October 2019

At the recent <em>20th Annual </em>International Lung Cancer Congress&reg; in Huntington Beach, California, a number of very prominent contributors to the lung cancer translational and clinical field provided updates regarding novel strategies to address unmet needs.

The wealth of new data available for the treatment of patients with non&ndash;small cell lung cancer has led to numerous effective immunotherapy combinations in similar patient subsets, explained Karen L. Reckamp, MD, MS. Clinical trials going forward seem to primarily focus on the combination of immunotherapeutic and targeted agents, which may result in even more options for this tumor type.

<br /> In the future, we&rsquo;re going to do combination therapies. They will be used in a subset of patients better defined by profiling,&rdquo; Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, told an audience at the Charlotte Plasma Cell Disorder Congress in North Carolina.

A greater understanding of the mechanisms underlying endocrine resistance, along with the development of targeted agents directed at key regulatory oncogenic pathways, continue to lead to new options in the treatment of hormone receptor&ndash;positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. These therapies offer the promise of better disease control rates and improved quality of life for patients with advanced disease.

Successful induction regimens can reduce the burden of disease and prolong the durability of treatment response, time to disease progression, and overall survival for patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, all while minimizing toxicity, according to Saad Usmani, MD, chief of the Plasma Cell Disorders Program and director of clinical research in hematologic malignancies at Levine Cancer Institute of the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The introduction of<strong> </strong>CDK4/6 inhibitors for the treatment of hormone receptor&ndash;positive, HER2-negative breast cancer has transformed therapy management and extended survival for this patient population. The next step in the process of tailoring therapy towards individual patients is the introduction of targeted therapies for patient subsets with driver aberrations.

The addition of direct oral oral anticoagulants for the management of venous thromboembolism in patients with cancer is the latest change to previous guidelines issued by the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

The approval of alpelisib in May 2019 poses a challenge to oncologists and their practices with the emergence of hyperglycemia as an AE associated with PI3K inhibitors. Managing the patient effectively requires a multidisciplinary team approach that involves counseling up front, monitoring throughout the course of therapy, and input and feedback from the team of oncologists, advanced practice providers, pharmacists, and dietitians.

Adding PARP or CHK1 inhibitors to immunotherapies for the treatment of small cell lung cancer is the next step in the pipeline of novel combination approaches, according to Charles M. Rudin, MD, PhD, in a presentation at the <em>20th Annual </em>International Lung Cancer Congress.

Investigators have identified tumor mutational burden as a promising biomarker for predicting immunotherapy responses in patients with advanced stages of non&ndash;small cell lung cancer, but is it ready for clinical application?

During his presentation at the Cleveland Clinic Cholangiocarcinoma Symposium, Davendra P.S. Sohal, MD, MPH, reviewed promising novel therapies and those that recently gained indications for patients with cholangiocarcinoma.