News

Paul R. Eber, MD,&nbsp; discusses how the findings from the phase III CARMENA trial impact mRCC treatment and what challenges remain.<br /> &nbsp;

Michael J. Pishvaian, MD, PhD,&nbsp;discusses the potential for atezolizumab and bevacizumab in the frontline setting of HCC, as well the overall impact of immunotherapy in the treatment landscape of HCC.

Patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma who received cabozantinib demonstrated improved clinical outcomes compared with patients who received everolimus in a subgroup analysis of clinical outcomes from the phase III METEOR trial.&nbsp;

Patients with hydroxyurea resistant/intolerant polycythemia vera without palpable splenomegaly who were treated with ruxolitinib experienced a 3-fold increase in the likelihood of achieving hematocrit control over patients treated with physician&rsquo;s-choice therapy, with a majority of those patients maintaining their response at 80 weeks, according to findings of a phase III prospective trial.

A targeted conditioning regimen may help to bridge patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia to allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation, according to preliminary feasibility and safety findings from the pivotal randomized phase III SIERRA trial.

David O&rsquo;Malley, MD, discussed the findings from 2 clinical trials investigating PARP inhibition in ovarian cancer.

The first patient has been enrolled in the pivotal phase III AGENT trial, which is investigating arfolitixorin in combination with 5-fluorouracil, oxaliplatin, and bevacizumab compared with FOLFOX plus bevacizumab in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, according to Isofol Medical AB, the company developing arfolitixorin.

Novel immunomodulatory agent pixatimod combined with nivolumab, a PD-1 inhibitor, may benefit patients with advanced bowel cancers, including a small subset of those with colorectal cancer considered to be microsatellite stable.

Real-world dosing data for regorafenib in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer was presented at the 2018 ESMO Congress from the prospective, observational CORRELATE study.

According to findings from a subgroup analysis of the phase III ARIEL3 study presented at the 2018 ESMO Congress, the PARP inhibitor&nbsp;rucaparib (Rubraca)&nbsp;improved progression-free survival as a maintenance therapy in patients with&nbsp;platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer&nbsp;compared to placebo, despite the number prior of chemotherapy regimens.

The combination of ibrutinib and durvalumab demonstrated a modest clinical benefit for patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma and germinal center B-cell diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, according to the results of a phase I/II trial.

Pembrolizumab has been granted an&nbsp;accelerated approval by the FDA as a treatment for&nbsp;adult and pediatric patients with recurrent locally advanced or metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma.

Olaparib has been approved by the FDA as a maintenance therapy for&nbsp;patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline or somatic <em>BRCA</em>-mutated advanced epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who are in complete or partial response to frontline platinum-based chemotherapy, as approved by an FDA-approved companion diagnostic assay.

During a presentation at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, data from a subgroup analysis of the phase III TAILORx trial demonstrated worse outcomes in African-American patients compared to Caucasian patients with early breast cancer following adjuvant therapy. Both groups had a similar risk of recurrence and had received similar types of therapy, according the report.

Viola Poeschel, MD,&nbsp;discusses findings from the phase III FLYER trial and how they will impact the treatment landscape for younger patients with favorable-prognosis DLBCL.<br /> &nbsp;

According to findings from the&nbsp;phase IIb SADAL study, selinexor demonstrated deep and durable responses in patients with&nbsp;relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma who are not candidates for autologous stem cell transplantation.

Harry P. Erba, MD, PhD, recently talked about the treatment considerations and decisions he makes when treating patients with primary myelofibrosis and polycythemia vera. Erba explained his treatment decisions for patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms based on 2 case scenarios to a group during a <em>Targeted Oncology </em>live case-based peer perspectives presentation.

Measuring circulating tumor DNA in the blood of patients with advanced MCL may be a viable way to predict how well they will respond to specific therapies, according to study findings reported at the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting.

Danny Rischin, MD,&nbsp;discusses the potential of cemiplimab in patients with cervical cancer. The PD-1 inhibitor cemiplimab demonstrated antitumor activity and a tolerable safety profile as a monotherapy and in combination with&nbsp;hypofractionated radiotherapy for the treatment of&nbsp;patients with metastatic or recurrent cervical cancer.

Based on findings from the phase III ARIEL3 trial, the European Medicines Agency&rsquo;s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has issued a positive opinion recommending an expanded approval for single-agent rucaparib as a maintenance treatment for&nbsp;adult patients with platinum-sensitive relapsed high-grade epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who are in complete or partial response to platinum-based chemotherapy.

CT-P6 received approval from the FDA as a biosimilar for&nbsp;trastuzumab for the treatment of patients with HER2-overexpressing breast cancer.

The first in-human study of CAR T cells targeting the tyrosine kinase receptor ROR1&nbsp;in patients with solid tumors showed that the cells could be transferred into patients safely and expanded in vivo, according to findings from the ongoing phase I study presented at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Victor A. Chow, MD, discusses findings of a retrospective study that looked at 55 patients with various B-cell lymphomas who progressed after treatment with CD19-specific CAR T cells.

The use of&nbsp;brentuximab vedotin in combination with chemotherapy has been recommended for approval by the&nbsp;European Medicines Agency&rsquo;s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use as a frontline treatment for&nbsp;adult patients with CD30+ stage IV Hodgkin lymphoma.

In findings reported during the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting,&nbsp;brentuximab vedotin with conventional chemotherapy significantly improved&nbsp;progression-free survival compared with standard therapy for nonpediatric patients&nbsp;with stage III/IV Hodgkin lymphoma.

Romiplostim has been granted FDA approval for the treatment of pediatric patients aged&nbsp;&ge;1 year with immune thrombocytopenia for at least 6 months who have had an insufficient response to corticosteroids, immunoglobulins, or splenectomy.

In data presented at the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting,&nbsp;bispecific T-cell engager antibody constructs demonstrated encouraging activity in patients with&nbsp;multiple myeloma and acute myeloid leukemia.

A large pivotal phase III trial has been initiated to evaluate the potential for the first-line combination of cabozantinib and atezolizumab in comparison with standard-of-care sorafenib for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Exelixis and Ipsen, the companies developing cabozantinib, announced the COSMIC-312 trial last week.

In an interview with&nbsp;<em>Targeted Oncology&nbsp;</em>during the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting<em>,&nbsp;</em>Peter Voorhees, MD, discussed the safety and efficacy findings from the safety run-in cohort and the next steps for the Griffin study.

Wasif Saif, MD, MBBS, recently talked about the treatment considerations and decisions he makes when treating patients with colorectal cancer. Saif explained his treatment decisions based on a case scenario during a <em>Targeted Oncology</em> live case-based peer perspectives presentation.