All Oncology News

February 11, 2021 - Avelumab as frontline maintenance therapy plus best supportive care showed a favorable benefit-risk balance in Japanese patients with advanced urothelial cancer that did not progress on first-line chemotherapy.

February 11, 2021 - The novel tubulin inhibitor VERU-111 demonstrated early antitumor activity and a well-tolerated safety profile in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who failed a prior androgen receptor–targeting agent.

February 11, 2021 - First-line treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitor–based regimens could be linked with an improvement in overall survival versus select targeted therapies in patients with metastatic non–clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

February 11, 2021 - Lenvatinib in combination with everolimus has proven to be safe and effective when used in the treatment of patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma who had previously received an immune checkpoint inhibitor.

February 11, 2021 - A conditioning regimen comprised of targeted radiation with Iomab-B led to a lower incidence of sepsis as well as trends toward reduced rates of severe mucositis and febrile neutropenia versus conventional care and standard conditioning regimens in older adults with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia.

R. Lor Randall, MD, discusses the intriguing risk-stratification–based trial in NSTRS and how the findings can be used to guide treatment decisions in this pediatric population.

February 10, 2021 - A biologics license application has been submitted to the FDA for the accelerated approval of the antibody-drug conjugate tisotumab vedotin for use in patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer that has progressed on or following chemotherapy.

February 10, 2021 - Hematopoietic recovery following myeloablative transplantation with omidubicel was faster than standard myeloablative umbilical cord blood transplantation and was associated with encouraging clinical benefit.

Axel Grothey, MD, highlights recent advancements in CRC treatment, including innovative combinations and emerging agents that are generating excitement in the field.

February 10, 2021 - The JAK 1/2 inhibitor ruxolitinib, when given at a maximum dose of 10 mg peri-transplant, has been shown to be safe and feasible in patients with myelofibrosis.

Neal D. Shore, MD, discusses the FDA approval of relugolix in prostate cancer.

Sikander Ailawadhi, MD, discusses the future of relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, the potential for retreatment with proteasome inhibitors, immunomodulatory drugs, and monoclonal antibodies, and the promise of T-cell engagers in the field.

February 9, 2021 - The FDA has approved cemiplimab-rwlc as the first immunotherapy for use in patients with advanced basal cell carcinoma that has previously been treated with a hedgehog pathway inhibitor (HHI) or for whom a HHI is not appropriate.

February 9, 2021 - Responsiveness to treatment received immediately prior to CAR T-cell therapy may not be associated with post–CAR T outcomes in patients with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma who receive axicabtagene ciloleucel.

February 9, 2021 - The European Commission has granted a full marketing authorization for fedratinib for the treatment of disease-related splenomegaly or symptoms in adult patients with primary myelofibrosis, post-polycythemia vera myelofibrosis, or post-essential thrombocytopenia myelofibrosis who have not received JAK inhibitors or who have received ruxolitinib.

February 9, 2021 - Ruxolitinib, when administered using a pediatric dosing algorithm, was found to elicit responses in patients with chronic graft-versus-host disease with acceptable safety.

Shaji K. Kumar, MD, discusses novel combinations that are being introduced to the relapsed/refractory setting in multiple myeloma, the value of minimal residual disease, and the importance of understanding potential toxicity when utilizing newer agents in the space.

February 9, 2021 - JSP191 in combination with low-dose total body irradiation and fludarabine has demonstrated efficacy and tolerability in older patients with minimal residual disease–positive acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome who are undergoing nonmyeloablative allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation.

February 9, 2021 - The FDA has granted breakthrough therapy designations to asciminib for the treatment of adult patients with Philadelphia chromosome–positive chronic myeloid leukemia in chronic phase who received prior treatment with 2 or more TKIs, and for adult patients with Ph-positive CML in chronic phase whose tumors harbor the T315I mutation.

February 8, 2021 — Narsoplimab demonstrated clinical activity and a favorable survival benefit in patients with high-risk hematopoietic stem cell transplant-associated thrombotic microangiopathy, according to updated results of a pivotal phase 2 trial.

With the emergence of multiple immunotherapy approaches in recent years, the decision of whether to use a single agent, to pair it with chemotherapy, or to pair it with another immunotherapy agent has come to the forefront of treatment.

Vincent Lam, MD, describes frontline indications for this patient population, as well as strategies that can be utilized to overcome TKI resistance in later lines of therapy.

Immunotherapy plus chemotherapy is a standard of care for patients with advanced PD-L1–negative non–small cell lung cancer who do not harbor actionable driver mutations.

February 8, 2021 - These findings may have implications for patients with hematologic malignancies, suggesting the development of protective memory against SARS-CoV2 and non-SARS human coronaviruses.

Formerly, small cell lung cancer was generally considered more chemotherapy sensitive in the short term but also associated with an overall inferior survival outcome; however, the difference in prognosis compared with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer was measured in months—rarely longer.

Yttrium-90 glass microspheres, a personalized radiotherapeutic cancer treatment, induced an overall response rate of 72.2% per blinded independent central review as neoadjuvant or stand-alone treatment in 143 evaluable patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

Now that a new standard of care has been established in frontline mesothelioma, clinical trials are needed to evaluate optimal sequencing with checkpoint inhibitors in the salvage setting and determine whether biomarkers of response to immunotherapy could further tailor treatment to individual patients.

Synergizing EGFR TKIs with antiangiogenic agents and chemotherapy, as well as improving the use of molecular classification, are novel strategies aimed at taking the frontline setting for patients with EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer to the next level.

Mark A. Socinski, MD, discusses the nuances of the PACIFIC trial and ongoing research with durvalumab that could extend the reach of immunotherapy in early-stage lung cancer.

Over the past 2 decades, the field of EGFR-mutated non–small cell lung cancer has grown tremendously, but the influx of data and the recent regulatory approval of adjuvant osimertinib have raised several important questions to be addressed to ensure that the optimal treatment approach is utilized.