Latest Conference Articles

Marcel R.M. van den Brink, MD, PhD, provides an overview of four notable studies being presented at the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Meeting and Exposition.

In less than 5 years, the treatment landscape for patients with hematologic malignancies has undergone a dramatic transformation, with continued advancements and pivotal data being presented at the 2015 ASH Annual Meeting.

Dirk Schadendorf, MD, Head of Department for Dermatology, Venerology und Allergology, University Hospital Essen, Germany, discusses the results from the phase III CheckMate 067 study, which looked at a combination immunotherapy regimen in advanced melanoma.

Michael Lim, MD, Director of Brain Tumor Immunotherapy, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins Medicine, discusses toxicities associated with checkpoint inhibitors for the treatment of glioblastoma.

Mark R. Gilbert, MD, senior investigator, chief, Neuro-Oncology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Center for Cancer Research, discusses the use of precision medicine in treating patients with glioblastoma.

Treatment with the combination of vemurafenib and cobimetinib improved overall survival by 4.9 months compared with vemurafenib alone for patients with BRAF mutation-positive advanced melanoma.

A treatment regimen of pembrolizumab plus low-dose ipilimumab was tolerable and effective for patients with advanced melanoma.

The deployment of precision medicine to develop safe and effective therapies to treat malignant brain tumors is an effort that poses both opportunities and challenges.

An international coalition of experts is planning an innovative clinical trial aimed at speeding up the development of new treatments for patients with glioblastoma multiforme, putting into motion a biomarker-driven approach that has been employed in other malignancies.

Hideho Okada MD, PhD, discusses the need for a new immunotherapy response assessment in euro-oncology. Okada presented on this topic at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuro-Oncology.

Nicholas A. Butowski, MD, discusses an early-stage study of convection-enhanced delivery of nanoliposomal irinotecan with real-time imaging.

A pilot study of the efficacy of CAR T-cell therapy in patients with EGFRvIII-positive glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) has generated encouraging findings.

In the largest-to-date analysis of treatment-naïve metastatic melanoma patients with BRAF V600 mutations treated with dabrafenib and trametinib, researchers have found that baseline LDH levels and number of disease sites were the most significant factors affecting survival.

Two separate early phase clinical trials exploring pembrolizumab-containing immunotherapy combinations have shown objective response rates over 50% in patients with advanced melanoma.

Maciej M. Mrugala, MD, PhD, discusses a retrospective analysis looking at adding cycles of treatment with temozolomide in newly diagnosed patients with glioblastoma.

Treatment with the immunotherapy rindopepimut plus bevacizumab resulted in a 47% reduction in the risk of death compared with bevacizumab and a control for patients with relapsed glioblastoma multiforme.

Amy B. Heimberger, MD, discusses the potential of FGL2 as a multi-modality regulator of tumor-mediated immune suppression in patients with glioblastoma.

Making real strides in melanoma care requires an understanding of BRAF resistance mechanisms.

Findings from a subgroup of patients enrolled in a phase II study assessing the dendritic vaccine ICT-107 for patients with HLA-A2+ glioblastoma multiforme merit further exploration in a phase III study.

Georgina Long, BSc, PhD, MBBS, FRACP, medical oncologist, translational researcher, Melanoma Institute Australia, The University of Sydney, discusses which patients may benefit from the combination of dabrafenib and trametinib based on several recent clinical trials.

Though clinical work is ongoing and early, researchers are already considering how to manage potentially fatal neurotoxicities in patients treated with chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy

Victoria Atkinson, MD, of Princess Alexandra Hospital and Gallipoli Medical Research Foundation, Queensland, discusses long-term data from the phase III CheckMate-066 trial.

Since the approval of the first checkpoint inhibitor, ipilimumab, several combinations and monotherapies have gained rapid approval, with continued expansion on the horizon.

John H. Sampson, MD, PhD, MBA, MHSc, discusses results from cohort 1 of the CHECKMATE-143 trial.

There are reasons to suggest that immune checkpoint inhibitors may be successful against central nervous system tumors, including glioblastoma.

The addition of Optune to chemotherapy and/or bevacizumab improved survival in patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme.

David Reardon, MD, discusses updated survival findings from the phase II ReACT trial, which analyzed rindopepimut (CDX-110) plus bevacizumab for the treatment of relapsed glioblastoma.

Jason Luke, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses how inflammation in the tumor microenvironment can serve as a biomarker in melanoma.

As immunotherapy begins to be studied across central nervous system tumors it becomes increasingly important for practitioners to understanding the unique adverse event profiles associated with these agents.

Long-term data continue to show sustained improvements in overall survival with nivolumab alone or in combination with ipilimumab as a frontline treatment for patients with advanced melanoma.