Latest Conference Articles

"Liquid biopsies continue to gain attention in the field of oncology. The ability to have a rapid, noninvasive test, and one that allows for serial treatment monitoring is imperative for more precise patient care."

“The data demonstrated deepening clinical responses with cemiplimab over time. Furthermore, duration of response and overall survival [OS] are considerably longer with cemiplimab than what has previously been recorded with other agents.”

Phase 3 BGB-A317-307 trial results showed statistically significant improvements in progression-free survival with tislelizumab plus chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone in Chinese patients with untreated advanced squamous non–small cell lung cancer.

Patients with urothelial carcinoma who progress after platinum-containing chemotherapy may receive benefit with the combination regimen of cabozantinib and atezolizumab, according to new data from the COSMIC-021 study.

“Importantly, the separation among the curves seems to be observed over time and, indeed, survival at 2 years improves from 14% [of participants] in the control arm to 22% on the experimental arm. The magnitude of the benefit is very similar and very consistent across all the prespecified subgroups of patients analyzed, including those treated with cisplatin or those patients with liver or brain metastases.”

Interim analysis of the ZUMA-5 study indicates that patients with relapsed or refractory indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma who were treated with the chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy of axicabtagene ciloleucel had high rates of response and demonstrated the agent's manageable safety profile.

An analysis of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma revealed that systemic therapy with cabozantinib induced reliable responses for patients regardless of whether or not they had received prior immunotherapy, according to data that were presented as part of the 2020 American Society of Clinical Oncology Virtual Scientific Program.

Data from 2 phase 2 trials involving fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki revealed the agent’s ability to induce responses in patients with HER2-positive metastatic colorectal cancer and advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.

Another treatment option would be a welcome change for these patients, who tend to have poor prognoses once they run out of treatment options, according to Saad Z. Usmani, MD. After becoming refractory to available therapies, median overall survival is 6-11 months.

Apalutimide in combination with androgen deprivation therapy led to a significant improvement in overall survival in patients with nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer in the phase 3 SPARTAN clinical trial.

Encorafenib plus binimetinib show sustained overall survival and progression-free survival benefit in patients with BRAF V600–mutant melanoma, according to updated findings from the COLUMBUS study.

Encorafenib plus cetuximab with or without binimetinib continued to show an overall survival benefit compared with cetuximab plus irinotecan-based regimens as treatment of patients with BRAF-mutated metastatic colorectal cancer in the updated findings from the phase 3 BEACON CRC clinical trial.

The long-term benefit of adjuvant dabrafenib plus trametinib as treatment of patients with resected, stage III BRAF V600E/K-mutant melanoma were validated by 5-year data from the phase 3 COMBI-AD study.

Favorable activity and safety findings were demonstrated with the combination of CC-92480 plus dexamethasone as treatment of patients with heavily pretreated relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma in an ongoing study, according to a presentation from the 2020 American Society of Clinical Oncology Virtual Scientific Program.

Overall, these data support the use of pembrolizumab and pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy as first-line treatment of patients with relapsed and/or metastatic HNSCC.

Statistically significant improvements in time to second progression or death, or PFS2, was demonstrated in the bevacizumab/niraparib combination, as well as other positive clinical outcomes.

"Relugolix is a novel, oral GnRH antagonist that has the potential to become a new standard for ADT in advanced prostate cancer."

“Ide-cel demonstrated frequent, deep, and durable responses in heavily pretreated, highly relapsed/refractory patients with myeloma. Overall, ide-cel provides an attractive option for the treatment of patients with triple-class exposed relapsed/refractory myeloma."

A pair of off-the-shelf CAR T-cell agents have shown promise for the treatment of relapsed/refractory large B-cell or follicular lymphoma, according to the phase 1 ALPHA study.

Mark M. Awad, MD, PhD, discusses the characterization of patients with non–small cell lung cancer who have MET exon 14 skipping alterations and potential acquired resistance mechanisms.

"CheckMate 9LA met its primary end point of overall survival at the pre-planned interim analysis…With early separation of overall survival curves and lower progressive disease rates as best overall response, the hypothesis for this study design was validated."

The addition of tucatinib to treatment with trastuzumab and capecitabine resulted in more than a 60% reduction in the risk of central nervous system progression or death in both patients with previously treated HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer who have active or stable brain metastases.

Modest survival benefits were observed in patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer who received the combination of pembrolizumab and etoposide plus platinum compared with patients who received EP and placebo. Although progression-free survival rates reached the threshold for significance, overall survival rates failed to reach the prespecified threshold, according to data from the phase 3 KEYNOTE-604 trial.

Despite missing the primary end point of progression-free survival improvement, cediranib and olaparib demonstrated comparable activity with platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with recurrent platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer.

“Preliminary data for the 18 patients who have received belantamab mafodotin 2.5 mg/kg single dosing with bortezomib/dexamethasone suggests that this combination has an acceptable safety profile with no new safety signals identified."

According to the lead study author Jesus G. Berdeja, MD, the overall response rate was 100%, with a stringent complete response rate of 86%. Further, the progression-free survival rate was 86% at 9 months.

"Based on these results, we note that the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab, which is now approved by the United States FDA, is a novel chemotherapy-sparing first-line treatment approach for advanced-stage non-small-cell lung cancer."

"In this trial, we show deep and durable responses with single-agent [belantamab mafodotin] were sustained with longer follow-up in this relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma population."

“Lu-PSMA is a novel class of therapy with high activity and relatively low toxicity, consistent with the results of prior single-center studies in phase II data. Lu-PSMA appears to represent a favorable treatment option compared to cabazitaxel in a selected population with high PSMA-expression.”

"Trastuzumab deruxtecan demonstrated clinical activity in this interim analysis, with a high ORR and durable response rate in a heavily pretreated population of patients with HER2-mutated NSCLC."