Jason Harris

Findings from a planned interim analysis of the Ib/II Study 111 showed that lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab induced a disease control rate of 94% in patients with metastatic clear cell RCC who had disease progression following treatment with a PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor.

Patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma assigned to nivolumab plus ipilimumab had a longer treatment-free survival than patients treated with sunitinib. Furthermore, those patients assigned to the combination spent less time experiencing treatment-related adverse events.

Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston established its immunotherapy toxicity service care team in part because of the experience of David M., a patient treated there for metastatic melanoma that spread to the lung and brain.

Treating clear cell renal cell carcinoma with immune checkpoint inhibitors resulted in vascular changes that may make these tumors more vulnerable to combinations of ICIs and VEGF inhibitors, according to data presented at the 18th International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Treatment targeting molecular pathways such as <em>BRAF, </em>HER2<em>,</em> and <em>RAS</em> has typically been reserved for later lines of therapy for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Benjamin A. Weinberg, MD, said that agents targeting these pathways are not yet ready for the upfront setting, but data from ongoing trials suggest that these agents may eventually have a role to play in first- and second-line treatment.

Immunotherapeutic agents have grown in popularity for treating mismatch repair&ndash;deficient metastatic colorectal cancer, becoming the standard of care in the second line, Howard Hochster, MD, told an audience at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Oncology Conference. Furthermore, ongoing clinical trials suggest that these agents may play a larger role in treating CRC going forward.

What is the ideal first-line therapy for nonresectable, non&ndash;transplantable eligible, liver-only hepatocellular carcinoma? In a debate at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Oncology Conference, Mark Yarchoan, MD, had the unenviable task of convincing the audience that systemic therapy was the way to go.

The FOLFIRINOX regimen remains the treatment of choice for patients with pancreatic cancer even as clinical trials exploring potential therapies, including CD40 and CPI-613, offer the possibility of new options for a notoriously difficult-to-treat disease, Davendra P.S. Sohal, MD, MPH, told an audience at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Oncology Conference.

The presence of novel combinations and oral targeted therapies are rising in the frontline treatment setting for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, regardless of age. According to Nitin Jain, MD, ongoing phase III trials will bring additional modifications to the treatment landscape.

In a prospective postmarketing assessment, the use of tisagenlecleucel for treatment of adult patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, lead to responses that were similar to studies of children and adolescents with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Recent updates to the JULIET study, presented at the 2019 SOHO Annual Meeting, show that tisagenlecleucel has sustained benefit throughout the course of the trial with high response rates, and long duration in adults with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

In a retrospective study of patients with replaced or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma, checkpoint inhibition prior to haploidentical stem cell transplantation improved progression-free survival and risk for relapse, based on results presented at the 2019 SOHO Annual Meeting.

To improve the efficacy of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies, Nirali N. Shah, MD, MHSc, suggested including new constructs that target more than 1 antigen in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, during a presentation at the 2019 SOHO Annual Meeting.<br /> &nbsp;

Two analyses of the phase II DUO trial show that modifying the dosage of duvelisib or interrupting treatment in patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma, does not compromise outcomes or increase toxicity.

CDK4/6 inhibitors<strong> </strong>offer clear benefits in pro&shy;gression-free survival, delayed time to chemotherapy, and overall survival in both pre and postmenopausal patients with estrogen receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer, said Angela DeMichele, MD, MSCE.

Results from a survey conducted by the Society of Gynecologic Oncology found that&nbsp;70% of female and more than half of male&nbsp;gynecologic oncologists in the United States were victims of sexual harassment in either training or practice; and of those, only 10% said they reported their experiences.

According to&nbsp;a study authors performed to call attention to the need to address socioeconomic disparities that influence treatment outcomes, higher incomes and having private insurance were associated with a significantly greater probability of survival for patients with multiple myeloma.

Identifying the inflamed&nbsp;tumors that are most likely to respond favorably to immunotherapeutics and, conversely, finding ways to treat noninflamed tumors are essential for successful application of immunotherapy in endometrial cancer, according to a presentation at the 2019 Society of Gynecologic Oncology Annual Winter Meeting.

Targeted therapy has effectively been established as an option for patients with ovarian cancers. However, beyond PARP inhibition in the <em>BRCA</em>-mutated or homologous recombination deficient population, questions remain about how to best treat these patients,&nbsp;Ramez N. Eskander, MD, said at the 2019 SGO Annual Winter Meeting.

Despite all the positive data associated with PARP inhibitors for the treatment of patients with&nbsp;epithelial ovarian cancer who have known <em>BRCA</em> mutations, these agents are not curing patients, said Leslie M. Randall, MD, MAS, at the 2019 SGO Annual Winter Meeting.

Women with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer who fail prior treatment are known to have a poor prognosis, but immunotherapy may extend their survival, according to a presentation by Deanna Teoh, MD, MS, at the 2019 SGO Annual Winter Meeting.

Genomic testing can help physicians in the treatment decision process for women with ovarian cancer.&nbsp;As more of these platforms become commercially available, however, physicians must also learn the similarities and differences between each of these tests.

Debra Richardson, MD, discussed the role of PARP inhibitor combinations for frontline maintenance of women with ovarian cancer at the 2019 SGO Winter Meeting.

To assist clinicians in the day-to-day management of their patients, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer has developed its first guidelines to help direct immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment of NSCLC.

The future of prostate cancer treatment will involve using biomarkers to identify which patients will respond to which medications and applying regimens currently in use for patients with advanced disease to men with earlier-stage disease, said Howard I. Scher, MD.

Up to 30% of men with prostate cancer could meet criteria for genetic evaluation for hereditary disease. The hard part, Sanjeev Kaul, MD, said at the 2018 Large Urology Group Practice Association Annual Meeting, is separating the mutations that are relevant from those that are not.

Since&nbsp;2016, the FDA has approved 5 immune checkpoint inhibitors to treat urologic cancers. Although that is unquestionably a good thing for patients, the rise of these agents means that the role of the urologist in cancer care is changing, said Noah M. Hahn, MD, during the 2018 Large Urology Group Practice Association Annual Meeting.

Vedolizumab induced clinical, endoscopic, and histologic remission of steroid-refractory, immune-mediated enterocolitis in patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitorsfor cancer treatment, according to the results of a small retrospective study presented at the 2018 American College of Gastroenterology Annual Meeting.

The National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable may have come up short in its goal to get 80% of American adults &ge;50 years screened for colorectal cancer by 2018, but David A. Greenwald, MD, told his audience at the 2018 American College of Gastroenterology Annual Meeting that the group can point to smaller victories that deserve recognition.

There may be pros and cons for screening people who do not have symptoms of pancreatic cancer, but the evidence clearly supports screening those at a high risk for developing the disease,&nbsp;Vivek Kaul, MD, told his audience at the 2018 American College of Gastroenterology Annual Meeting.