All Oncology News

Recent events threaten to seriously diminish the well-established and generally positively viewed role of both scientific and clinical expertise in health-related public policy.

Adding patient-specific comorbidities improved the prognostic effect of risk prediction models for patients with primary or secondary myelofibrosis, according to findings from an assessment of data collected in Vanderbilt’s Synthetic Derivative and BioVU Biobank comprehensive electronic health record.

The FDA has granted an orphan drug designation to osemitamab for the treatment of patients with pancreatic cancer, marking the second ODD for the agent following its initial designation in 2021 for use in those with gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancer.

The combination of BXCL701 and pembrolizumab produced durable responses in patients with platinum-resistant small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, according to data from a phase 2a trial presented at the 2023 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.

The combination of durvalumab and guadecitabine generated early signs of clinical activity and tolerability in patients with advanced clear cell renal cell carcinoma, particularly those with no prior exposure to checkpoint inhibitors.

Antoni Vilaseca, MD, PhD, explains the unique mechanism of the TAR-210 erdafitinib delivery system and expands on the key objectives, trial design, and patient characteristics of a phase 1 trial evaluating TAR-210 in patients with recurrent NMIBC or MIBC harboring select FGFR mutations or fusions.

Researchers at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center are addressing the low colorectal cancer screening rates in rural Indiana communities with a five-year, $3.3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute.

Janeesh Sekkath Veedu, MBBS, discusses the need for research comparing outcomes with surgery-based treatment vs CRT and immunotherapy in stage IIIA NSCLC, shares findings from a NCDB analysis, and emphasizes the importance of continuing this research as updated data become available.

Jennifer M. Matro, MD, discusses the real-world implications and uptake of the HER2CLIMB regimen, other trials investigating tucatinib-based regimens in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, and how approaches differ between early-stage and metastatic hormone receptor–positive/HER2-negative breast cancer.

Oliver Dorigo, MD, PhD, explains how MVP-S leverages the DPX platform to produce persistent anti-survivin immune infiltration, highlights the antitumor activity and safety observed with the combination when given to patients with recurrent ovarian cancer, and describes additional research efforts underway.

The use of next-generation sequencing demonstrated that the most prevalent genomic alterations in patients with endometrioid ovarian carcinoma include ARID1A, PIK3CA, PTEN, CTNNB1, KRAS, and P53.

Daniel Walden, MD, discusses the goal of analyzing RNA expression of wild-type HR genes in CRC, the importance of evaluating the benefit of chemotherapeutic approaches in patients with HRP CRC based on RNA expression levels, and the next steps for validating and implementing these findings in clinical practice.

The European Medicines Agency has granted Priority Medicines scheme designation to the personalized cancer vaccine mRNA-4157/V940 and pembrolizumab for use as adjuvant treatment in patients with high-risk, stage III or IV melanoma following complete resection.

The phase 3 LEAP-003 and LEAP-017 trials evaluating pembrolizumab plus lenvatinib did not meet their primary end points of overall survival in select patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma and metastatic colorectal cancer, respectively.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence announced final draft guidance recommending the PARP inhibitor olaparib for patients with HER2-negative, high-risk early breast cancer harboring a BRCA1/2 mutation, as well as for those with previously treated hormone-relapsed metastatic prostate cancer with a BRCA1/2 mutation.

AbbVie has announced the intention to voluntarily withdraw indications for ibrutinib in patients with mantle cell lymphoma who have previously received at least 1 therapy and in those with marginal zone lymphoma who require systemic treatment and have received at least 1 prior anti–CD20-based therapy.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a way to treat the area surrounding breast tumors that have spread to bone so that such tumors become vulnerable to attack by the body’s immune system.

In an era of genomics, proteomics, and immunology a biomarker as simple as anatomy may be useful in terms of predicting responses in patients with colorectal cancer.

CAR T-cell therapies have transformed the treatment landscape of multiple hematologic malignancies since they first rose to prominence, but they are associated with a high financial cost, both for the patient and the health care institution that provides them.

Robert L. Coleman, MD, FACOG, FACS, discusses a subgroup analysis of the SORAYA trial, which was presented during the 2023 Society of Gynecologic Oncology Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer, and where the field is headed in attempt to address unmet needs for this patient population.

Stacey A. Cohen, MD, discusses the advantages and limitations of ctDNA as a biomarker for detecting minimal residual disease , real-world data on the relationship between fluctuating cfDNA levels and ctDNA detection, and how implementing ctDNA testing earlier to identify minimal residual disease could serve as a prognostic tool in clinical practice.

The FDA has granted a fast track designation to CB-011, a CRISPR-edited allogeneic CAR T-cell therapy developed by Caribou Biosciences, for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

Combining the immune checkpoint inhibitor dostarlimab-gxly with standard-of-care chemotherapy elicited an increase in progression-free survival rates compared with chemotherapy alone for patients with primary advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer.

Stephanie L. Graff, MD, gives an overview of recently approved ADCs in TNBC and HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, as well as the importance of continued research with these agents in the first-line setting.

Pharmacy experts and leaders from Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute will join with colleagues this week to share the latest advances in oncology pharmacy operations and dispensing practices at the NCODA 2023 Spring Forum in Indianapolis.

The FDA has granted a fast track designation to SynKIR-110 for the treatment of patients with mesothelioma.

Elias Jabbour, MD; Harry Paul Erba, MD, PhD; Anjali Advani, MD; and Sameem Abedin, MD, discuss key updates pertaining to the leukemia treatment landscape that were presented at the 64th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition.

Single-agent liposomal irinotecan resulted in a similar median overall survival and progression-free survival to that achieved with topotecan in patients with small cell lung cancer that had progressed on or following frontline platinum-based chemotherapy.

First-line cemiplimab monotherapy or in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy conferred long-term clinical benefit to patients with unresectable, locally advanced non–­small cell lung cancer who were ineligible for concurrent chemoradiation.

Venetoclax, alone or in combination with a BTK inhibitor, improved overall response rate in patients with pretreated, high-risk mantle cell lymphoma, according to findings from a retrospective study. However, the BCL-2 inhibitor was associated with short durations of progression-free survival.