virtual...
Perspectives on ARIEL4 were provided for The ASCO Post by the invited discussant Ursula Matulonis, MD, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Chief of Gynecologic Oncology and the Brock Wilson Family Chair at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and by Konstantin Zakashansky, MD,...
In patients with BRCA-mutated, advanced, relapsed ovarian cancer, treatment with the PARP (poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase) inhibitor rucaparib led to a significant improvement in progression-free survival compared with standard-of-care chemotherapy, according to results of the international phase III ...
Recent clinical trials have been encouraging for the neoadjuvant or adjuvant use of immune checkpoint inhibitors in triple-negative breast cancer, but is this approach ready for the clinic? This question was addressed at PER’s Miami Breast Cancer Conference, held virtually this year, by Adam M....
The invited discussant of the phase II feMMe trial1 was Angeles Alvarez Secord, MD, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina. She noted that, because of its “alarming” increase in incidence and mortality, endometrial cancer is “a critically...
Disease regression was observed in 82% of women with endometrial hyperplasia with atypia and 43% of women with endometrial cancer after treatment for 6 months with a hormonal intrauterine device in a phase II study reported during the virtual edition of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO)...
Lisa Baumann Kreuziger, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Hematology/Oncology at Versiti/Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, introduced Terry B. Gernsheimer, MD, at the Plenary Session and spoke with The ASCO Post about the results of the study. “The investigators of the A-TREAT trial tested a...
In the first randomized trial to evaluate prophylactic antifibrinolytic therapy in patients with hematologic malignancies, tranexamic acid failed to reduce bleeding or the need for transfusion vs placebo. The study was featured as a Plenary Session during the 2020 American Society of Hematology...
Aaron T. Gerds, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Medicine, Deputy Director for Clinical Research at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute and Medical Director of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center Clinical Research Office, found the MANIFEST-2 findings to be highly noteworthy. He cited a...
The novel targeted agent CPI-0610 enhanced responses to ruxolitinib in patients with myelofibrosis enrolled in the global phase II MANIFEST-2 trial, investigators reported at the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition.1,2 “Preliminary data demonstrate the...
The invited discussant of the SOLO-1 trial, Deborah Armstrong, MD, Professor of Oncology and Director of the Breast and Ovarian Surveillance Service at Johns Hopkins Medicine, said the update provides “important information for us,” showing that 2 years of maintenance olaparib conveys “a really...
In the 5-year follow-up of the pivotal SOLO-1 trial in women with newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer and a BRCA1/2 mutation, maintenance treatment with olaparib led to a more than doubling in progression-free survival, according to a presentation at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO)...