News

The FDA granted a Priority Review designation to pembrolizumab for potential approval with platinum and fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy as frontline treatment of patients with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic carcinoma of the esophagus and gastroesophageal junction.

Pembrolizumab plus lenvatinib induced a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival, progression-free survival, and objective response rate compared with chemotherapy in patients with advanced endometrial cancer after prior systemic therapy in the phase 3 KEYNOTE-775/Study 309 trial.

Following the 2020 ASH Annual Meeting, a number of hematology experts shared their insights on the most important data presented during the meeting with Targeted Oncology.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Michael J. Wagner, MD, discussed findings from a single-center experience in Seattle managing patients with sarcoma during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Patients with myelofibrosis who receive ruxolitinib appear to face a higher risk of second primary malignancy; these risks are suggested to be even higher in men and patients with a history of arterial thrombosis and prolonged hydroxycarbamide exposure.

The FDA granted a Fast Track designation to devimistat for the treatment of patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

Neratinib in combination with capecitabine induced a 34% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death as treatment of patients with HER2-positive breast cancer who had central nervous system metastases at baseline compared with lapatinib and capecitabine.

Following neoadjuvant chemotherapy with or without pembrolizumab in patients with high-risk early-stage breast cancer, the presence of ctDNA was a biomarker for response and distant recurrence-free survival.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Yi Lin, MD, PhD discussed the updated findings from the CRB-401 study of idecabtagene vicleucel as treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

The FDA granted the first Emergency Use Authorization to the vaccine, BNT162b2, for the prevention of COVID-19, which allows for the vaccine to be distributed in the United States for individuals who are at least 16 years or older.

The phase 3 LAURA clinical trial is currently enrolling patients with stage III, unresectable EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer to explore the efficacy and safety of the third-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor osimertinib as maintenance therapy following chemoradiation.

Only 61% of patients completed therapy fully with checkpoint inhibition as planned, while treatment was delayed or discontinued in 22% due to immune-related adverse events, according to findings from a quality improvement research study conducted by the Association of Community Cancer Centers.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Mehmet Samur, PhD, discussed the investigation of high-dose melphalan following autologous stem cell transplant in patients with multiple myeloma and shared insights into how the ongoing questions can be explored in the future.

Patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer and brain metastases treated with the combination of tucatinib, trastuzumab, and capecitabine had significantly lengthened the time to deterioration of health-related quality of life, according to the results of an analysis of the HER2CLIMB clinical trial presented during the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Jesus G. Berdeja, MD, discussed a subanalysis of the KarMMA study and updated results from CARTITUDE-1, which provide insights on the use CAR T-cell therapy in heavily pretreated patients with multiple myeloma, including the elderly and frail.

Adjuvant atezolizumab in patients with high-risk muscle-invasive urothelial cancer with detectable circulating tumor DNA demonstrated more benefit compared with those with MIUC and undetectable ctDNA, according to data from the IMvigor010 trial.

A review of the trending news in oncology online for the week of December 11, 2020, including recent news from the FDA on the cancer treatment paradigm, updates in oncology, and the latest information regarding COVID-19.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, John M. Burke, MD, discussed the current treatment paradigm for patients with follicular lymphoma and reviewed the factors he considers when making treatment decisions for this population.

Despite having similar disease characteristics and treatment patterns, elderly patients with HER2-positive advanced breast cancer aged ≥ 70 years experienced shorter chemotherapy durations than patients under the age of 70, as well as, poorer overall survival, and increased rates of adverse events in a real-world study.

The FDA granted a Breakthrough Therapy designation to sotorasib for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer who harbored a KRAS G12C mutation following at least 1 prior line of systemic therapy.

A phase clinical trial has demonstrated that administering a mosunetuzumab fixed-duration leads to high, durable, and consistent responses in patients with follicular lymphoma across multiple subgroups. Data from the study were presented during the virtual 2020 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting.

The phase 1/2 study of the investigational chimeric antigen receptor T-cell agent BPX-601 administered as treatment of patients with previously treated metastatic pancreatic or prostate cancer is no longer active after the FDA place a partial clinical hold on the trial.

Treatment with lorlatinib induced a 72% reduction in the risk of progression or death compared with crizotinib in patients with previously untreated ALK-positive advanced non–small cell lung cancer.

The combination of brentuximab vedotin and nivolumab demonstrated activity in patients with previously untreated Hodgkin lymphoma who had comorbidities in a phase 2 clinical trial, despite the trial not meeting its prespecified criteria for activity.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Nirav N. Shah, MD, discussed the findings from the phase 1 study of a CAR T-cell therapy dual targeting CD19 and CD20 as treatment of patients with B-cell lymphomas.

The off-the-shelf CAR T-cell therapy ALLO-715, which targets BCMA, demonstrated responses as treatment of patients with heavily pretreated relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma in a first-in-human clinical trial.

The novel ROR1-targeted antibody-drug conjugate VLS-101 induced encouraging clinical efficacy, consistent pharmacokinetics, and a favorable safety profile as treatment of heavily pretreated patients with mantle cell lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

Improvements in spleen volume and total symptom score were clinically meaningful with the addition of navitoclax to ruxolitinib in patients with myelofibrosis who no longer benefited from prior ruxolitinib therapy.

A review of the trending news in oncology online for the week of December 4, 2020, including recent news from the FDA on the cancer treatment paradigm, updates in oncology, and the latest information regarding COVID-19.

The FDA pushed back its the Biologic License Application filing for the potential approval of balstilimab as treatment of recurrent/metastatic cervical cancer.