Ezra E.W. Cohen, MD, of the University of California, San Diego, discusses primary results of the phase III JAVELIN trial of locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, in which the immune checkpoint inhibitor avelumab was combined with chemoradiotherapy followed by avelumab maintenance. Although the study results were negative, Dr. Cohen suggests other regimens that may prove to be effective (Abstract 910O).
Erika P. Hamilton, MD, of Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discusses results of the nextMONARCH study, which indicated that combining abemaciclib with tamoxifen improved overall survival. Dr. Hamilton also details adverse events in different arms of the study (Abstract 273O).
Paolo A. Ascierto, MD, of the Istituto Nazionale Tumori, discusses phase II results on progression-free survival for patients with advanced melanoma in the SECOMBIT study, whose aim is to evaluate the different sequencing of a BRAF inhibitor (encorafenib) plus a MEK inhibitor (binimetinib) with ipilimumab plus nivolumab (Abstract LBA45).
Benjamin Besse, MD, PhD, of the Gustave Roussy Cancer Centre, discusses results of the phase II PRINCEPS trial, which assessed, for the first time, the effect of just one injection of the immunotherapy atezolizumab before surgery in patients with resectable non–small cell lung cancer (Abstract 1215O).
Stephen R.D. Johnston, MD, PhD, of The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, discusses phase III study findings from the global monarchE trial, which showed that when added to standard adjuvant endocrine therapy, abemaciclib is the first CDK4/6 inhibitor to improve invasive disease–free survival in hormone receptor–positive high-risk early breast cancer (Abstract LBA5_PR).
Read more on the monarchE trial in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.