Caroline Seymour

Age was associated with overall survival and the time to Richter transformation in adolescent and young adult patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, according to findings from a single-institutional, retrospective study.

Standard response assessment in neuro-oncology- and immunotherapy RANO-defined progression-free did not correlate with overall survival vs modified RANO-defined PFS, which strongly correlated with OS in patients with recurrent glioblastoma treated with MDNA55 in a phase 2 trial, suggesting that mRANO may be the optimal means of therapeutic response assessment in recurrent glioblastoma.

Andrea Saltos, MD, provides perspective on the use of targeted therapy across EGFR-, RET-, and MET-positive NSCLC.

Ullas Batra, MBBS, MD, DM, discusses the durability of targeted therapy in advanced NSCLC and the movement of targeted therapy and immunotherapy into earlier stages of disease.

Adjuvant treatment with atezolizumab led to a significant improvement in disease-free survival vs best supportive care in patients with stage II to IIIA non–small cell lung cancer, particularly those with PD-L1–positive tumors, according to findings from the phase 3 IMpower010 trial.

The use of universal tumor screening in conjunction with multigene panel testing led to an improvement in the identification of hereditary cancer syndromes in patients with colorectal cancer.

Missak Haigentz Jr, MD, discusses the movement of osimertinib from the metastatic to adjuvant settings and ongoing research poised to improve outcomes for patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC.

The use of 18F-fluciclovine-PET/CT in guiding salvage treatment with radiotherapy after prostatectomy reduced the likelihood of biochemical recurrence or suboptimal response to treatment in patients with prostate cancer without evidence of extrapelvic disease with conventional imaging.

A second treatment with CD19-directed CAR T-cell therapy plus ibrutinib (Imbruvica) following failed prior CD19-directed CAR T-cell therapy and salvage treatment with ibrutinib led to greater efficiency and anti-CD19 CAR T-cell amplification, but also higher grades of cytokine release syndrome and more serious hematologic toxicity in patients with refractory B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Findings from the pivotal phase 3 PACIFIC and ADAURA trials have not only led to paradigm shifts and served as the basis for ongoing research for patients with unresectable and resectable non–small cell lung cancer, respectively, but have emphasized the importance of distinguishing treatment options based on the presence or absence of an oncogenic driver.

Conflicting results from the phase 3 monarchE, PENELOPE-B, and PALLAS trials have thrown the role of adjuvant CDK4/6 inhibition into question in patients with high-risk, early-stage hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.

Ribociclib plus endocrine therapy improved overall survival and post-progression outcomes in pre- or postmenopausal patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer irrespective of age.

Daratumumab plus lenalidomide and dexamethasone, or plus bortezomib and dexamethasone each led to higher rates of minimal residual disease negativity compared with lenalidomide plus dexamethasone or bortezomib plus dexamethasone alone in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma who were enrolled in the phase 3 POLLUX and CASTOR trials, translating to prolonged, durable remissions.

Arsen Osipov, MD, discusses the potential for ongoing research with immunotherapeutic approaches in gastrointestinal malignancies, including CAR T-cell therapy, bispecific T-cell engagers, and vaccines.

Marianne Davies, NP, DNP, MSN, BSN, discussed the potential severity of immune-related adverse effects and detailed recommended management strategies for patients receiving checkpoint inhibitors, especially in lung cancer.

Thermal ablation was shown to be a safe and effective treatment for patients with localized gynecologic tumors in the lungs, abdomen, and pelvis, according to findings from a retrospective analysis published in the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology.

In a 5 to 4 vote, the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted to oppose maintaining the accelerated approval of nivolumab monotherapy for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma who received prior treatment with sorafenib.

In an 8 to 0 vote, the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted to support the accelerated approval of pembrolizumab monotherapy for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma who received prior treatment with sorafenib.

In a 6 to 2 vote, the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted against maintaining the accelerated approval of pembrolizumab for the treatment of patients with PD-L1–positive recurrent or advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma who have received 2 or more lines of therapy.

In a 10 to 1 vote, the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted to support the accelerated approval of atezolizumab for the frontline treatment of patients with cisplatin-ineligible locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma.

In a 5 to 3 vote, the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted to uphold the accelerated approval of pembrolizumab for the frontline treatment of patients with cisplatin-ineligible and carboplatin-ineligible locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma.

Triaging individuals with the highest likelihood of cancer detection with their clinical indication and individual risk factors during periods of reduced capacity could be an efficient way of identifying the most cancers with the least examinations compared with a non–risk-based approach.

The FDA's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted 7 to 2 in support of maintaining the indication of atezolizumab in combination with nab-paclitaxel as a treatment for adult patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer whose tumors are PD-L1 positive.

The CheckMate 274 trial may have captured attention during the 2021 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, but immunotherapy is not the only promising approach under study in urothelial carcinoma.

Jacob Sands, MD, discussed current approaches to the treatment of patients with early-stage and locally advanced non–small cell lung cancer.

Tazemetostat as a single agent or in combination with zanubrutinib demonstrated antitumor activity in mantle cell lymphoma cell lines with intrinsic resistance to BTK inhibitors, suggesting that the agent could be a promising therapeutic option for patients with primary relapsed/refractory disease.

The combination of atezolizumab, carboplatin, and etoposide, as well as durvalumab, etoposide, and platinum chemotherapy, each have shown survival improvements vs chemotherapy alone as frontline therapy in patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer.

Selpercatinib demonstrated a favorable safety profile, characterized by low-grade treatment-emergent adverse effects, manageable early onset toxicity, and low rates of treatment discontinuation, in patients with RET-altered advanced solid tumors.

The presence of pathogenic or likely pathogenic germline variants in cancer predisposition genes, which were identified in approximately 1 in 5 patients with neuroblastoma and were mostly inherited, was shown to correlate with worse event-free survival and overall survival vs the absence of germline variants.

Sequential chemotherapy and immunotherapy became the preferred standard of care in patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma, based on findings from the phase 3 JAVELIN Bladder 100 trial.