Latest Conference Articles

Five years of tamoxifen continues to offer protection against breast cancer— reducing the risk of breast cancer by 29% in otherwise healthy women at high risk of the disease who have been followed now for 16 to 22 years.

Older patients with moderate- or high-risk breast cancer had a similar disease-free survival with the bisphosphonate therapy ibandronate alone or in combination with capecitabine, according Gunter von Minckwitz, MD, who reported the results at the 2014 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Women with HR+ breast cancer who remained premenopausal after receiving chemotherapy had a lower risk of disease recurrence when adding ovarian suppression to adjuvant exemestane or—to a lesser extent—tamoxifen, compared with standard tamoxifen alone.

Adding bevacizumab to standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy significantly improved pathologic complete response rates in women with basal-like breast cancer compared with non-basal-like subtypes. These results from the CALGB 40603 trial were presented at the 2014 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane) was more effective than conventional paclitaxel as part of a neoadjuvant regimen for patients with high-risk early breast cancer in a large German study. These results were presented at the 2014 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Sara Hurvitz, MD, medical oncologist, UCLA Medical Center, discusses the results of a study looking at pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).

The PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) has demonstrated promising clinical activity and an acceptable safety profile in heavily pretreated patients with recurrent metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).

David L. Rimm MD, PhD, from Yale School of Medicine, discusses the need for further research into tissue biomarkers in breast cancer.

Adding the investigational PI3K inhibitor pictilisib to fulvestrant in patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) yielded a doubling in progression-free survival (PFS) in women with both estrogen receptor (ER)– and progesterone receptor (PR)–positive disease.

Women with HER2-positive breast cancer and high levels of stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (S-TILs) treated with chemotherapy alone had an 80% lower likelihood of disease recurrence compared to those with lower TIL counts.

Treatment with the tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) sorafenib in combination with standard chemotherapy increased event-free survival (EFS) by 11.3 months in patients with newly diagnosed AML.

In a phase II trial, some patients with heavily treated acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) benefited from treatment with the BCL-2 inhibitor venetoclax (ABT-199).

Ninety-six percent of patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma who received treatment with the combination of brentuximab vedotin and bendamustine responded to treatment without experiencing dose-limiting toxicity.

Jae Park, MD, assistant attending physician, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses CAR T-cell therapy for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Ann S. LaCasce, MD, discusses the combination of brentuximab vedotin and bendamustine for the treatment of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma.

The novel drug AG-221 generated durable remissions in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) by targeting a mutation of the IDH2 gene in a small, first-in-man study that represents a new, chemotherapy-free approach for attacking the malignancy. Eytan M. Stein, MD, reported these findings during a press briefing at the 56th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).

Patients with HIV-associated lymphoma can effectively be treated with autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHCT), with outcomes that are similar to patients without HIV. Joseph Alvarnas, MD, presented results from a phase II study at the 2014 ASH Annual Meeting.

Treatment with nilotinib (Tasigna) in combination with chemotherapy elicited complete hematological remissions (CHR) in 87% of elderly patients with newly diagnosed Philadelphia-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph+ ALL).

Adrian Wiestner, MD, PhD, senior investigator, National Institutes of Health, discusses curing or managing patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Idelalisib monotherapy shows activity in treatment-naïve patients ≥65 years with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) — nearly 90% of patients enrolled in a phase II study demonstrated a partial response.

Joseph Alvarnas, MD, Director of Medical Quality, associate clinical professor, City of Hope, discusses the treatment of HIV-associated lymphoma.

Patients with relapsed and difficult-to-treat Hodgkin lymphoma who received brentuximab vedotin following treatment with high-dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplant had an unprecedented 50% higher likelihood of continuing to experience PFS at 2 years.

Anti-CD38 monoclonal antibodies continue to demonstrate promise and generate excitement that a new treatment paradigm could be on the horizon for patients with multiple myeloma.

The anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-modified T-cell therapy CTL019 demonstrated a 92% complete response (CR) rate in pediatric patients with relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Most patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL), having previously failed three or more therapies, responded to the immunotherapy nivolumab in a small phase I trial.

Treatment with the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) elicited responses in 66% of patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL).

Philippe Armand, MD, PhD, senior physician, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the utility of PD-1 inhibitors for hematologic malignancies.

Shaji Kumar, MD, professor of medicine, Mayo Clinic, discusses the results of the phase III ASPIRE trial.

Marcel R.M. van den Brink, MD, PhD, Head, Division of Hematologic Oncology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses two abstracts being presented at ASH looking at CAR T cell therapies for the treatment of ALL and NHL.

Nicholas Butowski, MD, discusses a phase I study of convection-enhanced delivery of nanoliposomal irinotecan (MM-398) for the treatment of recurrent glioblastoma or recurrent high-grade glioma.