Ajay K. Nooka, MBBS, of Winship Cancer Center of Emory University, discusses phase II findings showing that, in patients with high-risk myeloma, maintenance therapy with carfilzomib, pomalidomide, and dexamethasone deepened responses. Measurable residual disease negativity was attained in 80% of patients.
Omid Hamid, MD, of The Angeles Clinic & Research Institute, discusses study findings on fianlimab plus cemiplimab-rwlc, which showed clinical activity in patients with advanced melanoma, comparing favorably with other approved combinations of immune checkpoint inhibitors in the same clinical setting. This is the first indication that dual LAG-3 blockade may produce a high level of activity with significant overall response rate after adjuvant anti–PD-1 treatment. A phase III trial of this regimen in treatment-naive patients with advanced melanoma is ongoing (Abstract 9501).
Penelope Bradbury, MBChB, of Canada’s Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, discusses phase III findings showing that, in patients with treatment-naive unresectable pleural mesothelioma, cisplatin and pemetrexed with pembrolizumab improved median overall survival with acceptable tolerability (Abstract LBA8505).
Carmen E. Guerra, MD, MSCE, of the University of Pennsylvania Abramson Cancer Center, discusses three key abstracts presented at ASCO: strategies to increase accrual of underrepresented populations in Alliance NCTN trials, how patient-clinician education can strengthen partnerships and improve diversity in breast and lung cancer trials, and mediators of racial and ethnic inequities in clinical trial participation among U.S. patients with cancer from 2011 to 2022 (Abstracts 6509, 6510, 6511).
Allison Betof Warner, MD, PhD, of Stanford University Medical Center, and Zeynep Eroglu, MD, of H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, discusses phase II findings showing that in patients with BRAF-mutant metastatic melanoma, dabrafenib plus trametinib and navitoclax (DTN) was associated with a complete response rate of 20% and an overall response rate of 84%. Additionally, there was a trend toward improved overall survival in patients treated with DTN compared with dabrafenib plus trametinib alone; the difference in overall survival was more pronounced in patients with a smaller tumor burden (Abstract 9511).
Narjust Florez, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Heather A. Wakelee, MD, of Stanford University, Stanford Cancer Institute, discuss new data supporting neoadjuvant pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy followed by surgery and adjuvant pembrolizumab as a promising new treatment option for patients with resectable stage II, IIIA, or IIIB (N2) non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (Abstract LBA100).
