All Oncology News

Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, reflects on the past year in HER2-positive breast cancer.

In the past 2 years, key data from clinical trials in advanced lung cancer have demonstrated that immunotherapy has expanded the bounds of the armamentarium for the treatment of several lung cancers.

Surgical resection remains the key treatment modality for early-stage non–small cell lung cancer; however, both systemic adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapeutics are options that have value for patients.

Debra L. Richardson, MD, FACS, FACOG, discusses the role of NaPi2b as a target for upifitamab rilsodotin, data that have emerged from the ongoing phase 1/2 UPLIFT trial, and the development of other studies like UPNEXT and UPGRADE that are further evaluating upifitamab rilsodotin in patients with ovarian cancer.

The FDA has announced that they are investigating umbralisib (Ukoniq), an oral inhibitor of PI3K-delta and CK1-epsilon that is approved to treat patients with marginal zone lymphoma and follicular lymphoma, after initial data from the phase 3 UNITY-CLL trial revealed a potential increased risk of death in those who received the agent.

John Seymour, MD, discusses the safety of acalabrutinib vs ibrutinib in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and what findings from post-hoc analyses of the ELEVATE-RR trial mean for clinical practice.

Faith E. Davies, MD, a nationally renowned hematology expert, has been appointed the inaugural director of the Center for Blood Cancers at NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center.

The field of non–small cell lung cancer has exploded with continuous advances in targeted therapies directed toward key molecular alterations, including rare mutations like MET exon 14 skipping mutations, RET rearrangements, and ROS1 mutations.

Arpita Gandhi, MD, discusses a subgroup analysis of patients with myelofibrosis who received Orca-T and how this type of therapy could be a game-changer for this patient population.

In 2021, 13 novel agents were approved across hematology/oncology. Additionally, there were many other notable approvals—whether they were new formulations, expanded indications, or biosimilar approvals—across tumor types that expanded accessibility for varying patient populations.

Frontline administration of the checkpoint inhibitors ipilimumab plus nivolumab followed by the targeted agents dabrafenib plus trametinib improved overall survival in patients with BRAF V600–mutant melanoma vs the reverse sequence of combinations, according to data from the phase 3 DREAMseq trial presented during the ASCO Virtual Plenary Series.

Naveen Pemmaraju, MD, discusses results from a retrospective study examining the utilization hyper-CVAD, and long-term follow-up data regarding the use of tagraxofusp in patients with blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm.

The 3-patient safety run-in for the pancreatic cancer cohort of the ongoing phase 1/2 GOBLET study did not reveal any safety concerns with the novel combination of pelareorep and atezolizumab.

NECS to be the first and only affiliate member of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

The combination of brentuximab vedotin and chemotherapy resulted in a statistically significant improvement in overall survival when used in the frontline treatment of patients with advanced classical Hodgkin lymphoma.

The Biden-Harris administration has announced a plan to restart the Cancer Moonshot initiative, which President Joe Biden first launched as vice president of the Obama administration in 2016.

Maurie Markman, MD, explains the concerns surrounding liquid biopsies in cancer screening, and why regulatory agencies should be cautious and not approve any proposed molecularly based cancer diagnostic screening strategy until the tool is shown to effect cancer-specific survival compared with a control population not undergoing such testing.

Developing BRAF inhibitors for patients with atypical class II and III mutations has become an exciting area of research.

The submission of a supplemental biologics license application seeking the approval of a Monday/Wednesday/Friday intramuscular dosing schedule for asparaginase erwinia chrysanthemi-rywn for use as a component of a multiagent chemotherapy regimen in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and lymphoblastic lymphoma who have developed hypersensitivity to Escherichia coli–derived asparaginase has been submitted to the FDA.

Treatment with CD19-specific CAR T cells resulted in durable remission lasting more than 10 years for 2 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

The FDA has granted a rare pediatric disease designation to the bone-targeting radiopharmaceutical, Samarium-153-DOTMP, for use as a potential therapeutic option for patients with osteosarcoma.

Significant progress has been made toward the initiation of the phase 3 FLAMINGO-01 trial, which will evaluate the combination of the immunotherapy GP2 with granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor in the adjuvant treatment of HER2/neu- and HLA-A*02–positive patients following surgery and trastuzumab-based therapy.

Melissa A. Simon, MD, MPH, explains why all researchers, oncologists, and health care professionals play a role in safeguarding equity in clinical trials.

Laura Spring, MD, discusses the influence of the findings from the DESTINY-Breast03 trial with trastuzumab deruxtecan on practice patterns in HER2-positive breast cancer, updates in the management of brain metastases, and ongoing clinical trials she is keeping an eye on to move therapies into earlier lines of treatment.

Angela Jain, MD, provides perspective on use of PARP inhibitors in the treatment of patients with advanced ovarian cancer.

Alexander Babatunde Olawaiye, MD, discusses factors that influence optimized frontline maintenance therapy in advanced ovarian cancer.

In patients with ovarian cancer and pretreatment elevated CA-125 who achieved remission after frontline therapy, most recurrences are detected by rising CA-125 levels or symptoms.

The China National Medical Products Administration has accepted a supplemental new drug application for zanubrutinib as a treatment option for adult patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma.

Ruta D. Rao, MD, discusses factors that inform treatment selection for patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, the effects key data that emerged in 2021 have had on sequencing, strategies to mitigate toxicities associated with trastuzumab deruxtecan, and remaining questions regarding sequencing that may be the focus of ongoing research effort.

A marketing authorization application has been submitted to the European Medicines Agency seeking the approval of teclistamab for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.