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Alan Ho, MD, PhD, recently presented updated results from a phase II trial evaluating the combination of an HPV16-targeted investigational immunotherapeutic agent eseba-vec (previously known as HB-200) and the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab as first-line therapy for human papillomavirus type 16...
Here are some highlights of clinical trials presented at the 2024 Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Annual Meeting by researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. They include breakthroughs in cancer care, updates in clinical research, and efforts in cancer...
Investigators have assessed the potential role of mesenchymal stem cells in cancer treatment in a new review published by Minev et al in Oncotarget. Study Overview and Implications The investigators found that mesenchymal stem cells can naturally target tumors and deliver therapeutic agents...
Researchers may have uncovered the factors contributing to an increased susceptibility to common infections among patients with cancer receiving checkpoint inhibitors, according to a recent study published by Ogishi et al in Immunity. The findings may provide new insights into immune responses and...
The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2024 in Barcelona featured several groundbreaking trials with the potential to significantly influence clinical practice. These studies highlighted the benefits of new combination immunotherapy strategies and innovative approaches in the...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Sean Miller, MD, of Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System, and colleagues found that immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment for cancer had similar efficacy and reduced toxicity in Black patients vs White patients in the U.S....
The University of Cincinnati Cancer Center announced the launch of a new study funded by a $2.3 million National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant to develop a novel technique to visualize where genetically modified immune cells go after being administered in patients with cancer. Background During...
Presurgical treatment with the novel drug vidutolimod and the PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab may improve outcomes in patients with stage III cutaneous melanoma, according to a recent study published by Davar et al in Cancer Cell. The findings supported the development of vidutolimod for...
Recent advances in urothelial carcinoma treatments may offer a path to curative care for more patients, including those with high-risk localized, muscle-invasive disease, according to an editorial published by Milowsky in The New England Journal of Medicine. The findings indicated that...
Researchers have found that combining the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab with standard chemotherapy may improve treatment outcomes in patients with small cell bladder cancer and small cell/neuroendocrine prostate cancer, according to a recent study published by Gu et al in Cell Reports Medicine....
Researchers have assessed the efficacy of targeting the CD47 protein combined with traditional immunotherapy drugs in patients with colorectal cancer, with a recent study published by Arai et al in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer. The findings indicated that the combination approach could...
The annual Global Cardio-Oncology Summit (GCOS) was held September 22 to 24 in Minneapolis, with 430 health-care professionals attending from 20 countries. The Summit brings together health-care professionals from diverse disciplines including members of the International Cardio-Oncology...
At the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2024, the Eyes to the Future Presidential Symposium showcased innovative approaches in personalized medicine, immunotherapy resistance, and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven pathology analysis. These presentations, focusing on the...
Presurgical treatment with the novel drug vidutolimod and the PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab may improve tumor control in patients with stage III cutaneous melanoma, according to a recent study published by Davar et al in Cancer Cell. The findings provided insights that could help advance...
Using computational tools, researchers have developed a novel method to assess which patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer may benefit from immunotherapy, according to a recent study published by Arulraj et al in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)....
A newly described stage of lymph node–like structures, known as tertiary lymphoid structures, identified in hepatic tumors following presurgical immunotherapy may be vital to successfully treating patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, according to a recent study published by Shu et al in Nature...
Researchers have demonstrated that anti–PD-L1 immunotherapy combined with mutation-directed targeted therapy may improve overall survival in patients with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, according to a recent study published by Cabanillas et al in JAMA Oncology. Background Anaplastic thyroid...
Researchers have found that the combination of nivolumab plus doxorubicin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (AVD) may reduce the risk of cancer progression and mortality in patients with Hodgkin lymphoma compared with standard treatment, according to a recent study published by Herrera et al in The New ...
Consolidation therapy with the PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor durvalumab is set to become the new global standard of care for patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC), according to groundbreaking data presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2024.1...
In the final per-protocol analysis of the phase III KEYNOTE-811 trial, an overall survival benefit was shown by adding the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab to trastuzumab and chemotherapy in treatment-naive, unresectable, HER2-positive metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.1...
For women with early-stage triple-negative breast cancer, KEYNOTE-522 changed the treatment paradigm several years ago. Support for neoadjuvant use of the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy, followed by adjuvant pembrolizumab, was bolstered by the positive overall survival analysis...
A novel cell therapy targeting CD7 on leukemia cells may provide an effective treatment option for patients with refractory T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), according to a recent study published by Oh et al in Nature Medicine. The findings highlighted the effectiveness of a new chimeric...
Deintensified treatment involving a lower radiation dose and immunotherapy in place of chemotherapy may not perform as well as a more rigorous chemoradiation treatment approach in patients with early-stage human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated oropharyngeal cancer, according to new findings...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Ahn et al, the phase III TROPION-Lung01 trial showed significantly improved progression-free survival—but not overall survival—with the TROP2-directed antibody-drug conjugate datopotamab deruxtecan (Dato-DXd) vs docetaxel in patients with...
As reported in The Lancet by Lorusso et al, overall survival results from the phase III ENGOT-cx11/GOG-3047/KEYNOTE-A18 trial indicated a significant benefit of pembrolizumab vs placebo with concurrent chemoradiotherapy followed by pembrolizumab vs placebo in patients with newly diagnosed,...
Treatment with the immunotherapy agent pembrolizumab may nearly double the length that patients with high-risk, muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma are cancer free following surgical removal of the bladder, according to a recent study published by Apolo et al in The New England Journal of...
Black patients with triple-negative breast cancer may receive immunotherapy at lower rates than White patients, according to new findings presented by Freeman et al at the 2024 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic...
Researchers have found that about 50% of patients with metastatic melanoma treated with a combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab experienced cancer-free survival of 10 years or longer, according to a recent study published by Wolchok et al in The New England Journal of Medicine. Background In...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Ruiz-Esteves et al identified risks for immune checkpoint inhibitor–induced diabetes in patients with cancer. Study Details The retrospective cohort study involved data from 14,328 adult patients with cancer treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors in the Mass ...
On September 17, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pembrolizumab (Keytruda) with pemetrexed and platinum chemotherapy as first-line treatment of unresectable advanced or metastatic malignant pleural mesothelioma. Efficacy and Safety Efficacy was investigated in KEYNOTE-483...
The results of numerous large international studies reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2024 showed that immunotherapy improves long-term overall survival in patients with a variety of cancer types, including advanced melanoma,1,2 triple-negative breast cancer,3...
Although chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has transformed treatment for patients with relapsed and refractory blood cancers, it can also cause an array of immune-related adverse events, including cytokine-release syndrome, immune effector cell–associated neurotoxicity syndrome, and...
Researchers may have uncovered a metabolic pathway that could lead to the development of predictive biomarkers for immune checkpoint inhibitors, according to new findings presented by Kulasinghe et al at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2024 World Conference on...
Researchers have explored whether an artificial intelligence (AI)-based tool could help to detect immune-related adverse events in patients with cancer, according to a recent study published by Sun et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Background Although immune checkpoint inhibitors can...
In a study reported in JAMA Network Open, Sun et al analyzed survival outcomes with immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) treatment used in first- or second-line therapy, with treatment continuation vs discontinuation, and with treatment rechallenge in patients with recurrent or metastatic head and...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Zhao et al, meta-analyses of trials of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in patients with advanced EGFR-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) progressing on EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment indicate that the optimal treatment strategy is...
Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, FASCO, an internationally recognized pioneer in melanoma and cancer immunotherapy, died on August 19, 2024, according to an announcement from the Melanoma Research Foundation. He most recently served as Deputy Director of the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center at...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Verheijden et al found that higher peak corticosteroid doses for patients with immune-related adverse events were associated with poorer outcomes in patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) for solid tumors. Study Details...
Researchers may have uncovered how combination immunotherapies targeting the immune checkpoints PD-1 and LAG-3 may work together to activate immune responses in patients with melanoma, according to two recent studies published by Cillo et al and Andrews et al in Cell. The findings may shed light on ...
An activity pattern in certain genes responsible for building proteins known as spleen tyrosine kinases may predict the occurrence of severe side effects from immunotherapy in patients with melanoma, according to a recent study published by Monson et al in Clinical Cancer Research. Background...
On August 8, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved denileukin diftitox-cxdl (Lymphir), a novel immunotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) who have received at least one prior systemic therapy. Denileukin diftitox is...
The survival rates of patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have improved since the introduction of the first immunotherapeutic in this population in the United States in 2015, according to a recent study published by Wang et al in Cancer. NSCLC accounts for up to 90% of all...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Arielle Elkrief, MD, and colleagues found that detection of intratumoral Escherichia was associated with improved overall survival in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) receiving single-agent immune checkpoint inhibitor ...
Researchers may have uncovered why some patients with Merkel cell carcinoma do not respond to immune checkpoint blockade therapy, according to a recent study published by Reinstein et al in Cancer Discovery. Background Merkel cell carcinoma—a rare but highly aggressive type of skin cancer—is known...
Fecal microbiota transplants may improve the effectiveness of immunotherapy in patients with gastrointestinal cancers, according to a recent study published by Kim et al in Cell Host & Microbe. Background Although immune checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionized cancer treatment, many patients...
A simple blood test that measures lymphocyte counts may predict whether patients with relapsed multiple myeloma are going to respond well to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapy, according to research published by Saldarriaga et al in Blood Advances. The study found that patients...
Two hallmark toxicities of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy may be rare after 2 weeks following infusion in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), supporting a shorter, more flexible toxicity monitoring period., according to a recent study published by Ahmed et al in...
In a retrospective study reported in JAMA Oncology, Fulgenzi et al found evidence that immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-based treatment may improve survival vs best supportive care as first-line therapy in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma and Child-Pugh class B (CP-B) liver...
In a Chinese phase II trial (TORCH) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Xia et al found that integration of the PD-1 inhibitor toripalimab into total neoadjuvant therapy was associated with good outcomes in patients with mismatch repair–proficient or microsatellite-stable (pMMR/MSS)...
The results of a retrospective multicohort study, reported in The Lancet Oncology by Wan et al, suggested that the identification of the immune-related adverse event cluster to which a patient belongs may aid in prognosticating response to immunotherapy. “These insights can be leveraged to counsel...