News

In an interview with&nbsp;<em>Targeted Oncology,&nbsp;</em>Marina Kremyanskaya, MD, PhD, discussed the results from the phase II trial investigating the effects of CPI-0610 with or without ruxolitinib in patients with MF. Overall, the drug was well tolerated and effective in patients who had previously progressed on ruxolitinib or received inadequate responses to treatment.

The RET inhibitor BLU-667 induced durable responses in patients with advanced, <em>RET-</em>altered medullary thyroid cancer and papillary thyroid cancer, according to updated results of the ARROW trial focused on the patients with thyroid cancer that were presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Significant activity was observed when ibrutinib was administered concurrently with CD19-directed CAR T-cell therapy compared with separately in patients with&nbsp;high-risk relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia who had progressed on or were intolerant of ibrutinib.&nbsp;Data presented at the 15th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma show a high response rate with this concurrent treatment.&nbsp;

Mitchell Smith, MD, PhD,&nbsp;discussed the most recent research and agents under investigation for the treatment of indolent lymphomas. He also highlighted how conversations transpire when discussing the watch-and-wait approach with his asymptomatic patients.

In an interview with <em>Targeted Oncology, </em>Shirish Gadgeel, MBBS, of the Department of Medicine, Hematology/Oncology Division, University of Michigan, discussed recent study updates from the phase III KEYNOTE-189 trial and potential implications for the combination on clinical practice.

During a recent&nbsp;<em>Targeted Oncology&nbsp;</em>live case-based peer perspectives presentation, Mary Jo J. Fidler, MD, reviewed treatment options in the first and second line based on a case study of a patient with NSCLC who experiences rapid progression on her first-line regimen.&nbsp;

Ibrutinib as a maintenance therapy for patients with&nbsp;mantle cell lymphoma who respond to frontline induction therapy with or without autologous stem cell transplant appeared safe and feasible, according to the results of a recent study presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.

The phase III IMspire170 trial failed to meet its primary endpoint according to topline results from the study. The combination of atezolizumab and cobimetinib did not improve progression-free survival compared with pembrolizumab in patients with previously untreated<em> BRAF&nbsp;</em>V600 wild-type melanoma.

Lisocabtagene maraleucel demonstrated a promising response rate and an acceptable toxicity profile in the TRANSCEND NHL 001 trial in a cohort of patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma.<br /> &nbsp;

A prefilled syringe of&nbsp;lanreotide has been approved by the FDA to&nbsp;enable healthcare providers to administer the injection easier to adults with unresectable, well or moderately differentiated, locally advanced or metastatic gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.

A priority review designation has been granted by the FDA to a supplemental&nbsp;biologics license application for niraparib as a treatment for patients with advanced ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who have been treated with &ge;3 prior chemotherapy regimens, and who have either a&nbsp;<em>BRCA&nbsp;</em>mutation or have homologous recombination deficiency and progressed &gt;6 months after their last platinum-based regimen.

The FDA has lifted a partial clinical hold placed on the phase III CANOVA trial, which is investigating the combination of venetoclax and dexamethasone in comparison with pomalidomide and dexamethasone in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma and a transformation (11;14) abnormality.

Topline results from the&nbsp;phase III CheckMate 459 trial revealed that the trial did not meet its primary endpoint of improved overall survival with nivolumab as compared with sorafenib for the treatment of patients with newly diagnosed, unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.&nbsp;

A combination of nivolumab plus brentuximab vedotin was highly active in 73% of patients with relapsed/refractory primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma, based on results from the phase I/II CheckMate 436 trial, recently announced during the 15th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma.<br /> &nbsp;

A complete response letter has been issued to&nbsp;Daiichi Sankyo from the FDA, alerting the company to the reasons why the new drug application for quizartinib as a&nbsp;treatment of adult patients with relapsed/refractory&nbsp;<em>FLT3</em>-ITD&ndash;positive acute myeloid leukemia would not be approved.&nbsp;

A new meta-analysis quantifying the risks and benefits of using hydroxyurea to treat polycythemia vera found that while the incidence of thrombosis and acute myeloid leukemia were stable over time, mortality and transformation to myelofibrosis varied depending on follow-up duration.

The combination of venetoclax and bortezomib lead to an increased number of deaths by infection in patients with multiple myeloma in the phase III BELLINI trial, according to data presented at the 2019 EHA Congress. Deaths increased in spite of promising responses data and a high progression-free survival rate.

During an interview with <em>Targeted Oncology</em>, lead study author Dhruvajyoti Roy, PhD, the director of technology at Laboratory for Advanced Medicine, Inc., shared information about the study, commented on other liquid biopsy research presented by peers at ASCO and provided insight as to what these data mean for the future of cell-free DNA methylation.

The first regulatory approval has been granted to entrectinib in Japan. The Japanese&nbsp;Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare recently&nbsp;approved the agent for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with&nbsp;<em>NTRK&nbsp;</em>fusion&ndash;positive, advanced recurrent solid tumors.

Charles G. Mullighan, MBBS, MSc, MD, discussed with&nbsp;<em>Targeted Oncology&nbsp;</em>the role of genetic variants in understanding a patient&rsquo;s predisposition to ALL. He highlighted findings in research that may help in utilizing the current understanding of these genetic variants to make treatment decisions for patients with ALL.

In an interview with <em>Targeted Oncology</em>, Rory McCulloch, MD, discussed the results from a retrospective analysis for R-BAC treatment following relapse on a BTK inhibitor in patients with mantle cell lymphoma.

Olaparib has been approved by the European Commission as a treatment in the maintenance setting for adult patients&nbsp;with advanced <em>BRCA1/2</em>-mutated germline and/or somatic high-grade epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who are in complete or partial response following frontline treatment with a platinum-based chemotherapy.

Two abstracts presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting analyzed potential combinations with osimertinib (Tagrisso), a third-generation EGFR TKI, with additional agents to potentially overcome resistance mutations following progression in patients with <em>EGFR</em>-mutant NSCLC.

In an interview with&nbsp;<em>Targeted Oncology</em>, Kazuhiko Nakagawa, MD, PhD discussed the findings from the RELAY trial for the combination of ramucirumab plus erlotinib compared to erlotinib plus placebo. He suggested that these data could be practice-changing for the treatment of newly diagnosed patients with&nbsp;<em>EGFR</em>-positive NSCLC.<br /> &nbsp;

Patients with early-stage, asymptomatic, newly diagnosed chronic lymphocytic leukemia showed improved survival outcomes with ibrutinib monotherapy compared with placebo, according to results from phase III CLL12 study presented at the 2019 European Hematology Association Congress.<br /> &nbsp;

Kartik Konduri, MD, discussed with a group of physicians in a recent&nbsp;<em>Targeted Oncology&nbsp;</em>live case-based peer perspectives presentation the diagnostic workup and treatment considerations he makes when he sees a patient with non&ndash;small cell lung cancer in the clinic. Konduri explained his treatment decision making based on the case scenario of a patient with locally advanced NSCLC.&nbsp;

An accelerated approval has been granted by the FDA to&nbsp;single-agent pembrolizumab for the treatment of patients with metastatic small cell lung cancer who have disease progression on or after platinum-based chemotherapy and &ge;1 other prior line of therapy.

New data from the phase II/III IMerge trial show that imetelstat may allow for transfusion independence for patients with debilitating anemia caused by myelodysplastic syndrome,&nbsp;according to results presented at the&nbsp;2019 EHA Congress.<br /> &nbsp;

When bevacizumab was added to capecitabine plus irinotecan, the combined regimen was shown to be a safe and effective second-line treatment option for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, according to findings from a phase II trial published recently in the&nbsp;International Journal of Clinical Oncology.

In an interview with&nbsp;<em>Targeted Oncology,&nbsp;</em>Andrew X. Zhu, MD, PhD, FACP, discussed the results from the REACH-2 trial and the significance of the approval of ramucirumab monotherapy in patients with advanced HCC and high AFP levels who have previously failed sorafenib.