All Oncology News

Patients with treatment-naïve chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic leukemia without 17p deletions experienced superior efficacy following treatment with acalabrutinib plus obinutuzumab compared with zanubrutinib monotherapy.

In a recent study, researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center demonstrated how amplification and rearrangement of a gene associated with leukemia known as MLL is directly controlled by epigenetic factors, providing needed insights into a new therapeutic opportunity.

The FDA has approved FoundationOne CDx for use as a companion diagnostic for selpercatinib, which was approved by the FDA for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors harboring a RET gene fusion whose disease has progressed on or following prior systemic treatment, or who have no satisfactory alternative treatment options.

Treatment with the combination of the investigational oral innate immune activator BXCL701 and pembrolizumab led to a median overall survival of 13.6 months in patients with small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Professional and personal satisfaction are both possible with a hybrid option that optimizes work-life balance.

Pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy prior to surgery, followed by resection and single-agent pembrolizumab in the adjuvant setting, significantly improved overall survival vs neoadjuvant placebo plus chemotherapy followed by adjuvant placebo in patients with resectable stage II, IIIA, or IIIB (T3-4N2) non–small cell lung cancer, meeting the dual primary end point of the phase 3 KEYNOTE-671 trial.

Combination therapy targeting multiple exons where mutations commonly develop in gastrointestinal stromal tumor may represent a promising treatment approach to increase efficacy when patients develop resistance to therapies such as imatinib.

Administration of acalabrutinib to patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia with or without cardiovascular disorders at baseline results in a numerically decreased incidence of overall treatment-related cardiac toxicities and a comparable safety profile vs comparator CLL therapies such as ibrutinib.

The undetectable minimal residual disease ate achieved with bendamustine followed by obinutuzumab, acalabrutinib, and venetoclax increased as the regimen was continued as maintenance treatment in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Treatment with subcutaneous epcoritamab-bysp elicited rapid and durable responses, including an encouraging complete response rate, and manageable safety in high-risk patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Patients with chronic lymphoctyic leukemia treated with pirtobrutinib monotherapy experienced comparable objective response rates regardless of acquired BTK mutation and a decrease or clearance of BTK cysteine 481 clones despite the emergence of non-C481 clones or other less common mutations during or near the time of progression.

Patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia achieved sustained progression-free survival and overall survival benefit after treatment with fixed-duration venetoclax plus rituximab vs bendamustine plus rituximab, according to data from the phase 3 MURANO trial.

The combination of venetoclax and dexamethasone failed to significantly improve progression-free survival over pomalidomide plus dexamethasone in patients with t(11;14)-positive, relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma who have previously received at least 2 therapies.

Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia who experience disease progression during treatment with either covalent or noncovalent BTK inhibitors displayed a higher frequency of BTK mutations in L528W as well as RAS/RAF/MAPK pathway alterations, indicating that these alterations may play a role in the development of BTK inhibitor resistance.

Stable peripheral disease levels lasting 12 months were reported in patients with treatment-naïve chronic lymphocytic leukemia following 6 years of continuous treatment with ibrutinib.

The FDA has placed a partial clinical hold on investigational new drug application for lacutamab, leading to a pause in new patient enrollment for the phase 2 TELLOMAK trial and a phase 1b trial, which are evaluating the agent in patients with advanced cutaneous T-cell lymphoma and peripheral T-cell lymphoma, respectively.

Treatment with the first-in-class radioenhancer NBTXR3 proved tolerable and effective in older patients with advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and a comorbidity index.

In a 14-to-6 vote, the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted sufficient evidence has been provided to demonstrate the event-free survival benefit of eflornithine to reduce the risk of relapse in pediatric patients with high-risk neuroblastoma.

Rena D. Callahan, MD, discusses the current standards for breast cancer imaging modalities, the complexities of using bone biopsy, and the importance of continuing to study nonstandard imaging modalities to increase the accessibility of breast cancer imaging for metastatic disease.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has authorized the use of dostarlimab in combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of patients with mismatch repair-deficient/microsatellite instability–high primary advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer.

A Type II extension of indication application seeking the approval of amivantamab in combination with carboplatin and pemetrexed for the frontline treatment of adult patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer and activating EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations has been submitted to the European Medicines Agency.

Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute, LLC is pleased to welcome hematologists and medical oncologists Bahaa Amer, MD and Savan Shah, MD to the statewide practice.

Priya U. Kumthekar, MD, details the specialized program for fellows while reflecting on her own experiences, highlights her research in brain metastases, and offers advice to both fellowship directors and current fellows in oncology.

Ajay Kumar Nooka, MD, MPH, FACP, highlights the significance of the FDA approval of elranatamab for select patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma and sheds light on the agent’s role in the expanding field of T cell–redirecting therapies approved for the treatment of this patient population.

The biologics license application seeking the approval of the on-body injector presentation of pegfilgrastim-cbqv, a biosimilar of pegfilgrastim, has been resubmitted to the FDA for review.

Pembrolizumab as adjuvant therapy led to a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in disease-free survival compared with observation in patients with localized muscle invasive urothelial cancer and locally advanced urothelial cancer.

First-line treatment with the combination of motixafortide, cemiplimab-rwlc, gemcitabine, and nab-paclitaxel elicited responses in patients with metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma, according to initial data from the pilot portion of a phase 2 trial.

The FDA has approved the CRCdx® RAS Mutation Detection Kit as a companion diagnostic for panitumumab in the treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, according to an announcement from EntroGen.

Researchers from Fox Chase Cancer Center and the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University will serve as two of the principal investigators on the Asian American Community Cohort and Equity Study, which is part of a new seven-year epidemiological cohort study of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.

Most fellows are incredibly busy and face emotional challenges as they navigate the path of cancer diagnosis to death with patients.