BRAIN CANCER

As the new coronavirus disease 2019 creates problems internationally, health-wise and economically, it is also becoming a cause for concern throughout the oncology community.

In February 2020, the FDA gave indications to multiple therapies meant for treatment of solid tumor and hematologic malignancies. FDA action included 10 Priority Reviews, 2 Breakthrough Therapy designations, and 2 Fast Track designations.

To help clinicians cope with an increasing number of geriatric patients with cancer, the Association of Community Cancer Centers is addressing this problem with a 2-pronged approach that focuses on the delivery of care and diagnostic assessment.

Patients with aggressive meningiomas presented with clinical and radiological activity when receiving a combination of everolimus&nbsp; and octreotide in the single-arm phase II CEVOREM trial.<br /> &nbsp;

Arati Desai, MD, explains how the results from the phase III STELLAR trial will enhance knowledge of anaplastic astrocytoma.

In an interview with&nbsp;Targeted Oncology, Arati Desai, MD, co-director of the University of Pennsylvania Brain Tumor Cancer Program Center, assistant professor of clinical medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, discussed the implications of the STELLAR trial, the role of eflornithine, and how&nbsp;IDH1/2&nbsp;mutational status affects outcomes in patients with anaplastic astrocytomas.

Integrating a geriatric assessment into the care of older adults who are receiving cancer treatment in communi&shy;ty oncology practices improves patient and caregiver satisfaction and encourages commu&shy;nication about aging-related concerns, accord&shy;ing to results of a clinical trial that enrolled 541 patients with advanced cancer.

The present and future benefits of telehealth in oncology can be observed through Tahoe For&shy;est Cancer Center and its affiliation with the UC Davis Cancer Center, use of other remote clinics, and participation in virtual tumor boards. Even though there are roadblocks to telehealth reaching more locations and more patients, the potential benefit warrants the time needed to get over those hurdles.

Zotiraciclib has been granted Orphan Drug Designation by the FDA for the treatment of patients with glioblastoma, according to a press release from Adastra Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

In patients whose solid<strong> </strong>tumors harbor a mutation in <em>KRAS </em>G12C, therapy with MRTX849 has produced promising responses and acceptable toxicity across 3 tumors types, according to data presented at the 2019 American Association for Cancer Research&ndash;National Cancer Institute&ndash;European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics.

GDC-0084, an investigational PI3K inhibitor, may delay the progression of disease in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma and unmethylated MGMT promotor status, based on results of a phase IIa study, Kazia Therapeutics reported in a press release.

Mustafa Khasraw, MD, discusses the purpose II VERTU study and shares key takeaways from his presentation at the 2019 Society for NeuroOncology Annual Meeting.

&nbsp;At the 24th Annual Meeting and Education Day of the Society of NeuroOncology, Victor Levin, MD, spoke with Targeted Oncology about the STELLAR trial.

An interim analysis of the phase II study of palbociclib for the treatment of patients with brain metastases harboring CDK alterations was presented at the 2019 Society for NeuroOncology Annual Meeting by Priscilla K. Brastianos, MD, director of the central nervous system brain metastasis program, Massachusetts General Hospital.<br /> &nbsp;

Patients with both high-grade and low-grade glioma harboring the <em>BRAF</em> V600E mutation demonstrated positive benefit in response, duration of response, and progression-free survival when given the combination of dabrafenib and trametinib in a phase IIa study.

Adding the PARP inhibitor veliparib to standard therapy for newly diagnosed patients with unmethylated MGMT glioblastoma multiforme was well-tolerated in a phase II trial, according to findings presented at the 24th Annual Meeting and Education Day of the Society of NeuroOncology.

A drug with a greater than 30-year history that was originally investigated as a treatment for trypanosomiasis has garnered interest from investigators seeking a treatment for the rare brain cancer anaplastic astrocytoma.<br /> &nbsp;

The FDA has approved a supplemental New Drug Application for a single dose of aprepitant injectable emulsion for intravenous use in patients receiving moderately emetogenic chemotherapy. The approval expands the dose for aprepitant to include a 130 mg single-dose regimen for the prevention of acute and delayed chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting.<br /> &nbsp;

The addition of direct oral oral anticoagulants for the management of venous thromboembolism in patients with cancer is the latest change to previous guidelines issued by the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Using a measure known as the growth modulation index, patients with TRK fusion&ndash;positive cancers who were treated with larotrectinib had a clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival compared with the time to progression on their prior treatment, an analysis of patients enrolled in 1 of 3 clinical trials has found.

Three clinical trials presented at the 2019 ESMO Congress show that the tropomyosin receptor kinase&nbsp;inhibitor larotrectinib continues to show anti-tumor activity, including long-lasting objective responses and low toxicity, according to results from an integrated analysis.

The addition of nivolumab to the standard of care temozolomide and radiation therapy was not additive in terms of progression-free survival compared with standard of care alone in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme that is O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase-methylated, according to results released from the phase III CheckMate 548 trial.

Several presentations at the 2019&nbsp;American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting highlighted a hopeful new direction in the treatment of gliomas, demonstrating the relevance of <em>IDH1/2</em> mutational status and its feasibility as a target of therapy.