Latest Conference Articles

Details on a prototype system were released during the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting by a consortium of cancer care institutions that was designed to use electronic health record systems to provide real-world patient data that could guide research and improve cancer treatment.

According to a study authors performed to call attention to the need to address socioeconomic disparities that influence treatment outcomes, higher incomes and having private insurance were associated with a significantly greater probability of survival for patients with multiple myeloma.

Survival was increased with the treatment of enzalutamide plus standard of care compared with the use of other non-steroidal anti-androgens plus SOC for patients with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer. Results from an interim analysis of the phase III ENZAMET trial presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting showed that 80% of men with mHSPC were alive after 3 years with enzalutamide treatment compared with 72%. 

The PARP inhibitor olaparib significantly improved progression-free survival in patients with germline BRCA-mutated metastatic pancreatic cancer compared to placebo when used as maintenance therapy in the phase III POLO trial, presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Karim Fizazi, MD, PhD, professor and head of the GARD Inpatient Unit, at Institut Gustave Roussy, discusses the impact of darolutamide (ODM-201) on pain and quality of life in patients with nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. 

Updated data from the phase III EORTC 18071 study showed that patients with surgically resected high-risk, stage III melanoma experienced a 25% reduction in the risk of recurrence or death with adjuvant ipilimumab compared with placebo.

Patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who received&nbsp;apalutamide plus androgen deprivation therapy had a 33% reduced risk of death compared with patients taking androgen deprivation therapy alone in the phase III TITAN trial. Topline results from the trial were&nbsp;presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting and simultaneously published in the <em>New England Journal of Medicine.</em>

Overall survival from the KEYNOTE-001 trial in patients with advanced non&ndash;small cell lung cancer showed treatment with pembrolizumab monotherapy produced more favorable rates of response at 5 years when compared with historical, pre-immunotherapy standard-of-care regimens.&nbsp;

According to findings from the phase III MONALEESA-7 trial, peri and premenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer treated with ribociclib plus endocrine therapy demonstrated an estimated overall survival rate of 70.2% at 42 months compared with 46% for placebo and endocrine therapy.

Patients with PD-L1&ndash;positive,&nbsp;HER2-negative, advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer had non-inferior overall survival with frontline pembrolizumab compared with standard chemotherapy,&nbsp;according to results from the phase III KEYNOTE-062 trial.

Toni Choueiri, MD, director, Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, director, Kidney Cancer Center, senior physician, at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Jerome and Nancy Kohlberg Chair and professor of medicine, at Harvard Medical School, highlights key trials in kidney cancer presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Ahead of the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting, the American Society of Clinical Oncology announced leaders in the field of oncology who will be recognized during the upcoming annual meeting. The winners of ASCO&rsquo;s Special Awards and Conquer Cancer&rsquo;s Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Awards will be acknowledged for their work toward transforming cancer care around the world.

In an interview with&nbsp;<em>Targeted Oncology</em>, experts in gynecology, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, lung, and breast cancers spoke to the significance of the abstracts they are most looking forward to at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.

One-hundred percent of pediatric patients with CNS and solid tumors harboring&nbsp;<em>NTRK1/2/3</em>, <em>ROS1</em>, or <em>ALK</em> gene fusions or mutations achieved objective responses with entrectinib, according to the phase I/Ib STARTRK-NG trial data presented in a press cast ahead of the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Edwin M. Posadas, MD, medical director, Urologic Oncology Program, co-director, Translational Oncology Program, associate professor, Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, discusses key takeaways from the ARAMIS trial of darolutamide in high-risk nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Mark T. Fleming, MD, medical oncologist, Virginia Oncology Associates, The US Oncology Research, discusses exciting data seen with antiandrogen agents for the treatment of prostate cancer.

Olaparib combined with neratinib may be a novel treatment option for patients with&nbsp;HER2-positive, homologous recombination&ndash;proficient ovarian cancer tumors that are resistant to chemotherapy, preclinical findings presented during the&nbsp;2019 SGO Annual Meeting showed.<br /> &nbsp;

Neratinib demonstrated durable responses and disease control and a manageable safety profile in patients with metastatic&nbsp;<em>HER2</em>-mutant cervical cancer, according to results from the ongoing phase II SUMMIT basket trial.

Ursula A. Matulonis, MD, discusses the survival results from an analysis of the QUADRA trial in heavily pretreated patients with recurrent ovarian cancer.

Women with recurrent ovarian cancer treated with the combination of&nbsp;pembrolizumab, bevacizumab, and metronomic cyclophosphamide had a 95% disease control rate and a 40% overall response rate, according to findings from an&nbsp;open-label phase II study presented during the&nbsp;2019 SGO Annual Meeting.

Activity was seen with lenvatinib plus a weekly dose of paclitaxel in patients with recurrent endometrial and platinum-resistant epitherlial ovarian cancer, according to a presentation at the 50th SGO Annual Meeting. The combination resulted in a 65% overall response rate in a phase I trial.

Floor J. Backes, MD,&nbsp;discusses the results from a phase I trial investigating the combination of lenvatinib (Lenvima) and paclitaxel in patients with recurrent ovarian, fallopian tube, or peritoneal cancers.

Patients with high-risk ovarian cancer being treated with niraparib experienced a decrease in adverse events when treated with a&nbsp;200- or 300-mg individualized starting dose based on bodyweight and platelet count compared with patients who received a fixed starting dose of 300 mg, according to data from a recent analysis of the ongoing&nbsp;ENGOT-OV26/PRIMA study.

Repeated use of PARP inhibitors may be a beneficial treatment strategy in the future for women with recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer, according to the&nbsp;results of a retrospective, multi-institutional study presented at the 2019 SGO Annual Meeting. The findings suggested that prior exposure to PARP inhibition may not lead to resistance, which could lead to increased use of repeat PARP treatment going forward.&nbsp;

Treatment with maintenance niraparib led to extended progression-free survival time in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer without the patients experiencing symptoms or toxicity compared with placebo, according to results of an analysis from the phase III ENGOT-OV16/NOVA trial. In patients with&nbsp;germline <em>BRCA</em>-mutated disease, the benefit was increased 4-fold and in patients&nbsp;non&ndash;germline&nbsp;<em>BRCA</em>-mutated ovarian cancer the benefit was increased 2-fold.&nbsp;

Tanya Dorff, MD, discusses recent data with olaparib (Lynparza) in castration-resistant prostate cancer and the future role of PARP inhibitors in this disease.<br /> &nbsp;

First-line treatment with single-agent pembrolizumab induced a 24.8% overall response rate in patients with&nbsp;non-clear cell renal cell carcinoma, according to&nbsp;findings from cohort B of the phase II KEYNOTE-427 trial that were presented during the 2019 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.<br /> &nbsp;

According to phase I findings from a dose-escalation cohort presented during the 2019 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, the combination of pembrolizumab and cabozantinib demonstrated antitumor activity in patients with previously treated metastatic renal cell carcinoma and is tolerated at their approved doses for this indication.

Retrospective findings reported during the&nbsp;2019 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium showed&nbsp;patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who received radium-223 dichloride with abiraterone acetate in a layered fashion experienced a lower rate of symptomatic skeletal events compared with those who received the treatments concurrently.

Adding&nbsp;enzalutamide (Xtandi) to androgen deprivation therapy led to&nbsp;prolonged radiographic progression-free survival compared with ADT alone in men with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, investigators reported during the&nbsp;2019 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.