GYNECOLOGIC CANCERS

General Cancer

The FDA approved several indications in the month of June, including venetoclax (Venclexta) in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic leukemia (SLL), the combination of binimetinib (Mektovi) plus encorafenib (Braftovi) in melanoma, and bevacizumab (Avastin) in ovarian cancer. The FDA also accelerated approvals for pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in cervical cancer and in primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma, while also granting a priority review to glasdegib for acute myeloid leukemia.

In findings from the&nbsp;randomized phase III SOLO-1 trial, olaparib (Lynparza) tablets&nbsp;reduced the risk of disease progression or death compared with placebo as frontline maintenance therapy for women with <em>BRCA</em>-positive advanced ovarian cancer.

Based on survival data from the phase III TOWER study, blinatumomab has been granted full marketing authorization by the&nbsp;European Commission for&nbsp;the treatment of adult patients with Philadelphia&nbsp;chromosome-negative relapsed/refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia,&nbsp;according to Amgen, the developer of the anti-CD19 immunotherapy.

Christa Dominick, MD, a gynecologic oncology fellow at University Hospitals, discusses the rationale behind this trial and the results. She also highlights her plans moving forward with other trials involving the cowpea mosaic virus in ovarian cancer.<br /> &nbsp;

Mario M. Leitao, Jr, MD, FACOG, FACS, program director of Gynecologic Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, highlights some of the phase I and II clinical trials in ovarian cancer currently enrolling at his institution. He also discusses the rationale behind a new trial that is expected to open soon.

Based on results from the phase III GOG-0218 trial, bevacizumab (Avastin) has been approved by the FDA&nbsp;for use in combination with carboplatin and paclitaxel, followed by&nbsp;bevacizumab monotherapy, for the treatment of women with advanced ovarian cancer following initial surgical resection.

Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) has been granted an&nbsp;accelerated approval by the FDA&nbsp;for the treatment of patients with advanced, PD-L1&ndash;positive cervical cancer with disease progression on or after chemotherapy.<br /> &nbsp;

An important step for treatment of patients with ovarian cancer has been testing for genetic alterations. Mike Janicek, MD, says that the use of genetic testing must become more common in order to push the field of ovarian cancer forward.

Patients with relapsed, advanced, high-grade ovarian cancer achieved durable responses with the PARP inhibitor niraparib (Zejula) as fourth-line therapy and beyond, the phase II QUADRA trial showed.

Ursula A. Matulonis, MD, director, Gynecologic Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses results from the phase II open-label, single-arm QUADRA study evaluating niraparib in patients with relapsed ovarian cancer who have received&nbsp;&ge;3 prior chemotherapy regimens during the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting.

According to findings of the IMPACT study discussed at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting, overall survival was improved with personalized therapy based on tumor molecular profiling in patients with advanced, hard-to-treat cancers.