News

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Marco Mielcarek, MD, PhD, discussed how COVID-19 has impacted the treatment of patients with blood cancers in Washington State.

Overall survival was not improvement with the combination of enasidenib and best supportive care compared with conventional care regimens when administered to patients relapsed/refractory IDH2-positive acute myeloid leukemia.

The FDA accepted a New Drug Application for tepotinib and granted it priority review for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer who harbor a mutation that leads to mesenchymal-epithelial transition exon 14 skipping, as detected by an FDA-approved test.

Treatment with tesetaxel in combination with capecitabine led to an improvement in progression-free survival as treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer compared with single-agent capecitabine, meeting the primary end point of the phase 3 CONTESSA study.

The FDA granted a Fast Track designation to repotrectinib for the treatment of patients with advanced solid tumors that have an NTRK gene fusion and have progressed on at least 1 prior line of chemotherapy and 1 to 2 prior TRK tyrosine kinase inhibitors, leaving them with no satisfactory alternative treatment options.

A single-center experience demonstrated that certain pre- and post-treatment characteristics may predict outcomes for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma following treatment with a chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy.

During a debate at the 2020 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology Conference, Mehmet Akce, MD and Pretesh Patel, MD, argued their position on whether perioperative therapy for GEJ/gastric cancers should include radiation.

A supplemental New Drug Application was submitted to the FDA for cabozantinib plus nivolumab as treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Philip A. Philip, MD, PhD, discussed the current therapeutic options for patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer and where CPI-613 may fit into this treatment landscape.

Progression-free survival was not improved with the combination of spartalizumab, dabrafenib, and trametinib when administered as treatment of untreated patients with unresectable or metastatic BRAF V600E-mutant cutaneous melanoma compared with dabrafenib plus trametinib alone, missing the primary end point of the phase 3 COMBI-I clinical trial.

The median overall survival among patients receiving rigosertib in the intent-to-treat population was 6.4 months compared with 6.3 months with the physician’s choice as treatment of patients with higher-risk myelodysplastic syndrome.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Chasity M. Washington, MPH, CHES, shared her understandings of the racial disparities in oncology and how investigators can help mitigate these challenges within their communities.

Targeted Oncology reviews trending news online for the week of August 21, 2020, including recent news from the FDA, updates in oncology, and new information regarding COVID-19.

The FDA granted approval to the combination of daratumumab plus carfilzomib and dexamethasone as treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma who have received up to 3 prior lines of therapy.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology following the conference, Kevin Kalinsky, MD, MS, gave his take on how targeted therapies are impacting the field of HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, and he interprets the primary data from the phase 2 HER2CLIMB trial.

“The regimen of obinutuzumab, ibrutinib, and venetoclax met its primary goal of achieving deep remissions with a fixed-duration combination of targeted agents.”

The FDA granted a Fast Track designation to paxalisib for the treatment of patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma with unmethylated MGMT promotor status who have completed initial radiation and temozolomi

The application of liquid biopsies is becoming more common in the field of non–small cell lung cancer as the utility of liquid biopsies in the detection of key biomarkers continues to be confirmed through clinical trials.

The FDA has granted a fast track designation to PBCAR0191, a CD19-directed allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, for the treatment of patients with advanced B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Objective response rates for repotrectinib in patients with ROS1-positive non–small cell lung cancer and NTRK fusion-positive advanced solid tumors are encouraging, according to interim data from the phase 2 TRIDENT-1 clinical trial.

The FDA placed a partial clinical hold on enrollment to the phase 1 P-PSMA-101-001 trial evaluating P-PSMA-01 as treatment of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Vivek Subbiah, MD, discussed the positive findings from the phase 2 ROAR clinical trial, which evaluated the targeted therapy combination of dabrafenib and trametinib as treatment of patients with cholangiocarcinoma harboring a BRAF V600E mutation.

The primary end point of the phase 3 KEYNOTE-590 trial was met when the combination of pembrolizumab and chemotherapy improved overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival as initial treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic esophageal cancer during an interim analysis of the study.

Frontline ilixadencel in combination with sunitinib as utilized in newly diagnosed patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma in the phase 2 MERECA clinical trial has updated survival data, which indicates continued survival benefit with the combination over sunitinib alone.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Jennifer Woyach, MD, discussed the current treatment landscape for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and some of the latest research regarding the BTK inhibitors.

An investigator-initiated trial of a humanized CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy has been completed, demonstrating the therapy may be a safe and effective treatment for patients with hematologic malignancies.

Experts suspect the rising incidence of thyroid cancer may be related to the growing scrutiny of the thyroid gland with ultrasonography or other diagnostic techniques, but overdiagnosis may be a growing factor in the field.

The severity of coronavirus disease 2019 increases with age in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. However, age and the existence of comorbidities may not impact death from COVID-19, according to results from a retrospective international study.

The FDA has accepted a Biologics License Application for a new 4-week fixed-dose regimen containing durvalumab and granted it Priority Review for the approved indications of non–small cell lung cancer, as well as bladder cancer.

The frequency of mutations in patients with mantle cell lymphoma has a tendency to increase at clinical turning points like disease relapse and progression compared with at the time of diagnosis, according to a systemic review and meta-analysis.