ASCO Annual Meeting

Second-line treatment with trabectedin improved progression-free survival by 2.7 months compared with dacarbazine in patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma following prior treatment with an anthracycline.

Lori J. Wirth, MD, hematology/oncology, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses the SELECT trial, which examined the effect of age and lenvatinib treatment on overall survival (OS) for patients with 131I-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer.

Lenvatinib alone and in combination with everolimus significantly improved progression-free survival compared with everolimus alone in a phase II study of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

The combination of ibrutinib with bendamustin plus rituximab (BR) demonstrated a significant improvement in progression-free survival compared with BR alone in patients with pretreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma.

Ian W. Flinn, MD, PhD, director, Blood Cancer Research Program, principal investigator, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discusses a phase I story which examined cerdulatinib in patients with relapsed/refractory B-cell malignancies.

Matthew H. Taylor, MD, Oregon Health and Science University, discusses the efficacy and safety of lenvatinib for the treatment of patients with 131I-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer with and without prior VEGF-targeted therapy.

ASCO has revealed its first clinical trial, which will provide patients with limited options an opportunity to receive a potentially beneficial targeted therapy that matches their distinct genetic make-up and is FDA-approved for another type of cancer.

Marking the first time a phase III study has shown a survival advantage for patients with soft tissue sarcoma, treatment with eribulin (Halaven) demonstrated improved overall survival (OS) by 2 months compared with dacarbazine in patients with advanced leiomyosarcoma (LMS) and adipocytic sarcoma (ADI).

The addition of everolimus to sorafenib extended progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with metastatic differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) that had progressed on sorafenib alone, according to findings from a single-arm open-label phase II study.

Patients with BRAF-mutant late-stage melanoma derive a lasting overall survival (OS) benefit from treatment with the combination of dabrafenib and trametinib compared with dabrafenib and placebo, according to the final results from the COMBI-d phase III double-blinded trial.

Marcia S. Brose, MD, PhD, associate professor of Otorhinolaryngology: Head and Neck Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, discusses the effect of age and lenvatinib treatment on overall survival for patients with 131I-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer in the SELECT trial.

Compared with best available therapy, the novel JAK2 inhibitor pacritinib demonstrated significantly better outcomes in spleen volume reduction and symptom control when administered to patients with myelofibrosis.

Monotherapy with daratumumab demonstrated promising overall survival and objective response rates in patients with double-refractory multiple myeloma.

Patients of all ages with iodine-refractory thyroid cancer lived significantly longer when treated with the targeted agent lenvatinib, a new analysis of a randomized trial showed.

Treatment with obinutuzumab in combination with bendamustine nearly doubled progression-free survival compared with bendamustine alone in patients with rituximab-refractory indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Adding palbociclib to standard fulvestrant more than doubled progression-free survival in pretreated patients who have HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.

MPDL3280A reduced the risk of death by 53% compared with docetaxel in previously treated patients with PD-L1-positive squamous and non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer.

Immune checkpoint inhibition will continue to attract interest at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting, with a number of abstracts focused on this emerging class of agents

Taking the vitamin B3 pill nicotinamide could reduce the risk of recurrence for those with a history of non-melanoma skin cancer.

Adding docetaxel to standard androgen deprivation therapy significantly improved overall survival in men with newly diagnosed, hormone-naïve advanced prostate cancer.

Treatment with elotuzumab in combination lenalidomide and dexamethasone prolonged remission by 4.5 months in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma when compared with lenalidomide and dexamethasone alone.

An updated analysis of a phase III trial hints at a possible survival advantage for patients with radioactive iodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer treated with the tyrosine kinase inhibitor sorafenib.

Adding necitumumab to standard of care with gemcitabine-cisplatin improves survival compared with chemotherapy alone as first-line treatment in patients with stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) of squamous histology.

Combining the pan-deacetylase inhibitor panobinostat with bortezomib and dexamethasone delayed disease progression by 3.9 months over bortezomib and dexamethasone alone in patients with relapsed or relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma.

SAR650984 demonstrated encouraging efficacy as a monotherapy and in combination with dexamethasone and lenalidomide without reaching a maximum tolerated dose in patients with heavily pretreated multiple myeloma.

The addition of the investigational hypoxia-targeted drug TH-302 to dexamethasone has demonstrated beneficial activity and a manageable adverse event profile in the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

The novel agents idelalisib and ABT-199 in combination with rituximab have demonstrated impressive activity with manageable toxicity for patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Abemaciclib demonstrated unexpected single-agent activity in patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive metastatic breast cancer and a clinical benefit rate exceeding 70% in combination with fulvestrant.

A joint analysis of two phase III trials involving a total of 4690 premenopausal women with HR+ breast cancer demonstrated that adjuvant use of exemestane reduced relative risk of developing subsequent invasive cancer by 28% compared with tamoxifen.

In what was described as “an almost unprecedented improvement in median survival,” the addition of the chemotherapy drug docetaxel to standard hormone therapy prolonged life for men with newly diagnosed metastatic, hormone-sensitive prostate cancer by nearly 14 months.