July 2014

Administering carfilzomib once weekly in combination with dexamethasone is safe, with few ≥3 adverse events, and has significant antitumor activity in the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

Daratumumab, a fully human IgG1k monoclonal antibody that targets CD38, has demonstrated promising activity as monotherapy in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma

The incidence of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) has been steadily increasing over the last few decades, mostly due to HPV, which is now associated with the majority of newly diagnosed cases of OPSCC.

The second-generation oral ALK inhibitor ceritinib (Zykadia; LDK378) demonstrated rapid and durable responses in patients with ALK-positive, metastatic, non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)-regardless of whether they had been previously treated with crizotinib-achieving overall response rates of 60% or more in each subgroup of patients who had received zero to three prior therapies for their advanced lung cancer.

As a first-line treatment, crizotinib (Xalkori) improved progression-free survival (PFS) and objective response rate (ORR) compared with standard chemotherapy in patients with advanced ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

The anti-PD-L1 antibody MEDI4736 has early and durable activity in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) of both squamous and nonsquamous histology, with higher objective response rates occurring in PD-L1–positive patients, according to results of an ongoing phase I study.

Melanoma care has fortunately undergone a whirlwind of changes over the past several years. Novel immunotherapies are perhaps the most exciting recent development in cancer care because patients can enjoy long-term benefit from these treatments, meaning that they are possibly "cured."

Cabozantinib added to erlotinib has antitumor activity in heavily pretreated patients with EGFR-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease progressed on erlotinib alone, according to the results of a phase II trial presented at the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting.

The ASCO annual meeting is always a time of excitement for the nearly 30,000 clinicians and scientists who gather every year to see "what's new."