Wayne Kuznar

The addition of atezolizumab to ado-trastuzumab emtansine improved overall survival in patients with previously treated HER2-positive advanced breast cancer compared with T-DM1 alone, according to a second OS analysis of the phase II KATE2 trial presented at the 2019 ESMO Congress.

Glutaminase inhibitor telaglenastat added to everolimus extends progression-free survival in patients with heavily pretreated advanced renal cell carcinoma compared with everolimus monotherapy, according to data from the phase II ENTRATA study presented at the 2019 ESMO Congress.

An objective response rate of 35.5% was seen with&nbsp;treatment with pemigatinib, a selective oral inhibitor of&nbsp;FGFR1, 2, and 3, in patients with&nbsp;previously treated, locally advanced or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma with an&nbsp;<em>FGFR2&nbsp;</em>rearrangement or fusion,&nbsp;according to findings from the phase II FIGHT-202 clinical trial presented at ESMO 2019.

Single-agent atezolizumab improved overall survival in newly diagnosed patients with&nbsp;wild-type non&ndash;small cell lung cancer who had &ge;50% expression of PD-L1 on tumor cells or &ge;10% expression on tumor-infiltrating immune cells compared with platinum-based chemotherapy, according to the interim survival analysis of the phase III IMpower110 study.

Larotrectinib demonstrated efficacy across analyses for both pediatric patients and those with brain metastases or primary central nervous system tumors, whether pediatric or adult, with TRK fusions.

In the placebo-controlled phase II FAKTION trial, a combination of capivasertib and fulvestrant showed a significant increase in progression-free survival compared to the use of fulvestrant alone in patients with endocrine-resistant estrogen receptor-positive advanced breast cancer.

Based on the results from a phase III SOPHIA clinical trial, the HER2-targeted antibody, margetuximab, was superior to trastuzumab in improving progression-free survival in patients with pretreated HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. In CD16A-158F carriers, the PFS was significantly enhanced.<br /> &nbsp;

The investigational PD-1 inhibitor spartalizumab demonstrated a high rate of complete responses in combination with&nbsp;dabrafenib and trametinib in&nbsp;patients with previously untreated advanced&nbsp;<em>BRAF&nbsp;</em>V600&ndash;mutant melanoma. Patients pooled from 2 parts of the 3-part COMBI-i study demonstrated a CR rate of more than 40%.

Findings from a cohort of the&nbsp;phase II Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR) basket study revealed that heavily pretreated patients with&nbsp;metastatic breast cancer and high mutational burden benefited from pembrolizumab monotherapy.&nbsp;

Cemiplimab demonstrated substantial antitumor activity and induced durable responses in patients with locally advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma who were enrolled in the pivotal EMPOWER-CSCC-1 phase II study, and these results were similar to previously reported data in patients with metastatic CSCC enrolled in the same study.

At the 2019 American Society of Clinical Oncology&ndash;Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Clinical Immuno-Oncology Symposium, Natalie Vokes, MD, MPhil, reviews the latest evidence linking tumor mutational burden to outcome in patients treated with immune checkpoint blockade as well as genomic correlates of response within the tumor immunity cycle.

The success of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy observed in hematologic malignancies has not yet translated into the solid tumor setting; however, efforts continue to try to bring this new modality into the treatment paradigm for solid tumors, including pancreatic cancer.&nbsp;

Under the updated&nbsp;guideline from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network for the management of&nbsp;chronic myeloid leukemia,&nbsp;discontinuation of TKI therapy is considered safe with careful monitoring in adult patients with CML in the chronic phase&nbsp;who achieve and maintain a major molecular response.

Under the 2019 update to the&nbsp;National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines, the recommendation&nbsp;on the management of&nbsp;advanced clear cell renal cell carcinoma has undergone a major shift in defining the risk category used to define preferred and alternative first-line treatments.

According to findings from an open-label, single-arm phase I/II basket study presented during the&nbsp;2019 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, 14 of 45 patients with relapsed/refractory metastatic urothelial cancer demonstrated an objective response to&nbsp;sacituzumab govitecan, for an objective response rate of 31.1%.

First-line treatment with single-agent pembrolizumab induced a 24.8% overall response rate in patients with&nbsp;non-clear cell renal cell carcinoma, according to&nbsp;findings from cohort B of the phase II KEYNOTE-427 trial that were presented during the 2019 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.<br /> &nbsp;

According to phase I findings from a dose-escalation cohort presented during the 2019 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, the combination of pembrolizumab and cabozantinib demonstrated antitumor activity in patients with previously treated metastatic renal cell carcinoma and is tolerated at their approved doses for this indication.

Retrospective findings reported during the&nbsp;2019 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium showed&nbsp;patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who received radium-223 dichloride with abiraterone acetate in a layered fashion experienced a lower rate of symptomatic skeletal events compared with those who received the treatments concurrently.

Adding&nbsp;enzalutamide (Xtandi) to androgen deprivation therapy led to&nbsp;prolonged radiographic progression-free survival compared with ADT alone in men with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, investigators reported during the&nbsp;2019 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.

According to data from the&nbsp;phase III ARAMIS trial presented during the&nbsp;2019 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, darolutamide added to androgen deprivation therapy significantly improved metastasis-free survival compared with placebo plus ADT in patients with nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

When&nbsp;durvalumab and tremelimumab were combined with&nbsp;best supportive care, the combination reduced the risk of progression or death by 28% compared with best supportive care alone, according to findings from a phase II clinical trial.&nbsp;

Updated findings from the&nbsp;safety lead-in phase of the BEACON CRC trial showed an estimated survival time beyond historic controls from treatment with a triplet combination of&nbsp;encorafenib, binimetinib, and cetuximab for patients with&nbsp;<em>BRAF&nbsp;</em>V600E-mutant metastatic colorectal cancer.&nbsp;

Regorafenib reduced the risk of progression by 51% compared with placebo in patients with&nbsp;metastatic or unresectable biliary tract cancer who were previously treated with gemcitabine and platinum-based chemotherapy, according to results from the phase II REACHIN trial that were presented at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.&nbsp;

Combined BRAF and MEK inhibition induced a promising response rate and survival rates among patients with&nbsp;<em>BRAF&nbsp;</em>V600E&ndash;mutated biliary tract cancer (BTC), according to the results of the ROAR trial that were presented&nbsp;during the 2019 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Based on findings from the phase I/II NivoRam study, investigators at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium reported that the combination of&nbsp;nivolumab and ramucirumab is active in patients with&nbsp;previously treated advanced gastric adenocarcinoma.

According to findings from a subgroup analysis of the phase III ARIEL3 study presented at the 2018 ESMO Congress, the PARP inhibitor&nbsp;rucaparib (Rubraca)&nbsp;improved progression-free survival as a maintenance therapy in patients with&nbsp;platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer&nbsp;compared to placebo, despite the number prior of chemotherapy regimens.

According to findings from the&nbsp;phase IIb SADAL study, selinexor demonstrated deep and durable responses in patients with&nbsp;relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma who are not candidates for autologous stem cell transplantation.

The first in-human study of CAR T cells targeting the tyrosine kinase receptor ROR1&nbsp;in patients with solid tumors showed that the cells could be transferred into patients safely and expanded in vivo, according to findings from the ongoing phase I study presented at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

In data presented at the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting,&nbsp;bispecific T-cell engager antibody constructs demonstrated encouraging activity in patients with&nbsp;multiple myeloma and acute myeloid leukemia.

The shift in the pattern of care in mantle cell lymphoma to bendamustine and rituximab in the frontline has resulted in an improvement in event-free survival compared with the era in which R-CHOP dominated front-line treatment.