THYROID CANCERS

To help clinicians cope with an increasing number of geriatric patients with cancer, the Association of Community Cancer Centers is addressing this problem with a 2-pronged approach that focuses on the delivery of care and diagnostic assessment.

The New Drug Application for selpercatinib was granted FDA Priority Review for the treatment of patients with advanced RET fusion–positive non–small cell lung cancer, RET-mutant medullary thyroid cancer, and RET fusion–positive thyroid cancer, based on data from the phase I/II LIBRETTO-001 trial, Eli Lilly and Company announced in a press release.

A new retrospective exploratory analysis has found no association between treatment with sorafenib and the development of sarcopenia among patients with locally advanced or metastatic radioactive iodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer. However, this analysis, which was published recently in Thyroid, did find that sorafenib had a significant effect on muscle mass.

Lenvatinib demonstrated a longer median overall survival compared with palliative therapy in patients with stage IVC anaplastic thyroid cancer, a rare disease for which the survival rate has not improved in roughly 20 years. The introduction of targeted therapy to the treatment landscape for anaplastic thyroid cancer has been challenging in the past because some patients do not have time to undergo therapy on a clinical trial because the process is time-consuming, and the procedure for study enrollment may exceed time to progression.

Integrating a geriatric assessment into the care of older adults who are receiving cancer treatment in communi­ty oncology practices improves patient and caregiver satisfaction and encourages commu­nication about aging-related concerns, accord­ing to results of a clinical trial that enrolled 541 patients with advanced cancer.

The present and future benefits of telehealth in oncology can be observed through Tahoe For­est Cancer Center and its affiliation with the UC Davis Cancer Center, use of other remote clinics, and participation in virtual tumor boards. Even though there are roadblocks to telehealth reaching more locations and more patients, the potential benefit warrants the time needed to get over those hurdles.

The incidence of thyroid cancer in the United States may be on decline since the rise in thyroid cancer diagnoses observed between 1974 and 2013. This finding is based on observational analysis of data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results 13 registry, which were recently published in JAMA.<br /> &nbsp;

Shlomo Koyfman, MD, discusses registry data on thyroid cancer and how data from the registry can improve practice for oncologists.

Lenvatinib is now indicated for the treatment of differentiated thyroid cancer in China as a result of application acceptance by the National Medical Products Administration of China, according to a press release from Eisai Co., Ltd.<br /> &nbsp;

In patients whose solid<strong> </strong>tumors harbor a mutation in <em>KRAS </em>G12C, therapy with MRTX849 has produced promising responses and acceptable toxicity across 3 tumors types, according to data presented at the 2019 American Association for Cancer Research&ndash;National Cancer Institute&ndash;European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, at the 2019 Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium, Marcia Brose, MD, PhD, discussed the cases of thyroid cancer in which molecular testing can be initiated upfront to aid in the treatment decisions of oncologists. She also advised physicians on how to decide when to test patients with the disease.

A new analysis of a multicenter, retrospective cohort study has found that first-line sorafenib improved overall survival in patients with progressive radioactive iodine-refractory differentiated thyroid carcinoma. Additionally, salvage therapy with lenvatinib improved OS in patients with disease progression after first-line sorafenib.<br /> &nbsp;

In an interview with&nbsp;Targeted Oncology, Winston Tan, MD, discussed advances in thyroid cancer that may be competitors to the current standard of care. He also shared ongoing challenges that he has experienced in treating patients with thyroid cancer.

Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

In an interview with&nbsp;<em>Targeted Oncology</em>, Catherine Sinclair, MD, discussed the importance of early detection in patients with thyroid cancer. She also highlighted surgical decisions for these patients and how she makes these choices for each patient.

Winston Tan, MD, discusses the current treatment landscape for patients with thyroid cancer. He highlighted the importance of first determining if a patient with thyroid cancer has benign or malignant thyroid nodules, which can be identified with the use of diagnostic biopsies. He also discussed the standard-of-care treatment options for these different subtypes of patients once they are identified.

A new exploratory study has found that increased levels of&nbsp;plasma VEGF-A and serum thyroglobulin adversely affected clinical outcomes in patients with radioactive iodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer, although no biomarker successfully predicted sorafenib response. This study, which was published recently in&nbsp;Clinical Cancer Research, was a retrospective analysis conducted using samples from the earlier phase III DECISION trial.

The FDA has approved a supplemental New Drug Application for a single dose of aprepitant injectable emulsion for intravenous use in patients receiving moderately emetogenic chemotherapy. The approval expands the dose for aprepitant to include a 130 mg single-dose regimen for the prevention of acute and delayed chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting.<br /> &nbsp;

In an interview with <em>Targeted Oncology</em>, Dr. Miles, discussed the importance of early detection for patients with thyroid cancer. He also highlighted how the treatment options differ for patients with disease that is caught early on versus those with more advanced and aggressive diseases, such as anaplastic thyroid cancer.<br /> &nbsp;

Marcelo C. Pasquini, MD, discusses the rationale for analyzing real-world data for the use of tisagenlecleucel, a chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, as a treatment for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. This CD19 CAR T cell was approved 2 years ago for use in both ALL and DLBCL.

The addition of direct oral oral anticoagulants for the management of venous thromboembolism in patients with cancer is the latest change to previous guidelines issued by the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Using a measure known as the growth modulation index, patients with TRK fusion&ndash;positive cancers who were treated with larotrectinib had a clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival compared with the time to progression on their prior treatment, an analysis of patients enrolled in 1 of 3 clinical trials has found.

Strong objective responses rates were seen in the phase I/II LIBRETTO trial, which studied RET inhibition with selpercatinib in patients with&nbsp;<em>RET</em>-mutant medullary thyroid cancer and for those with other&nbsp;<em>RET</em>&nbsp;fusion-positive thyroid cancer. The registrational findings were recently presented at ESMO Congress 2019.

Three clinical trials presented at the 2019 ESMO Congress show that the tropomyosin receptor kinase&nbsp;inhibitor larotrectinib continues to show anti-tumor activity, including long-lasting objective responses and low toxicity, according to results from an integrated analysis.