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Durvalumab improves progression-free survival in patients with locally advanced, unresectable stage III lung cancer, according to late-breaking results from the phase III PACIFIC trial presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract LBA1_PR) and...
Luis G. Paz-Ares, MD, PhD, of Hospital Universitario 12 De Octubre, discusses phase III study findings on durvalumab after chemoradiation therapy in patients with stage III, locally advanced, unresectable non–small cell lung cancer (Abstract LBA1).
Michèle Beau-Faller, MD, PhD, of the Hôpital de Hautepierre & Institut Régional du Cancer, discusses study results on ultrasensitive detection of EGFR T790M mutation by droplet digital PCR in TKI naïve non–small cell lung cancer harboring EGFR mutation (Abstract 85PD).
In a phase III trial reported by Govindan et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the addition of first-line ipilimumab (Yervoy) to paclitaxel/carboplatin did not improve overall survival in patients with advanced squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Study Details In the...
Data from two separate phase III studies presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid show the particular central nervous system (CNS) activity of alectinib (Alecensa) in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer involving a mutation of the...
Luis G. Paz-Ares, MD, PhD, of Hospital Universitario 12 De Octubre, discusses phase III study findings on durvalumab after chemoradiation therapy in patients with stage III, locally advanced, unresectable non–small cell lung cancer (Abstract LBA1).
The optimal follow-up protocol for patients with completely resected non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains elusive after results of the IFCT-0302 trial, presented at the 2017 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Madrid, did not show a difference in overall survival...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Pavel et al, no significant difference in deterioration of health-related quality of life was observed with everolimus (Afinitor) vs placebo in the phase III RADIANT-4 trial, which included patients with advanced nonfunctional well-differentiated...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Brasky et al found that the use of individual source supplemental vitamins B6 and B12 was associated with an increased risk of lung cancer among men in the Vitamins and Lifestyle (VITAL) cohort. Several B vitamins, including B6, B9 (folate),...
Staying up-to-date in the fast-paced world of oncology literature is a daunting task at best. To assist with that task, The ASCO Post has assembled an assortment of studies recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The topics range from therapy for stage IV non–small cell lung cancer...
With checkpoint inhibitors vitally important in the treatment of advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), clinicians must become familiar with the nuances of their use. At the 2017 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology Conference in Sea Island, Georgia, Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD,...
RECENTLY ANNOUNCED DATA from the phase III FLAURA trial showed a statistically significant and clinically meaningful progression-free survival benefit with osimertinib (Tagrisso) compared to current first-line standard-of-care treatment (erlotinib [Tarceva] or gefitinib [Iressa]) in previously...
IMMUNOTHERAPY AND ANTIANGIOGENESIS were highlighted in a session on metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) at the Best of ASCO New Orleans meeting. Matthew Gubens, MD, MS, presented the selected abstracts from the ASCO Annual Meeting.1 Dr. Gubens is Associate Professor of Thoracic Medical...
An update of the ASCO clinical practice guideline on the systemic treatment of patients with stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) clarifies the role of immunotherapy in this setting. The update, published by Hanna et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, also provides new...
With the advent of molecular targeted therapies and immunotherapy, eligibility criteria have increased in number and complexity for lung cancer clinical trials, according to an analysis published by Garcia et al in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology. Despite calls to streamline cancer clinical trial...
According to a study reported by Yang et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, high dietary intake of total fat and saturated fat was associated with an increased risk of lung cancer, with the association with saturated fat being particularly evident among current smokers. Study Details The...
ANAPLASTIC LYMPHOMA KINASE (ALK) was first identified in anaplastic large cell lymphoma. The ALK gene itself is not oncogenic, but it can become oncogenic by at least three mechanisms: by forming a fusion gene with a number of other partner genes, by copy number gain, or by mutations in the gene....
As reported by Rebecca Suk Heist, MD, MPH, of Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan showed activity in patients with previously treated metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Sacituzumab targets ...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted Genentech’s supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) and granted Priority Review for alectinib (Alecensa) as a first-line treatment for people with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive, locally advanced, or metastatic...
On July 27, it was announced that the phase III FLAURA trial showed a statistically significant and clinically meaningful progression-free survival benefit with osimertinib (Tagrisso) compared to current first-line standard-of-care treatment (erlotinib [Tarceva] or gefitinib [Iressa]) in previously ...
In the randomized phase IIB DETERMINE trial, the cytotoxic T-lymphocyte–associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) inhibitor tremelimumab did not improve overall survival vs placebo as second- or third-line treatment of relapsed malignant mesothelioma. These findings were reported in The Lancet Oncology...
On July 31, AstraZeneca and MedImmune (AstraZeneca’s global biologics research and development arm) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Breakthrough Therapy designation for durvalumab (Imfinzi) for the treatment of patients with locally advanced,...
On July 27, researchers announced the progression-free survival (PFS) results for the phase III MYSTIC trial, a randomized, open-label, multicenter, global trial of durvalumab (Imfinzi) monotherapy or durvalumab in combination with tremelimumab vs platinum-based standard-of-care chemotherapy in...
The Lung Cancer Mutation Consortium at the University of Colorado Cancer Center reported that 24 of 920 patients (3%) with advanced-stage lung cancer in a recent study had mutations in the gene HER2. According to the study, published by Pillai et al in Cancer, 71% of these patients were...
For patients with advanced, inoperable stage III lung cancer, concurrent chemotherapy and proton-beam radiotherapy offers improved survival compared to historical data for standard of care, according to a new study from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The research, published by...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Bendzsak et al found that centralization of surgery services to high-volume hospitals in Ontario was not independently associated with improved operative mortality rates in lung cancer. In April 2007, a policy was implemented to regionalize...
STUDY DISCUSSANT Anne Tsao, MD, Director of the Mesothelioma Program at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, indicated the response rates seen in the MAPS-2 trial are comparable to those demonstrated in smaller studies of pembrolizumab (Keytruda). She considered the...
CHECKPOINT INHIBITION was effective against malignant pleural mesothelioma in the MAPS-2 study of the French Cooperative Thoracic Intergroup. At the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting, researchers reported a disease control rate of up to 50% when patients were treated with immunotherapy after relapse in a...
A Japanese phase III trial has shown no survival benefit of prophylactic cranial irradiation vs observation in patients with extensive-disease small cell lung cancer who had any response to platinum-based doublet chemotherapy and no brain metastases at baseline. These findings were reported in The...
Following early reports associating favorable outcomes in cancer patients with the use of statins,1,2 further observational studies in this area have provided mixed findings.3 As recently reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Seckl and colleagues ...
In a UK phase III study (LUNGSTAR) reported in the Journal of Clinical -Oncology, Michael J. Seckl, MD, PhD, of Imperial College London, and colleagues found that adding pravastatin to first-line standard chemotherapy did not improve overall survival in patients with small cell lung cancer...
On June 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted premarket approval to Thermo Fisher Scientific for the first next-generation sequencing–based test that simultaneously screens tumor samples for biomarkers associated with three FDA-approved therapies for non–small cell...
INCREASING NUMBERS of patients are being treated with checkpoint inhibitors, and about one-quarter to one-third will develop immune-related adverse events. One question on the minds of oncologists is can these patients be safely re-treated once their adverse events resolve? One of the first...
"TO PUT THESE RESULTS into context, currently we have three approved epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors for EGFR-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): gefitinib (Iressa), erlotinib (Tarceva), and afatinib (Gilotrif). Not many studies have compared these drugs ...
DACOMITINIB, a second-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor, outperformed gefitinib (Iressa) as first-line treatment for EGFR-positive advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the phase III ARCHER 1050 study.1 Dacomitinib improved...
On June 29, the European Commission approved expanding the use of ceritinib (Zykadia) to include the first-line treatment of patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors are anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)–positive. Approval follows a positive opinion granted...
As reported by Carbone et al in The New England Journal of Medicine, the phase III CheckMate 026 trial has shown no progression-free survival benefit for first-line nivolumab (Opdivo) vs platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with recurrent or stage IV non–small cell lung cancer with...
On June 22, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted regular approvals to dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist) administered in combination for patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with BRAF V600E mutation as detected by an FDA-approved test. These ...
In the phase II BIRCH trial, atezolizumab (Tecentriq) was found to produce higher response rates as first-line or subsequent therapy in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with higher levels of programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression. Study findings were...
“This is a watershed moment in the treatment of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Often studies show only incremental improvements with a new treatment. This is different. Alectinib [Alecensa] shows a dramatic increase in efficacy that is also accompanied ...
In 2011, crizotinib (Xalkori) became the first effective targeted therapy for anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Now data from a phase III trial show that alectinib (Alecensa), a second-generation ALK inhibitor, outperformed crizotinib, the current...
The phase III ASCEND-5 trial has shown a significant improvement in progression-free survival with ceritinib (Zykadia) vs chemotherapy in advanced ALK-rearranged non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) previously treated with crizotinib (Xalkori) and chemotherapy. Trial results were reported in...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has issued a new clinical guideline for the use of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in early-stage lung cancer. While SBRT is the current standard of care for peripherally located tumors in patients who cannot undergo surgery, the new...
As reported by Heist et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan showed activity in patients with previously treated metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Sacituzumab targets Trop-2, present on many solid tumors; govitecan is the...
The OAK study—recently reported by Rittmeyer and colleagues and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post—is the first study to show patients with previously treated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with a humanized antibody (atezolizumab, Tecentriq) directed against the programmed cell...
In the phase III OAK trial reported in The Lancet by Achim Rittmeyer, MD, of Lungenfachklinik Immenhausen, Germany, and colleagues, treatment with the anti–programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) antibody atezolizumab (Tecentriq) improved overall survival vs docetaxel in previously treated non–small ...
David H. Henry, MD, of Pennsylvania Oncology Hematology Associates, outlines abstracts focusing on chemotherapy in locally advanced rectal cancer and immune-related toxicity, response to anti–PD-L1 blockade, and epacadostat plus pembrolizumab in lung cancer.
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On May 10, 2017, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was granted accelerated...
On May 26, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted regular approval to ceritinib (Zykadia), a kinase inhibitor for patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors are anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive as detected by an FDA-approved test. In April...
Arnaud Scherpereel, MD, PhD, of the University Hospital of Lille, discusses in French phase II study findings on second- or third-line nivolumab vs nivolumab plus ipilimumab in malignant pleural mesothelioma patients. (Abstract LBA8507)