In the phase III KEYNOTE-355 trial, pembrolizumab combined with several chemotherapy partners yielded a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival vs chemotherapy alone in patients with previously untreated locally advanced or metastatic...
In a single-institution phase I dose-escalation and -expansion trial reported as a letter in Nature Medicine, Shah et al found that treatment with tandem bispecific anti-CD20/anti-CD19 4-1BB–CD3ζ lentiviral (LV20.19) chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells produced high response rates in adult...
In a single-institution phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Pelster et al found that nivolumab plus ipilimumab produced durable responses and improved survival outcomes in patients with metastatic uveal melanoma. Study Details The trial enrolled 35 patients at The...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to a PD-1 inhibitor for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and also granted Priority Review to a HER2-directed antibody-drug conjugate for patients with...
Researchers have found two common genetic variants that may be used to predict whether patients with cancer may have severe adverse events when treated with the anti-VEGF monoclonal antibody bevacizumab. A genome-wide association study—according to researchers, the largest such study in patients...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Thomas Powles, MD, PhD, and colleagues, extended follow-up of the phase III KEYNOTE-426 trial shows continued progression-free and overall survival superiority with pembrolizumab/axitinib vs sunitinib in the first-line treatment of advanced renal cell...
In his discussion of KEYNOTE-361 and the DANUBE trial, Richard Cathomas, MD, of Kantonsspital, Graubünden, Switzerland, said both studies yielded disappointing results. Overall, in these trials as well as current evidence from other trials, treatment of platinum-eligible (cisplatin or carboplatin)...
Two different phase III studies found that combining an anti–PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor (pembrolizumab in KEYNOTE-361) with platinum-based chemotherapy or with another checkpoint inhibitor (the anti–CTLA-4 antibody tremelimumab in DANUBE) failed to significantly improve overall or...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Shankar et al found improved progression-free and overall survival among patients who experienced multisystem immune-related adverse events after anti–PD-1 or anti–PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy for stage III/IV non–small cell...
In the phase II OMNIVORE study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Rana R. McKay, MD, and colleagues did not find evidence supporting a strategy of discontinuing nivolumab monotherapy in responders and adding ipilimumab in nivolumab nonresponders among patients with metastatic renal cell...
In a systematic review and network meta-analysis of 14 trials reported in JAMA Oncology, Sonbol et al found that atezolizumab plus bevacizumab outperformed other regimens in the first-line treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma and identified preferred treatments in refractory disease. As...
The innovaTV 204 trial’s invited discussant, Ana Oaknin, MD, PhD, Head of the Gynecologic Cancer Program at Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology in Barcelona, was encouraged by the study’s findings. “Of note, the response rate was 24%, the time to response was short, and the median duration of...
The treatment of recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer has not changed much in recent years, but according to preliminary trials presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Virtual Congress 2020, checkpoint inhibitors and antibody-drug conjugates may become new options. In the...
Researchers have found that a class of commonly used heart drugs may also improve patients’ responses to PD-L1 inhibitors, according to preliminary findings presented by Strauss et al at the 32th EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics (Abstract 7). Angiotensin...
In an Italian phase II trial (GIMEMA LAL2116) reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Foà et al found that first-line induction and consolidation treatment with dasatinib plus blinatumomab produced a high rate of molecular response in adults with Philadelphia chromosome–positive acute...
In a single-center analysis reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Copeland-Halperin et al found that early trastuzumab interruption and interruption resulting in a cumulative trastuzumab dose ≤ 56 mg/kg were associated with significantly poorer recurrence-free survival in patients with...
A study by Marsavela et al published in Clinical Cancer Research evaluating the predictive value of pretreatment circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) to inform therapeutic outcomes in patients with advanced-stage melanoma relative to type and line of treatment has found that baseline levels of ctDNA...
The 5-year outcomes of the CheckMate 066 trial, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Caroline Robert, MD, PhD, of Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France,and colleagues, show continued benefit of first-line nivolumab vs dacarbazine in advanced BRAF wild-type melanoma and support evidence that ...
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...
In a large, randomized clinical trial, researchers evaluated the immunotherapy drug avelumab for patients with advanced urothelial cancer. The findings of the trial, called the JAVELIN Bladder 100 study, are “very exciting,” even “practice-changing,” said the trial’s co-leader, Petros Grivas, MD,...
Based on results from a phase I/II clinical trial, the antibody drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan was recently granted accelerated approval in the treatment of patients with advanced triple-negative breast cancer, contingent on a larger study confirming its benefit. The confirmatory phase III...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to treatments for EGFR-mutant lung cancer and advanced renal cell carcinoma; granted Fast Track designation to agents in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors; and more....
In the phase II ALIENOR trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Isabelle Ray-Coquard, MD, and colleagues found that the addition of bevacizumab to paclitaxel did not improve the 6-month progression-free rate among women with relapsed ovarian sex cord–stromal tumors. Study Details The study, performed in...
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...
Neoadjuvant combination therapy with the anti–CTLA-4 therapy tremelimumab and the anti–PD-1 therapy durvalumab was well tolerated and showed early signs of activity in patients ineligible to receive cisplatin-based chemotherapy, all of whom had tumors with high-risk features that are associated...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Cappell et al, long-term follow-up of a National Cancer Institute phase I trial has shown that anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for various relapsed B-cell malignancies produced responses lasting 3 years or longer in half of ...
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...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Sarah B. Goldberg, MD, MPH, and colleagues, final results of the phase II SWOG S1403 trial show no progression-free survival benefit with afatinib plus cetuximab vs afatinib alone in the first-line treatment of EGFR-mutant advanced non–small cell...
In the phase II KATE2 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Leisha A. Emens, MD, and colleagues found that the addition of atezolizumab to ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) did not improve progression-free survival in patients with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer progressing after previous...
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...
Researchers have identified molecular and cellular characteristics of anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell infusion products associated with how patients with large B-cell lymphoma respond to treatment and develop side effects. The research team also found that early changes in...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to an antibody-drug conjugate for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN); gave Fast Track designation to a novel chimeric antigen...
Final analysis of results from a randomized clinical trial of lapatinib and trastuzumab given before surgery in patients with early HER2-positive breast cancer has found that women who had a pathologic complete response survived longer without cancer recurrence than patients who did not. This was...
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...
The overall survival benefit for PD-L1 CPS ≥ 5 tumors in CheckMate 649 is a game-changer. An oxaliplatin doublet plus chemotherapy should become a standard of care for these patients,” according to Elizabeth Smyth, MD, an oncology consultant at Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in...
As first-line treatment for advanced gastric cancer, nivolumab plus chemotherapy leads to significantly improved progression-free and overall survival over chemotherapy alone, investigators reported during a Presidential Symposium of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Virtual Congress ...
On August 20, 2020, carfilzomib and daratumumab were approved for use in combination with dexamethasone for treatment of adults with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma who have received one to three lines of therapy.1-3 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on findings in two clinical...
Acknowledging there are now expanded therapeutic choices in the first-line setting for advanced renal cell carcinoma, formal study discussant Camillo Porta, MD, of the University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy, said that studies of the immunotherapy combinations could not be compared directly. “We should ...
The combination of nivolumab plus cabozantinib was found to be superior to the former standard, sunitinib, in the first-line treatment of advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma, according to the results of the phase III CheckMate 9ER trial reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology...
City of Hope scientists have combined two immunotherapies—an oncolytic virus and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy—to target solid tumors that are otherwise difficult to treat with CAR T-cell therapy alone, according to a recent study in Science Translational Medicine.1 In preclinical...
The 5-year outcomes of the CheckMate 066 trial, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Caroline Robert, MD, PhD, and colleagues, showed continued benefit of first-line nivolumab vs dacarbazine in advanced BRAF wild-type melanoma. The results add to data indicating that nivolumab can be...
In the phase III JAVELIN Bladder 100 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Thomas Powles, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that maintenance treatment with avelumab plus best supportive care significantly improved overall survival vs best supportive care alone among patients whose...
Immune checkpoint inhibitors have improved outcomes for patients with a variety of cancer types, including those with advanced colorectal cancers that test positive for microsatellite instability/mismatch repair deficiency (MSI-high/MMRd). While testing rates for patients with MSI-high/MMRd...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, and colleagues, the phase III IMpower110 trial has shown significantly prolonged overall survival with first-line atezolizumab vs platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Kater et al, 4-year progression-free and overall survival were significantly greater with venetoclax plus rituximab vs bendamustine plus rituximab in the phase III MURANO trial in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia....
On October 2, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) as first-line treatment for adult patients with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma. CheckMate 743 Efficacy was investigated in CheckMate 743, a randomized,...
Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, of the Perlmutter Cancer Center, NYU Langone, discusses the 4-year recurrence-free and overall survival results from the CheckMate 238 study, which showed adjuvant nivolumab continues to be an effective treatment, vs the comparator ipilimumab, for patients with resected stage III/IV melanoma (Abstract 1076O).
Invited study discussant Lisa A. Carey, MD, the Richardson and Marilyn Jacobs Preyer Distinguished Professor in Breast Cancer Research and Deputy Director of Clinical Sciences at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, framed her remarks as a tale of two trials. Dr. Carey asked these...
Based on some unexpected negative results, oncologists using atezolizumab for metastatic triple-negative breast cancer should pair it with nab-paclitaxel, not paclitaxel. In contrast to the overall survival benefit shown for atezolizumab plus nab-paclitaxel in the previous IMpassion130...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to therapies for pretreated patients with multiple myeloma and pediatric patients with ALK-positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma; granted Fast Track designation to novel agents in gastric/gastroesophageal junction...