Anita T. Shaffer

The introduction of PARP inhibitors into the breast cancer treatment paradigm is a clinically meaningful advance for patients with germline BRCA1/2 mutations but much more research must be conducted to optimize their use.

After nearly 30 years as a breast cancer surgeon, Patrick I. Borgen, MD, finds that the most enduring theme in the field is constant change.

The breast cancer field is experiencing rapid advancements in the understanding of disease biology and the development of novel therapeutic strategies for several subtypes, with a clear direction toward personalized or precision medicine.

In light of recent advancements, the current paradigm for choosing first-line therapy for patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer who do not harbor an actionable driver oncogene depends upon PD-L1 expression level and histology.

Although driver mutations have been identified for significant NSCLC subsets, patients with metastatic disease benefit from broad panel next-generation sequencing testing because of the growing clinical relevance of less common alterations and gene signatures.

The development of novel immunotherapy combinations is among the most significant trends emerging as part of the next wave of discovery in hepatocellular carcinoma, with several promising regimens incorporating checkpoint inhibitors undergoing testing in phase III studies.

Regorafenib maintained a prolonged overall survival benefit as second-line therapy for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma in a 2-year updated analysis of key findings from the pivotal RESORCE trial.

The positive outcomes that lenvatinib demonstrated as first-line therapy for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma are confirmed in an independent assessment conducted as part of the pivotal, international phase III REFLECT trial.

Cabozantinib improved survival as second-line therapy for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who also had a history of hepatitis B virus infection.

The combination of atezolizumab and bevacizumab demonstrated strong signals of efficacy with a tolerable safety profile as first-line therapy for patients with unresectable or metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma.

The rapid development of novel therapies for patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma has dramatically expanded the options for systemic treatments over the past 2 years, creating the need for new sequencing strategies.

Although checkpoint blocking immunotherapy has significantly improved outcomes for patients with advanced and metastatic disease, researchers believe the modality also may be effective in the neoadjuvant setting.

New strategies for the use of standard chemotherapies are likely to improve outcomes for a significant subset of patients with pancreatic cancer.

Cryoablation may help men whose prostate cancer recurs after radiation therapy avoid or delay retreatment with androgen deprivation therapy.

A 4-drug chemotherapy combination dramatically improved survival compared with standard gemcitabine as postoperative therapy for patients with resected pancreatic cancer.

Black men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer may experience greater benefits from chemotherapy and hormone-targeting treatment than their white counterparts.

More than a third of the new indications for oncology drugs that became available for patient care during the past 25 years entered clinical practice as a result of the FDA’s accelerated approval program.

Although hormone-targeting therapies have been a long-established strategy for the treatment of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer, more than 20% of patients with early-stage disease relapse and those who progress to a metastatic stage eventually die from their illness.

The combination of nivolumab and BMS-986205 generated promising response rates without increasing adverse effects in patients with advanced cervical or bladder cancers.

Nivolumab demonstrated a 24% overall response rate among patients with a range of non-colorectal cancers with mismatch repair deficiency who were identified through the NCI-MATCH trial.

A novel combination therapy aimed at 2 processes implicated in NRAS-mutant melanoma has displayed promising activity in preclinical investigations, signaling an avenue of exploration for a new therapeutic approach for patients who currently have few options.

After years of efforts to steer clinical trials toward molecularly defined therapeutic targets, oncology researchers recently notched 2 key successes in changing the paradigm of how patients with advanced cancers are diagnosed and treated.

Although FLT3 mutations are well established as a prognostic marker in patients with AML, efforts to target the aberration therapeutically were underway for more than 15 years before yielding success.

The addition of pertuzumab (Perjeta) to standard postoperative trastuzumab (Herceptin) therapy for patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer slightly improved the rate of recurrence overall but had a greater benefit for individuals with higher-risk disease, particularly as more time elapsed, according to early results from the phase III APHINITY trial.

Most patients with low-risk advanced colon cancer would benefit from a 50% reduction in the oxaliplatin-containing chemotherapy they typically receive after surgery without notably increasing their risk of recurrence and while markedly decreasing the likelihood that they will develop neuropathy, according to an analysis that challenges the current standard of care and paves the way for a more personalized approach.

Earlier intervention with abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) lowered the risk of death by nearly 40% for men with high-risk advanced or metastatic prostate cancer who were newly diagnosed or had not yet received hormone therapy in findings from 2 clinical trials presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Newly diagnosed patients with cancer experienced improvements in quality of life and lower levels of distress by participating in a web-based stress management program, according to results of a study presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Less than 2 years after checkpoint blockade immunotherapy first became available for patients with non-small cell lung cancer, the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab is poised to reshape the treatment paradigm for previously untreated individuals without molecular mutations.

Extensive studies into molecular aberrations in colorectal cancer are yielding fresh insights into the potential clinical utility of checkpoint immunotherapies, genetic testing, and tumor-sidedness implications. Experts weigh in on key developments that may change treatment paradigms.

A dual attack on HER2 expression resulted in a 30% objective response rate in heavily pretreated patients with HER2-positive metastatic colorectal cancer.