News

During a <em>Targeted Oncology </em>live case-based peer perspectives presentation, L. Wayne Keiser, MD, talked about the treatment considerations and decisions he makes when treating patients with colorectal cancer. Keiser, a medical oncologist at St. Joseph Health Medical Group, Santa Rosa, California, explained his treatment decisions for the based on a case scenario of a patient with <em>KRAS</em>-mutated metastatic CRC.

The shift in the pattern of care in mantle cell lymphoma to bendamustine and rituximab in the frontline has resulted in an improvement in event-free survival compared with the era in which R-CHOP dominated front-line treatment.

The combination of venetoclax with rituximab led to high rates of undetectable minimal residual disease for patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphoblastic leukemia. This was associated with a prolonged progression-free survival, according to a new analysis of a randomized trial presented at the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting.

Danny Rischin, MD, MBBS,&nbsp;discusses the phase II activity with cemiplimab as a novel PD-1 inhibitor for patients with metastatic and locally advanced CSCC.

The PD-1 inhibitor cemiplimab in combination with radiotherapy, cyclophosphamide, and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor did not demonstrate efficacy superior to other PD-1 inhibitor monotherapies in patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, according to results from a phase I expansion cohort that were presented at the 2018 ESMO Congress.

Long-term follow-up of patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma treated with venetoclax monotherapy indicate that remissions are durable in a meaningful proportion and that late-onset toxicities are uncommon.

The BTK inhibitor acalabrutinib demonstrated promising reponse rates in patients with&nbsp;newly diagnosed or relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia, according to results from an&nbsp;open-label phase II trial.

The Association of Community Cancer Centers is pleased to announce the hiring of Leigh M. Boehmer, PharmD, BCOP, as Medical Director, Education, for the association&rsquo;s expanding education initiatives. In this role Dr. Boehmer will be responsible for assessing educational needs and designing educational interventions for multidisciplinary cancer care teams serving patients in the community setting.

Patients with advanced basal cell carcinoma who experience progression on hedgehog pathway inhibitor therapy, or are intolerant to it, have no approved therapeutic options. An ongoing phase II study evaluating cemiplimab in this population may prove efficacious based on its activity in other advanced malignancies.

Combination therapy with acalabrutinib plus bendamustine and rituxumab showed an overall response rate in excess of 90% of patients with treatment-na&iuml;ve mantle cell lymphoma and an ORR of 85% in patients with relapsed/refractory disease in an ongoing open-label phase Ib study.^&nbsp;The safety profile was consistent with expected safety profiles for acalabrutinib and BR, said Tycel Phillips, MD, who presented the data at the 2018 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting.

During a recent&nbsp;<em>Targeted Oncology&nbsp;</em>case-based peer perspective presentation, William G. Wierda, MD, PhD, revealed the treatment options and decisions he makes when treating patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Wierda explained his treatment decisions based on a patient&rsquo;s case scenario.

Findings of an&nbsp;analysis of patient-reported outcomes with avelumab in the JAVELIN Merkel 200 trial showed consistency of effectiveness in patients with&nbsp;metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma based on clinical and PRO endpoints.

Cathy Eng, MD, discusses the current paradigm of GI cancers, specifically sharing insight on colorectal cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma.<br /> &nbsp;

AstraZeneca has reported that the&nbsp;phase III EAGLE trial has missed its primary endpoint, as patients with&nbsp;recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma who progressed after platinum-based chemotherapy did not see a survival benefit with durvalumab alone or combined with&nbsp;tremelimumab.

The phase III TAHOE trial evaluating rovalpituzumab tesirine as a second-line treatment for&nbsp;patients with advanced small cell lung cancer has been put on hold, based on a recommendation from an&nbsp;Independent Data Monitoring Committee, according to AbbVie, the developer of the investigational antibody-drug conjugate.<br /> &nbsp;

During a <em>Targeted Oncology</em>&nbsp;live case-based peer perspectives presentation, David O&rsquo;Malley, reviewed the treatment considerations and decisions he makes when treating patients with ovarian cancer. O&rsquo;Malley explained to the group the factors that go into treatment decision making during the meeting based on a case scenario of a patient with high-grade serous carcinoma.

Atezolizumab (Tecentriq) has been approved by the FDA&nbsp;for use in combination with bevacizumab, carboplatin, and paclitaxel as a first-line treatment for patients with metastatic nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer. This indication excludes patients with <em>EGFR</em>/<em>ALK</em> aberrations.

Although there were a variety of encouraging data presented at the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting, CLL and multiple myeloma undoubtedly ruled the day, according to poll results. As these topics heated up on Twitter, a few experts took a moment to discuss their thoughts on some of the top abstracts that were presented.

According to data from the phase IIIb CASSINI trial presented at the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting, rivaroxaban could significantly reduce&nbsp;venous thromboembolism occurrence in patients currently receiving treatment with systemic therapy.

Each of the many BCMA-targeted CAR T cells in development demonstrate a different efficacy and safety profile, and each have different constructs. None of the agents have reached the FDA yet, but data for many of the agents were presented at the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting.

According to findings from the phase III ECHELON-2 trial presented at the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting, the use of brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) in combination with chemotherapy demonstrated a clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival and overall survival in patients with CD30-expressing peripheral T-cell lymphoma. These data were also published online in&nbsp;<em>Lancet Oncology</em>.

A newly discovered recurrent mutation in the&nbsp;B-cell leukemia/lymphoma 2 protein&nbsp;in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia has been linked to venetoclax resistance.

Venetoclax monotherapy induced high rates of minimal residual disease in the peripheral blood and bone marrow in patients with&nbsp;relapsed/refractory chronic lymphoblastic leukemia in a pooled analysis of 2 clinical trials. Data from the analysis was reported during the poster session at the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting.

Based on findings from the phase III IMpower133 study, a supplemental biologics license application (sBLA) for atezolizumab (Tecentriq) has been granted a priority review by the FDA&nbsp;for use in combination with carboplatin and etoposide for the frontline treatment of&nbsp;patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer.

A look back at all the FDA news that happened in the month of November 2018, including several new approvals, priority reviews, a fast track designation, and an accelerated approval, across a variety of cancer types.

Two-year findings from the ZUMA-1 trial showed an overall survival rate of more than 50% from treatment with&nbsp;axicabtagene ciloleucel, a CD19-targeted CAR T-cell therapy&nbsp;in patients with&nbsp;refractory large B cell lymphoma; the median survival had not yet been reached. These data, representing a clear plateau in the survival curve, were presented at the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting.

During a&nbsp;<em>Targeted Oncology&nbsp;</em>case-based peer perspectives program, Benjamin P. Levy, MD, discussed his clinical considerations for the management of non&ndash;small cell lung cancer.

Lenalidomide in addition to rituximab, called the R² regimen, led to a significant increase in progression-free survival compared with rituximab alone in patients with&nbsp;relapsed/refractory indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma in results from the phase III AUGMENT trial.

Overall survival was more than doubled when&nbsp;the CD79b-targeted antibody&ndash;drug conjugate polatuzumab vedotin was added to treatment with&nbsp;bendamustine and rituximab for patients with&nbsp;relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

The gold standard of predicting how long patients with&nbsp;myelodysplastic syndromes could live with the disease may soon be replaced by a new approach. According to Aziz Nazha, MD, this newer approach utilizes machine learning to&nbsp;analyze genomic and clinical data from patients to more accurately predict survival.