August 2017

There is a great deal of excitement in the oncology field over the use of peptide receptor radionuclide therapy with lutetium-177 (¹⁷⁷Lu)-octreotate (¹⁷⁷ Lu-Dotatate, Lutathera) for the treatment of patients  with neuroendocrine tumors. The treatment is being explored in potential combinations with other modalities, including with systemic treatment with PARP inhibitors, in this patient population.

An analysis of the genomic landscape of patients with prostate cancer shows that tumors separated into 3 clusters that aligned with the luminal A, luminal B, and basal subtypes found in breast cancer tumors, according to a presentation during the 2017 American Urological Association Annual Meeting.

Development of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies is in the works for both hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, but the most promising results to date have been seen with CD19-targeted CAR T cells in the treatment of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Tissue samples will continue to be necessary in the practice of immunotherapy as more biomarkers for cancer become known, and solid biopsies remain the prime means of assessing the presence of cancer, says Ignacio I. Wistuba, MD.