Latest Conference Articles

To improve the efficacy of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies, Nirali N. Shah, MD, MHSc, suggested including new constructs that target more than 1 antigen in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, during a presentation at the 2019 SOHO Annual Meeting.<br /> &nbsp;

Two analyses of the phase II DUO trial show that modifying the dosage of duvelisib or interrupting treatment in patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma, does not compromise outcomes or increase toxicity.

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.

Neoadjuvant&nbsp;talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) led to a significant improvement in the 1-year recurrence-free survival rate in patients with resectable advanced melanoma compared with surgery alone, according to a randomized trial presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Combining neratinib with capecitabine showed a 24% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death compared with lapatinib plus capecitabine in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer who had previously received 2 lines of HER2-targeted therapy,&nbsp;according to the results of the phase III NALA trial presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.

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.

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%.

Compared to chemotherapy, treatment with the PARP inhibitor olaparib reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 38% in patients with platinum-sensitive, relapsed, germline&nbsp;<em>BRCA1/2</em>-mutated ovarian cancer who had received at least 2 prior chemotherapy regimens, based on topline findings from the confirmatory phase III SOLO3 trial.

According to the pivotal phase III CLL14 study presented during the 2019 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, venetoclax plus obinutuzumab demonstrated a lengthening in progression-free survival time for patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia compared with obinutuzumab plus chlorambucil. Trial results show that the chemotherapy-free combination reduced the risk for disease worsening or death by 65% compared with obinutuzumab plus chlorambucil.

Keith T. Flaherty, MD, director, Termeer Center for Targeted Therapy, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, shares updated overall survival data from the phase III COLUMBUS trial examining encorafenib plus binimetinib versus vemurafenib or encorafenib in patients with BRAF V600-mutant melanoma.

The combination of niraparib and bevacizumab demonstrated a significant increase in progression-free survival compared with niraparib alone in patients with platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer, according to the results of the randomized ENGOT-OV24 trial.<br /> &nbsp;

Two targeted therapies in development have demonstrated encouraging activity as potential treatments targeting hard-to-target driver alterations in lung cancer. During the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting,&nbsp;Christine M. Lovly, MD, PhD, reviewed the early promising findings for TAK-788 for patients with&nbsp;non&ndash;small cell lung cancer harboring&nbsp;<em>EGFR</em> exon 20 insertions and for BLU-667 for patients with&nbsp;<em>RET&nbsp;</em>rearrangements.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Half of patients with&nbsp;<em>KRAS</em> G12C&ndash;positive advanced non&ndash;small cell lung cancer achieved a response from treatment with the&nbsp;investigational KRAS G12C inhibitor, AMG 510, in a phase I study presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Mansoor Mirza, MD, chief oncologist, Department of Oncology, Copenhagen University Hospital, discusses the findings from NSGO-AVANOVA2/ENGOT-OV24, the randomized controlled chemotherapy-free study of niraparib (Zejula) and bevacizumab (Avastin) versus niraparib alone in recurrent platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer.

When the targeted agents&nbsp;ramucirumab and erlotinib were combined, progression was delayed by 7 months in patients with newly diagnosed&nbsp;<em>EGFR</em>-positive non&ndash;small cell lung cancer compared to erlotinib alone, according to findings from the phase III RELAY trial.&nbsp;

Promising responses have been seen with 2 highly selective, investigational MET inhibitors&mdash;tepotinib and capmatinib&mdash;in both the&nbsp;first- and second-line setting for patients with&nbsp;<em>MET</em> exon 14&ndash;altered advanced non&ndash;small cell lung cancer.

According to a subgroup analysis from the phase III IMpower150 trial presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting, the addition of immunotherapy to&nbsp;bevacizumab and a chemotherapy doublet improved progression-free survival in patients with&nbsp;non&ndash;small cell lung cancer and baseline liver metastases.

Announced at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting, the FDA is rolling out a pilot program that will provide more information and assistance for acquiring expanded access (EA) to investigational therapies for both oncologists and patients. The program is being called Project Facilitate.

Findings from 2 studies of patients&nbsp;with operable early-stage non&ndash;small cell lung cancer showed preoperative immunotherapy had positive activity and favorable toxicity, according to a presentation at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting, and phase III clinical trials are already testing these stratgies.&nbsp;

Results from a survey conducted by the Society of Gynecologic Oncology found that&nbsp;70% of female and more than half of male&nbsp;gynecologic oncologists in the United States were victims of sexual harassment in either training or practice; and of those, only 10% said they reported their experiences.

Nearly double the number of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer would be eligibile for clinical trial enrollment if a&nbsp;broader set of eligibility criteria proposed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology and Friends of Cancer Research was implemented,&nbsp;according to data presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Patients with colorectal cancer and liver metastases who&nbsp;underwent laparoscopic surgery had similar long-term rates of overall survival compared with patients who had open liver surgery,&nbsp;according to results of the randomized OSLO-COMET trial. These findings were&nbsp;presented in a press briefing during the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.

According to data from the phase II EV-201 study presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting, 44% of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer achieved responses with enfortumab vedotin. This includes 12% of patients reached a complete response to treatment.&nbsp;Median overall survival time for patients was 11.7 months.

Danny Rischin, MD, director, Division of Cancer Medicine, head, Department of Medical Oncology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, discusses results from the protocol-specified final analysis of the phase III KEYNOTE-048 trial of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as frontline therapy for recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Progression-free survival was significantly improved with the triplet combination of&nbsp;isatuximab,&nbsp;pomalidomide, and low-dose dexamethasone compared with pomalidomide and dexamethasone alone in patients with&nbsp;relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, according to findings from the phase III ICARIA-MM trial presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.<br /> &nbsp;

A subcutaneous formulation of daratumumab showed similar efficacy to the original intravenous formulation of daratumumab in the phase III COLUMBA trial of patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. The subcutaenous flat-dose of daratumumab also showed a reduction in the treatment burden, according to results presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.

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.

Racial disparities in time to cancer treatment are nearly eliminated since the expansion of Medicaid, according to the results from a study presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting. Analysis on the impact of the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion showed Medicaid was associated with a 6.1 percentage point improvement in timely access to cancer care treatment for African American patients versus 2.1 in white patients.

After passage of the Affordable Care Act, women with ovarian cancer who were pre-medicare-aged were more likely to be diagnosed at an early stage and receive treatment within 30 days of diagnosis compared to prior to the ACA, according to findings presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Single-agent lurbinectedin induced an overall response rate of 35.2% in the second-line setting for the treatment of patients with small cell lung cancer in a phase II basket trial, presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.