News

A drug safety notification warning has been issued by the FDA against the use of the single-agent immune checkpoint inhibitors in the first-line setting for patients with PD-L1–low expressing platinum-eligible urothelial carcinoma.  This follows findings of a decrease in overall survival with pembrolizumab and atezolizumab versus a platinum-based chemotherapy.

The combination of prexigebersen, a Liposomal Grb2 Antisense oligodeoxynucleotide, and low-dose cytarabine was associated with an overall response rate of 47% in elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia, according to findings from an ongoing phase II trial.

Zev A. Wainberg, MD, recently discussed the treatment considerations and decisions he makes when treating patients with colorectal cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma. Wainberg, co-director of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Program, University of California Los Angeles, explained his treatment decisions based on 2 gastrointestinal case scenarios during a <em>Targeted Oncology</em> live case-based peer perspectives program.

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has selected Jens Hillengass, MD, as its new Chief of Myeloma. Hillengass will continue his research on hematologic malignancies in his new position.

Despite recommendations from the United States Preventative Services Task Force, 1.9% of the 7.6 million current and former heavy smokers underwent cancer screening in 2016, suggesting screening is still inadequate. These results were presented ahead of the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting being held in Chicago, Illinois on June 1-5, 2018.

Clinically meaningful improvements in insomnia severity scores for cancer survivors were seen with&nbsp;cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and acupuncture,&nbsp;but CBT-I was more effective overall for reducing the severity of insomnia, according to&nbsp;data from the randomized CHOICE clinical trial, presented ahead of the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting.

In results of a large randomized trial of patients with head and neck cancer who had undergone radiation therapy, patients who used mobile and sensor technology to track their symptoms demonstrated reduced severity of their symptoms compared with patients who received standard care.

In a cohort of pediatric and young adult patients with newly diagnosed T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia or T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma, adding nelarabine to escalating-dose methotrexate (C-MTX) induced a 4-year disease-free survival rate of 91%, according to findings released ahead of the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting.

In patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer, 6 months of adjuvant treatment with&nbsp;trastuzumab (Herceptin)&nbsp;was noninferior for disease-free survival compared with the standard 12-month schedule, according to findings from the phase III PERSEPHONE trial presented ahead of the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting.

According to findings&nbsp;released ahead of the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting, the use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) for patients with&nbsp;metastatic non&ndash;small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) can save&nbsp;Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) payers $1.4 million to $2.1 million. The findings additionally showed that NGS saved commercial insurance providers more than $250,000.<br /> &nbsp;

Epoetin alfa-epbx (Retacrit) has been approved by the FDA&nbsp;as a biosimilar to epoetin alfa (Epogen/Procrit) for the&nbsp;treatment of anemia caused by chronic kidney disease, chemotherapy, or use of zidovudine in patients with HIV infection.&nbsp;

The adjuvant treatment landscape of gastrointestinal cancers has recently undergone a transformation, with significant findings from several clinical trials. These studies, in gastric, biliary, pancreatic, and colon cancer looked particularly at the use of treatment in the adjuvant setting after surgical resection and have ultimately changed the standards of care for these patients.

Ivan Borrello, MD, recently shared the treatment considerations and decisions he makes when treating patients with multiple myeloma. Borrello, an associate professor of oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and director of cell therapy, Sydney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, in Baltimore, Maryland, explained his treatment decisions based on a case scenario during a <em>Targeted Oncology</em> live case-based peer perspective presentation.

Updated results from the phase II LuPSMA study published in<em> The Lancet Oncology </em>showed radionuclide treatment with&nbsp;Lutetium-177 [¹⁷⁷Lu]-PSMA-617 nearly doubled median PSA progression-free survival in men with progressive metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer compared with previous results with another radiopharmaceutical, radium-223.

In the first report of the full cohort of 119 patients in the CheckMate-142 study, positive results were demonstrated with nivolumab alone or in combination with ipilimumab in patients with previously treated microsatellite instability-high or DNA mismatch repair-deficient metastatic colorectal cancer.

On Friday, President Donald Trump proposed a &ldquo;blueprint&rdquo; of widespread changes designed to reduce prescription drug costs, drawing a lot of attention from oncology groups and patient advocates across the nation. The proposal, a 44-page plan titled, <em>American Patients First,</em>&nbsp;promises to make generic drugs and biosimilars more accessible. Incentives keeping drug prices high will also be removed.

According to top-line results from the QUADRA study, niraparib met the primary endpoint of overall response as a fourth-line or later treatment in patients with ovarian cancer, regardless of <em>BRCA</em> status.

Olaparib tablets have been approved been the European Commission as a maintenance therapy for&nbsp;patients with platinum-sensitive relapsed high-grade, epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer, who are in a complete or partial response to platinum-based chemotherapy, regardless of&nbsp;<em>BRCA</em>&nbsp;status.

According to topline findings from the phase III IMblaze370 study, treatment with the combination of the PD-L1 inhibitor atezolizumab and the MEK inhibitor cobimetinib failed to improve overall survival versus regorafenib in patients with locally advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer&nbsp; who were previously treated.

According to findings presented at the 2018 American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Conference, promising antitumor activity was found with tazemetostat in pediatric patients with INI1-negative solid tumors.

Ben Levy, MD, recently shared the treatment considerations and decisions he makes when treating patients with metastatic non&ndash;small cell lung cancer. Levy, clinical director of Medical Oncology, John Hopkins Sydney Kimmel Center, Washington, DC, explained his treatment decisions based on a case scenario during a <em>Targeted Oncology</em> live case-based peer perspectives presentation.

The beginning of 2018 has brought many exciting developments in the treatment landscape of metastatic colorectal cancer, explains Shubham Pant, MD.

While not all patients with gastrointestinal cancers will respond to immunotherapy, those who do&nbsp;are likely to have long-lasting responses, explained John L. Marshall, MD.

According to additional analyses from the phase III RESORCE trial published in the<em> Journal of Hepatology,&nbsp;s</em>econd-line regorafenib continued to show antitumor activity regardless of prior dose or time to progression on frontline sorafenib (Nexavar) for patients with unresectable advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

Chyke Doubeni, MD, chair of Family Medicine and Community Health at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and Debra P. Ritzwoller, PhD, of Kaiser Permanente, have been chosen to codirect the new Center for Research to Optimize Precision Lung Cancer Screening.

According to findings from the phase III QuANTUM-R study, overall survival was improved with quizartinib compared with chemotherapy in patients with&nbsp;<em>FLT3</em>-ITD&ndash;positive relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia after first-line treatment with or without hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.<br /> &nbsp;

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO (CCF) have announced the winners of ASCO&rsquo;s Special Awards and&nbsp;Conquer Cancer&rsquo;s Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Awards to honor the many contributions of&nbsp;researchers, patient advocates, and global oncology leaders around the globe.

Distinctive&nbsp;biologic features of breast cancer in men were determined in a recent&nbsp;analysis of clinical characteristics, gene expression, and 21-gene Breast Recurrence Score, which also&nbsp;suggested that that RS testing may have an important prognostic role for both men and women.

While PARP inhibitors have demonstrated success in ovarian cancer previously, they are finally impacting the treatment paradigm for patients with <em>BRCA</em>-positive breast cancers, according to Nadine M. Tung, MD.&nbsp;

Daratumumab (Darzalex) in combination with&nbsp;bortezomib (Velcade), melphalan, and prednisone received FDA approval as a frontline regimen for the treatment of&nbsp;patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma who are ineligible for autologous stem cell transplant.