Jason Harris

According to findings of the IMPACT study discussed at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting, overall survival was improved with personalized therapy based on tumor molecular profiling in patients with advanced, hard-to-treat cancers.

Expression of genes from the B-cell receptor pathway predicted shorter progression-free survival and overall survival in patients with mantle cell lymphoma, according to results from an examination of a subsection of patients in the ongoing Fondazione Italiana Linfomi MCL-0208 clinical trial.

The combination of prexigebersen, a Liposomal Grb2 Antisense oligodeoxynucleotide, and low-dose cytarabine was associated with an overall response rate of 47% in elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia, according to findings from an ongoing phase II trial.

Clinically meaningful improvements in insomnia severity scores for cancer survivors were seen with cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and acupuncture, but CBT-I was more effective overall for reducing the severity of insomnia, according to data from the randomized CHOICE clinical trial, presented ahead of the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting.

In results published in April in the New England Journal of Medicine, corresponding author Peter J. M. Valk, PhD, of the Department of Hematology, Erasmus University Medical Center, and colleagues found that MRD positivity was associated with a higher rate of relapse and a lower rate of relapse-free survival and overall survival for patients with newly diagnosed AML.

Updated results from the phase II LuPSMA study published in<em> The Lancet Oncology </em>showed radionuclide treatment with&nbsp;Lutetium-177 [¹⁷⁷Lu]-PSMA-617 nearly doubled median PSA progression-free survival in men with progressive metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer compared with previous results with another radiopharmaceutical, radium-223.

On Friday, President Donald Trump proposed a &ldquo;blueprint&rdquo; of widespread changes designed to reduce prescription drug costs, drawing a lot of attention from oncology groups and patient advocates across the nation. The proposal, a 44-page plan titled, <em>American Patients First,</em>&nbsp;promises to make generic drugs and biosimilars more accessible. Incentives keeping drug prices high will also be removed.

According to findings presented at the 2018 American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Conference, promising antitumor activity was found with tazemetostat in pediatric patients with INI1-negative solid tumors.

Distinctive&nbsp;biologic features of breast cancer in men were determined in a recent&nbsp;analysis of clinical characteristics, gene expression, and 21-gene Breast Recurrence Score, which also&nbsp;suggested that that RS testing may have an important prognostic role for both men and women.

Everolimus proved to be effective tool for overcoming endocrine resistance in postmenopausal women with ER-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer that have become resistant to aromatase inhibitor therapy.

Results of an interim analysis from a small phase I trial presented at the 2018 American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Conference showed that CAR T-cell therapy can&nbsp;induce next generation sequencing negativity in patients with relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia, suggesting a &ldquo;synergistic&rdquo; relationship with hematopoietic cell transplant that could enhance patient outcomes.

Results from a recent study conducted at the University of Pennsylvania may demonstrate why some patients with chronic&nbsp;lymphocytic leukemia are resistant to tisagenlecleucel, while potentially providing a pathway to enhance patient response.

Antibiotics administered within 30 days of initiating treatment with PD-1 and PD&shy;-L1 inhibitors were associated with poorer survival and increased risk for disease progression in patients with renal cell carcinoma or non-small cell lung cancer.

The combination of bendamustine and rituximab induced a 12-month progression-free survival of 78.6% for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, suggesting that the combination is an effective first salvage regimen.

In a recent phase Ib study, the combination of carboxyamidotriazole orotate (CTO) and&nbsp;temozolomide (Temodar)&nbsp;produced positive safety and efficacy results in patients with glioblastoma (GBM) or anaplastic gliomas, with or without treatment with radiotherapy.

Voxtalisib (XL765) monotherapy induced objective responses in 41.3% of patients with follicular lymphoma, but displayed minimal efficacy in patients with other lymphomas, according to results from a phase II trial of patients with relapsed or refractory lymphoma or chronic lymphocytic leukemia that were recently published in the Lancet Haematology.

The B-Cell Lymphoma Moon Shot Program at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center wants to increase the cure rate of the disease from 30% to 60% within 5 years. In a presentation at the <em>22nd Annual</em> International Congress on Hematologic Malignancies, Michael Wang, MD, detailed results from 3 clinical trials that may help make that 5-year goal into a reality for patients with mantle cell lymphoma.

The combination of CC-122, an investigational pleiotropic pathway modulator, and the second-generation anti-CD20 antibody obinutuzumab induced strong responses in patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma.

Pembrolizumab produced a &ldquo;modest but durable&rdquo; response in heavily pretreated women with PD-L1&ndash;positive, estrogen receptor-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer, according to results from the KEYNOTE-028 trial which were recently published in <em>Clinical Cancer Research</em>.

Adding everolimus to chemoradiation did not have a significant treatment effect for patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma, according to results from the phase II NRG Oncology RTOG 0913 trial.

Venetoclax induced a response in two-thirds of patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia who had progressed after receiving prior therapy with idelalisib, according to findings of a phase II study recently published in <em>Blood</em>.

The 1-year progression-free survival rate was more than tripled&nbsp;with the combination of&nbsp;nivolumab and ipilimumab versus chemotherapy in&nbsp;treatment-na&iuml;ve patients with non&ndash;small cell lung cancer with high tumor mutation burden,&nbsp;according to initial findings from the phase III CheckMate-227 trial.

According to a recent announcement, the FDA has&nbsp;introduced new guidelines in order to ease development of genetic and genomic-based tests. The guidelines were&nbsp;designed to speed up the process for submitting investigational cancer drugs and biological products

Overall survival was extended in patients with&nbsp;hepatocellular carcinoma and elevated baseline alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) who received second-line treatment with ramucirumab (Cyramza) versus placebo,&nbsp;according to findings from the phase III REACH-2 trial.

There was a 16-week complete response rate of 42% per CT imaging with the combination of venetoclax (Venclexta) and ibrutinib (Imbruvica) in patients with previously untreated or relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma, according to results from the phase II AIM study.

Three months of capecitabine (Xeloda) and oxaliplatin (CAPOX) was noninferior for recurrence of death compared with a 6-month course, according to the published findings from IDEA, a pooled analysis of 6 phase III trials.

According to findings from a phase I/II study published in&nbsp;<em>The Lancet Oncology</em>, there was an&nbsp;&ldquo;unprecedented&rdquo; objective response rate of 93% with larotrectinib&nbsp;in patients with&nbsp;TRK&nbsp;fusion&ndash;positive solid tumors.

In preliminary findings from the single-arm, phase II TRINITY trial investigating Rovalpituzumab Tesirine (Rova-T) in the third-line setting for patients with relapsed/refractory small cell lung cancer (SCLC) demonstrating high DLL3 expression, the DLL3-targeted antobody-drug conjugate delivered disappointing results.

According to results from an extended follow-up of the CheckMate-205 trial looking at patients with relapsed/refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma after autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation,&nbsp;nivolumab (Opdivo) caused an overall objective response rate of 69%.

According to results published in <em>The&nbsp;New England Journal of Medicine</em>, molecular minimal residual disease was associated with a higher rate of relapse and a lower rate of relapse-free survival and overall survival for patients with newly-diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia.