Latest Conference Articles

Adding saracatinib to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-targeted therapy did not improve response rates or overall survival while adding to toxicity in VEGF-resistant metastatic renal cell carcinoma

Tanios Bekaii-Saab, MD, discusses the results of a phase II study of the oncolytic virus reolysin in the first-line treatment metastatic adenocarcinoma of the pancreas.

Durable responses were obtained with the immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab, with a manageable safety profile, in a phase II dose-ranging trial conducted in patients with previously treated metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC).

The combination of abiraterone acetate and prednisone has demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in overall survival (OS) for men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) who had not received prior treatment with chemotherapy

Patients with unresectable melanoma had a significant improvement in the odds of survival when treated in first line with a combination of BRAF and MEK inhibitors, as opposed to anti-BRAF monotherapy

All patients with metastatic colorectal cancer should undergo RAS mutation testing to ensure optimal patient selection for EGFR inhibitor therapy.

Robert J. Motzer, MD, attending physician, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, provides an overview of a phase II study of nivolumab for the treatment of patients with clear cell metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Inhibiting BRAF and MEK at the same time improves progression-free survival (PFS) more so than BRAF inhibition alone in patients with BRAF V600 mutation-positive metastatic melanoma, according to results of a phase III placebo-controlled trial.

In patients with advanced gastric cancer expressing PD-L1, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) has robust antitumor activity and an acceptable safety profile

Treatment with crizotinib (Xalkori) demonstrated an overall response rate (ORR) of 72% in patients with ROS1-rearranged non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to phase I data presented at the 2014 ESMO Congress and published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, discusses the results of a phase III study of nivolumab compared with investigator's choice chemotherapy for the treatment of patients with advanced melanoma after prior anti-CTLA-4 therapy.

Treatment with nivolumab (Opdivo) demonstrated superior objective response rates (ORR) and longer durations of response compared with chemotherapy in a phase III trial of patients with previously treated advanced metastatic melanoma, reported Jeffrey Weber, MD, at the 2014 ESMO Congress.

Susan Galbraith, MD, PhD, head, Oncology Innovative Medicine, AstraZeneca, discusses updated data from the ongoing phase I/II AURA study looking at AZD9291 for NSCLC.

Dual HER2 blockade with pertuzumab and trastuzumab plus chemotherapy for the treatment of HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer improved median OS by almost 16 months over standard first-line therapy.

Sandra M. Swain, MD, discusses final overall survival analysis from the CLEOPATRA study of first-line pertuzumab, trastuzumab, and docetaxel for the treatment of patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

Cediranib improved response rate and median PFS when added to conventional chemotherapy in a phase II study of patients with relapsed or metastatic cervical cancer.

Almost 60% of patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer experienced tumor shrinkage when treated with the PD-L1 inhibitor pembrolizumab.

Vintafolide in combination with docetaxel showed improvements in PFS and OS compared with single-agent docetaxel as second-line treatment of patients with folate receptor–positive NSCLC.

Harriet Kluger, MD, associate professor of medicine, Yale Cancer Center, discusses the results from a phase I trial of nivolumab and ipilimumab for the treatment of patients with advanced melanoma.

Patients with advanced lung cancer had improved appetite, less weight loss, and a significant increase in lean body mass when treated with the ghrelin agonist anamorelin.

Afatinib delayed disease progression for approximately one month longer than chemotherapy and helped prevent painful symptoms from worsening for patients with relapsed or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Dovitinib, an investigational oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), demonstrated a "manageable" safety profile while controlling disease in about half of patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) who had discontinued treatment with imatinib due to disease progression or intolerance

Peter Emtage, discusses a phase I open-label study evaluating the safety and tolerability of MEDI4736 in combination with tremelimumab for the treatment of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

Daniel P. Petrylak, MD, Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology) and of Urology, Professor and Co-Director, Signal Transduction Research Program, Yale Cancer Center, discusses results from the phase II STRIDE study.

Treatment with the combination of bevacizumab and chemotherapy improved PFS and OS in women with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer.

High pretreatment levels of serum VEGF-A and TGF-β1 indicated significantly worse disease-free survival (DFS) following neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Timing of metastatic development, lymph node involvement, and type of disease all factor into the overall survival rate of patients with stage IV NSCLC.

The combination of chemotherapy and stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) may allow patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer to undergo surgery, a procedure that might not have otherwise been an option

With the use of MRI imaging to restrict doses to erectile tissues, nearly half of men treated with external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) for prostate cancer were able to be sexually active without aids or medications 5 years later, and nearly 80% could be sexually active if such support was an option

When given along with radiation therapy to men with high-risk prostate cancer, 18 months of androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT)-as opposed to a 36-month course-not only generates similar long-term outcomes, but results in a better quality of life