ESMO Congress

Frontline pembrolizumab monotherapy showed an improvement in overall survival and duration of response versus standard therapy in patients with PD-L1–positive recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; however, there was not a similar improvement in progression-free survival or overall response rate with the PD-1 inhibitor.

The combination of the PD-L1 inhibitor atezolizumab and the VEGF inhibitor bevacizumab showed promising and durable antitumor activity in a phase Ib study of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

Preliminary data from the ongoing phase II TRITON2 trial demonstrated a 44% confirmed objective response rate by investigator assessment among evaluable men with BRCA1/2-mutated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who were treated with the PARP inhibitor rucaparib.

Extended follow-up data from the CheckMate-032 study shows a trend toward higher overall response and longer progression-free survival with the regimen of nivolumab at 1 mg/kg plus ipilimumab at 3 mg/kg in patients with platinum-pretreated metastatic urothelial carcinoma.

More than half of patients with advanced solid tumors associated with NTRK gene fusions responded to treatment with the small-molecule inhibitor entrectinib, an integrated analysis of 3 clinical trials showed.

The PARP inhibitor olaparib significantly improved progression-free survival as frontline maintenance therapy for women with BRCA-positive advanced ovarian cancer, according to findings from the randomized phase III SOLO-1 trial.

Patients with advanced cancers associated with NTRK gene fusions had an 80% objective response rate with the TRK inhibitor larotrectinib, pooled results from three small trials showed.

The combination of tepotinib plus gefitinib improved progression-free survival and overall response versus chemotherapy in patients with MET mutated EGFR-positive non–small cell lung cancer resistant to prior EGFR TKI therapy.

Fabrice André, MD, PhD, professor, Department of Medical Oncology, Institut Gustave Roussy, discusses the impact of the SOLAR-1 findings in breast cancer at the 2018 ESMO Congress.

When added to standard of care therapy, radiotherapy to the prostate improves overall survival in men newly diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer who have a low metastatic disease burden.

Hendrik-Tobias Arkenau, MD, PhD, medical director, Sarah Cannon Research Institute UK, discusses survival data with TAS-102 (trifluridine/tipiracil; Lonsurf) in gastric cancer at the 2018 ESMO Congress.

The combination of avelumab and axitinib doubled objective response rates and significantly improved progression-free survival compared with sunitinib in patients with treatment-naïve advanced renal cell carcinoma regardless of PD-L1 expression.

The PARP inhibitor niraparib has shown durable clinical activity in later lines of therapy in patients with relapsed ovarian cancer who have BRCA mutations, according to a posthoc analysis of the phase II QUADRA study.

The addition of the PI3K inhibitor alpelisib to fulvestrant nearly doubled median progression-free survival compared with the endocrine therapy alone in patients with HR-positive/HER2-negative advanced breast cancer who have a PIK3CA mutation.

The combination of palbociclib plus fulvestrant led to a clinically meaningful benefit in overall survival in patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer who had progressed or relapsed on prior endocrine therapy.

Distinct gene signatures in renal cell carcinoma correlated with improved progression-free survival with immunotherapy or a targeted agent, according to a new analysis of the phase III IMmotion151 trial.

Massimo Cristofanilli, MD, professor of medicine (hematology and oncology), Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, discusses survival findings from the PALOMA-3 trial in hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.

The addition of atezolizumab to nab-paclitaxel reduced the risk of progression or death by 38% compared with nab-paclitaxel alone in patients with PD-L1–positive metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.

Jonathan E. Rosenberg, MD, medical oncologist, chief, Genitourinary Medical Oncology Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses dosing for the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) in patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma at the 2018 ESMO Congress.

Adding radium-223 dichloride to abiraterone acetate and prednisone did not improve survival in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

MET amplification and EGFR C797S mutations are the most commonly observed alterations associated with resistance to first-line osimertinib in patients with EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer.

The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio is an independent factor for overall survival in patients with metastatic melanoma, whether they receive targeted therapy or immunotherapy.

Cabozantinib and nivolumab with or without ipilimumab show activity in genitourinary tumors, particularly urothelial carcinoma, and have manageable safety profiles.

Marina Chiara Garassino, MD, medical consultant in the Medical Oncology Division, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy, discusses the PACIFIC study for patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Benjamin Besse, MD, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, Paris Sud University, discusses the combination of dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist) for patients with non

Joshua Bauml, MD, assistant professor, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, discusses the FLAURA trial in patients with EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer.

Although anti-PD-1/PD-L1 immunotherapy has greatly improved the treatment of patients with non–small cell lung cancer and is generally well-tolerated, the therapy backfires in a newly defined subset of patients who experience accelerated tumor growth indicative of hyperprogressive disease.

Nearly half of patients with resectable stage IIIB/C BRAF V600-mutant melanoma achieved pathologic complete response with neoadjuvant combination therapy consisting of dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist).