News

According to recently published results of the&nbsp;international, double-blind randomized phase III 482 Study&nbsp;in&nbsp;<em>The Lancet Oncology,&nbsp;</em>^&nbsp;denosumab was noninferior to zoledronic acid (Zometa) in preventing skeletal-related event in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma.

Rebecca C. Arend, MD,&nbsp;discusses novel combinations being investigated for the treatment of patients with ovarian cancer.

According to results of the randomized phase II CABOSUN trial,<span style="font-size:10.8333px"> </span>PFS was improved with sunitinib as initial systemic therapy across subgroups of patients with intermediate- and poor-risk advanced renal cell carcinoma.&nbsp;The advantage to cabozantinib on PFS was particularly strong in patients who were MET-positive.

A novel therapeutic vaccine, TPIV200, is being investigated in a new randomized, multicenter, double-blinded, placebo-controlled phase II clinical trial in patients with triple-negative breast cancer TNBC.

Priyanka Sharma, MD, has been named vice chair of SWOG&rsquo;s Breast Committee. Formerly known as the Southwest Oncology Group, SWOG is a global cancer research community and 1 of 5 National Cancer Institute (NCI) National Clinical Trials Network-funded groups.

A new drug application for lorlatinib for use in patients with&nbsp;<em>ALK</em>-positive metastatic non&ndash;small cell lung cancer who have progressed on 1 or more ALK tyrosine kinases inhibitors has been granted a priority review by the FDA.

Kathleen Moore, MD,&nbsp;discusses combination strategies with immunotherapy for patients with ovarian cancer during the&nbsp;2018 Society of Gynecologic Oncology Annual Winter Meeting.<br /> &nbsp;

During the 2018 Society of Gynecologic Oncology Annual Winter Meeting, Camille Gunderson, MD,&nbsp;detailed some of the active trials currently exploring PARP inhibitors in combination with either anti-VEGF therapy or immunotherapy in ovarian cancer.

Updated findings of the CheckMate-142 study presented by Michael J. Overman, MD, at the 2018 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium&nbsp;continued to support the use of nivolumab alone or in combination with ipilimumab for previously treated patients with DNA mismatch repair-deficient/microsatellite instability-high metastatic colorectal cancer.

Updated findings from the phase III KEYNOTE-045 trial confirmed the benefit of&nbsp;pembrolizumab (Keytruda) compared with chemotherapy in pretreated patients with locally advanced or recurrent urothelial cancer. Two-year follow-up of the trial presented at the 2018 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium demonstrated that overall survival was improved with pembrolizumab.

Results from a phase II study presented at the 2018 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, demonstrated that durvalumab, a PD-L1 inhibitor, had synergy in combination with the PARP inhibitor olaparib in unselected men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Findings from a phase Ia, multicenter, open-label, study published in the&nbsp;<em>Journal of Clinical Oncology</em>&nbsp;showed a disease control rate of 58.2% with alpelisib (BYL719) in patients with advanced solid tumors.

NYU Langone Health&rsquo;s Perlmutter Cancer Center has announced that Paul E. Oberstein, MD, a nationally renowned clinician-scientist, will serve as director of Gastrointestinal (GI) Medical Oncology and assistant director of its recently established Pancreatic Cancer Center.

In findings from the STAMPEDE trial, a trial that has enrolled more than 9000 men with M0 and M1 prostate cancer since 2005, the addition of docetaxel (Taxotere) to frontline long-term hormone therapy improved quality of life and reduced the need for subsequent therapy in patients with advanced prostate cancer. This has led to lower overall costs in the nonmestatic setting.

Based on data from part 1a of the phase III CheckMate-227 trial, nivolumab (Opdivo) and&nbsp;ipilimumab (Yervoy) in combination show improved progression-free survival (PFS) versus with chemotherapy in treatment-na&iuml;ve patients with high tumor mutation burden (TMB) non&ndash;small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

In findings from the phase III SPARTAN trial presented at the 2018 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium and published in the&nbsp;<em>New England Journal of Medicine,&nbsp;</em>apalutamide (Erleada) reduced the risk of metastasis or death by 72% in patients with nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

In findings from the phase III PROSPER trial released ahead of the&nbsp;2018 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, the&nbsp;enzalutamide (Xtandi) and androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) combination&nbsp;reduced the risk of metastases or death by 71% compared with ADT alone for the treatment of patients with nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).

In a phase Ib/II dose escalation study, rapid and tolerable responses were seen with the combination of selinexor, daratumumab, and low-dose dexamethasone in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma who were previously exposed to immunomodulatory and proteasome inhibitors.<br /> &nbsp;

As stated in findings from IMmotion151, a phase III open-label study, the combination of atezolizumab (Tecentriq) and bevacizumab (Avastin) induced a 26% reduction in the risk of progression or death compared with sunitinib (Sutent) for patients with untreated PD-L1&ndash;positive metastatic renal cell carcinoma. This study was released ahead of the 2018 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.

The combination of abiraterone acetate in combination with prednisone and androgen deprivation therapy has been approved by the FDA as a treatment for men with high-risk castration-sensitive prostate cancer.

Overall survival was extended for patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma by nearly 8 months with the&nbsp;combination of carfilzomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone compared with&nbsp;lenalidomide and dexamethasone alone in results from the phase III ASPIRE trial.

Based on supporting data from the phase III DUO trial and the phase II DYNAMO study, duvelisib has been submitted to the FDA for a full approval&nbsp;for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma and an accelerated approval for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory follicular lymphoma.

Lymphoma expert Andrew M. Evens, DO, MSc, FACP, has joined Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey as associate director. He is also serving as medical director of the oncology service line at RWJBarnabas Health. Evens will focus on integrated cancer care delivery in his roles across both institutions.

Patients with relapsed/refractory myeloma&nbsp;who had prior exposure to lenalidomide (Revlimid) experienced a significant improvement in&nbsp;progression-free survival with pomalidomide (Pomalyst) added to the combination of bortezomib (Velcade) and low-dose dexamethasone,&nbsp;according to findings from the phase III OPTIMISMM trial.

Matthew S. Davids, MD, MMSc, recently discussed the treatment choices for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and the factors he considers when choosing a treatment, based on 2 patient cases.

Renowned physician, researcher, and scholar, Thomas Buchholz, MD, has been named medical director of an upcoming collaboration between Scripps Health and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Women with newly diagnosed stage III&nbsp;epithelial ovarian cancer experienced an improvement in&nbsp;relapse-free survival and overall survival with the addition of&nbsp;hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy to interval cytoreductive surgery, according to results&nbsp;from a multicenter, open-label, phase III trial.

Eflapegrastim (Rolontis), a novel long-acting granulocyte-colony stimulating factor, has met its primary endpoint of non-inferiority in duration of severe chemotherapy-induced neutropenia in comparison with pegfilgrastim (Neulasta) in the phase III ADVANCE study, according to Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the biotechnology company developing the agent.

According to results of an open-label, single-center, 2-stage, proof-of-concept phase II study, prexasertib (LY2606368), a cell cycle checkpoint kinase 1 and 2 inhibitor, demonstrated clinical activity and was tolerable in&nbsp;women with measurable, recurrent high-grade serous or high-grade endometrioid ovarian carcinoma.

In findings from the phase II&nbsp;MDV3100-11 study published in the<em> Journal of Clinical Oncology</em>, enzalutamide demonstrated early signs of efficacy in&nbsp;patients with androgen receptor-positive triple-negative breast cancer.