Invited discussant of the two studies, Elena Élez, MD, PhD, of the Colon Cancer Program, Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology, Barcelona, Spain, discussed the challenge of treating BRAF-mutant colorectal cancer and what the new data bring to that effort. Dr. Élez noted: “BRAF V600E–mutant metastatic ...
The phase II ANCHOR CRC study, the largest prospective study of BRAF inhibitor–based therapy as first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer, has met its primary endpoint, with 47.8% of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer responding to first-line treatment with encorafenib,...
In the Indian single-center phase III PARCER trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Supriya Chopra, MD, DNB, and colleagues found that adjuvant image-guided intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IG-IMRT) was associated with less late grade ≥ 2 gastrointestinal toxicity vs three-dimensional ...
In a phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Matthew S. Davids, MD, and colleagues found that first-line triple combination therapy with acalabrutinib, venetoclax, and obinutuzumab produced measurable residual disease (MRD)-negative complete remission in a substantial proportion of patients ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has amended the emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to allow for the use of a single booster dose to be administered at least 6 months after completion of the primary series in individuals aged 65 years and older;...
On September 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved ruxolitinib (Jakafi), a JAK inhibitor, for the treatment of chronic graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) after failure of one or two lines of systemic therapy in adult and pediatric patients aged 12 years and older. REACH3 Efficacy was...
Benjamin Besse, MD, PhD, of the Institut Gustave Roussy, discusses final phase III findings from the Atalante-1 trial, which explored the question of whether the OSE2101 vaccine is more beneficial than standard treatment for patients with HLA-A2–positive non–small cell lung cancer after immune...
Karim Fizazi, MD, PhD, of the Institut Gustave Roussy, discusses phase III results from the PEACE-1 study, which showed that androgen-deprivation therapy plus docetaxel and abiraterone provided 2.5 years of additional time without radiographic disease progression or death and 1.5 additional years...
In the first randomized, controlled study to explore the efficacy and safety of relacorilant—a selective glucocorticoid receptor modulator—in combination with nab-paclitaxel compared to nab-paclitaxel alone, the combination improved progression-free survival and showed a favorable safety profile in ...
The randomized phase III controlled GETUG/AFU VESPER V05 trial was designed to compare the efficacy of two perioperative treatment regimens—gemcitabine/cisplatin or dose-dense methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin, and cisplatin (dd-MVAC)—in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer. The...
As reported by Stephen J. Schuster, MD, and colleagues in The Lancet Oncology, long-term outcomes of the pivotal phase II JULIET trial showed overall and complete response rates of 53% and 39% in adult patients with relapsed or refractory aggressive B-cell lymphomas treated with the T-cell...
In the phase II SAFRON II study reported in JAMA Oncology, Shankar Siva, PhD, MBBS, FRANZCR, and colleagues found no significant differences in safety or efficacy between single-fraction vs multifraction stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) for the treatment of pulmonary oligometastases. ...
In an analysis from the I-SPY2 trial reported in JAMA Oncology, W. Fraser Symmans, MD, and colleagues found that increasing residual cancer burden after neoadjuvant treatment for high-risk breast cancer was associated with poorer event-free survival. Study Details In I-SPY2, investigational agents...
Gerhardt Attard, MD, PhD, of The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, discusses findings that show 2 years of abiraterone acetate plus prednisolone-based treatment improves metastasis-free and overall survival in men with high-risk nonmetastatic prostate cancer. The data suggest this combination...
Naveen S. Vasudev, PhD, MBChB, of the University of Leeds, discusses phase II results from the PRISM trial, which showed that giving ipilimumab every 12 weeks instead of every 3 weeks, in combination with nivolumab, led to lower rates of grade 3 and 4 toxicities in patients with advanced renal cell ...
In a prospective evaluation of the role of comprehensive geriatric assessment in personalizing therapy for elderly patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), geriatric intervention changed therapeutic choices in about 1 out of 10 patients and played an important...
In the phase II DESTINY-Lung01 trial, presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2021 (Abstract LBA45) and concurrently reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Bob T. Li, MD, PhD, MPH, and colleagues found that fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki produced durable...
In the phase Ib COSMIC-021 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sumanta K. Pal, MD, FASCO, and colleagues found that the combination of cabozantinib and atezolizumab produced durable responses in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Study Details One hundred and two...
In the Italian phase II RAMES trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Pinto et al found that the addition of ramucirumab to gemcitabine improved overall survival in the second-line treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma. As noted by the investigators, “There is a preclinical rationale for...
On September 20, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to tisotumab vedotin-tftv (Tivdak), a tissue factor–directed antibody and microtubule inhibitor conjugate, for adult patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer who experienced disease progression on ...
In a French study reported in JAMA Network Open, Thierry et al found that tumor burden (assessed as plasma circulating tumor DNA [ctDNA]) was significantly higher among patients with newly diagnosed metastatic colorectal cancer screened for a clinical trial after vs before the first COVID-19...
In an analysis from a Blood or Marrow Transplant Survivor Study cohort reported in JAMA Oncology, Smita Bhatia, MD, MPH, and colleagues found that late mortality among patients undergoing allogeneic blood or marrow transplantation for hematologic malignancies has declined over the past 40 years,...
The virtual ESMO Congress 2021 began on September 16. This week, we’ll hear from the authors of three influential, late-breaking studies presented at the meeting.
Toni K. Choueiri, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses patient-reported outcomes for quality of life in the KEYNOTE-564 study, which previously met its primary endpoint of disease-free survival with adjuvant pembrolizumab vs placebo following surgery for renal cell carcinoma (Abstract...
Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses results from the MONALEESA-2 trial, which showed that adding the CDK4/6 inhibitor ribociclib to first-line hormonal therapy prolongs survival by 1 year for postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive, ...
Dozens of oral chemotherapy drugs have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over the past 2 decades and are now being prescribed in the treatment of many cancer types. However, most oral anticancer drug prescriptions require coordination between payers and providers, which can...
It has been well documented that a confluence of many factors, including low-socioeconomic status, contribute to health disparities and worse outcomes in minority patients with cancer. Strategies that partnered community-based health workers with low-income and minority patients with cancer...
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...
Results from the phase III MONALEESA-2 trial showed a significant overall survival benefit with ribociclib plus endocrine therapy for postmenopausal patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer. This is the first demonstration of a survival advantage with a...
In a simulation-based study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Ward et al estimated that delay in diagnosis due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile will lead to an early surge of newly diagnosed cancers at later stages, resulting in excess mortality over the next 10 years. As stated by the...
In a phase I/II study reported in The Lancet, Hutchings et al found that the novel bispecific antibody epcoritamab produced high response rates in patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Epcoritamab works by targeting CD3 and CD20 and inducing T-cell–mediated cytotoxic...
In a study reported in JAMA Network Open, Fleming et al found that low skeletal muscle area and high visceral-to-total fat ratio were associated with increased expression of proinflammatory cytokines and VEGF as well as worse 5-year outcomes in patients with nonmetastatic colon cancer. Study...
Jason J. Luke, MD, of UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, discusses phase III results showing that adjuvant pembrolizumab for patients with resected stage IIB and IIC melanoma decreased the risk of disease recurrence or death by 35% compared with placebo. It was also associated with significantly prolonged ...
Javier Cortés, MD, PhD, of Barcelona’s IOB Institute of Oncology, discusses phase III data from the DESTINY-Breast03 study, which support trastuzumab deruxtecan becoming the standard of care for second-line treatment of women with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (Abstract LBA1).
Nicoletta Colombo, MD, of the Istituto Europeo Oncologico, discusses phase III results that showed improvements in progression-free and overall survival with a combination of pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy, compared with placebo and chemotherapy, for patients with persistent, recurrent, or...
Fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) showed statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival vs trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) in second-line treatment for HER2-positive unresectable or metastatic breast cancer, according to results from the global phase III DESTINY-Breast03...
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...
In the primary analysis of the phase II DESTINY-Gastric02 trial, fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) produced clinically meaningful and durable responses in Western patients with advanced HER2-positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancers whose disease had progressed after a...
Bintrafusp alfa, a first-in-class bifunctional fusion protein composed of the extracellular domain of the TGF-βRII receptor fused to a human IgG1 monoclonal antibody blocking PD-L1, showed long-term efficacy and a manageable safety profile in patients with pretreated, immune checkpoint...
In an ongoing phase II study, Aggarwal et al evaluated the efficacy of the ATR inhibitor ceralasertib alone and in combination with olaparib in patients with ARID1A-deficient and ARID1A-intact solid tumors. They observed antitumor activity with ceralasertib monotherapy in ARID1A-deficient solid...
For patients with early-stage hormone receptor–positive breast cancer, extending the duration of letrozole after tamoxifen—for up to 8 years of total endocrine therapy—significantly improved invasive disease–free survival and overall survival over the standard treatment of approximately 5 years of...
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),...
On September 17, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved cabozantinib (Cabometyx) for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients aged 12 years and older with locally advanced or metastatic differentiated thyroid cancer that has progressed following prior vascular endothelial growth...
Helena M. Earl, MBBS, PhD, of the University of Cambridge, discusses an individual patient data meta-analysis of noninferiority randomized clinical trials to determine whether a duration of less than the standard of 12 months of adjuvant trastuzumab is noninferior for treatment outcomes in patients ...
A cancer diagnosis can abruptly and durably alter the course of daily life—not just for the person diagnosed but also for family members. New research presented by Sinen Korbi, MD, and colleagues at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2021 examined the coping mechanisms of...
Investigators from 22 institutions aimed to evaluate the impact of diabetes mellitus in a retrospective cohort of patients with advanced cancer treated with a single-agent immune checkpoint inhibitor. In a report presented by Cortellini et al at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)...
� On September 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to mobocertinib (Exkivity) for adults with locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations (as detected by an FDA-approved test) whose disease has...
“The phase III ENGOT/GCIG study1 proved to be negative, with no advantage seen with the extension of bevacizumab treatment,” said the abstract’s invited discussant, Carol Aghajanian, MD, Chief of the Medical Gynecologic Oncology Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. Dr....
According to the investigators, the SENTOR trial suggests that sentinel lymph node biopsy should be considered for the surgical staging of apparent clinical stage I endometrial cancer with no evidence of extrauterine disease on imaging or intraoperative survey.1 “If [sentinel lymph node biopsy] is...
In advanced ovarian cancer, the duration of maintenance bevacizumab should remain 15 months, according to the European multicenter phase III ENGOT/GCIG trial. These results were presented during the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting by Jacobus Pfisterer, MD, PhD, of the AGO Study Group and Gynecologic...