HCC

A sudden surge in the cases of COVID-19 due to pandemic, along with efforts to contain it, has led to multiple challenges that no country has experienced in the last several decades. The global pandemic from COVID-19 poses a unique set of challenges not only for patients with cancer who need their treatment, but also for caregivers, oncologists, and the overall care team.

In an interview with&nbsp;Targeted Oncology, Kashyap Patel, MD, discussed the COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of new precautions in his practice as the number of COVID-19 infected persons rises in the state.<br /> &nbsp;

Patients harboring IDH1/2 muta&shy;tions may receive benefit by the use of PARP inhibitors, with investigators initi&shy;ating clinical trials in patients across multiple different tumor types to determine the efficacy of this strategy.

Treatment with pembrolizumab demonstrated antitumor activity along with tolerable toxicity in patients with 4 different rare and hard-to-treat malignancies, according to results from a phase II study led by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center researchers and published in the&nbsp;Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer.

The FDA has granted an accelerated approval to the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab for the treatment of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma previously treated with sorafenib.

David J. Pinato, MD, PhD, discusses the importance of utilizing a multidisciplinary approach when treating patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and how this approach helps optimize patient outcomes now as well as how it will help in the near future as more therapies emerge.

The FDA has accepted a Biologics License Application for MYL-1402O, a proposed biosimilar to bevacizumab, according to a press release from co-developers Biocon and Mylan. The BLA is seeking approval for the biosimilar as a treatment for multiple types of cancer and the FDA has set an action date goal of December 27, 2020, for a decision on the BLA.

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 an interview with&nbsp;Targeted Oncology, Augusto Villanueva, MD, discussed the role of driver mutations in patients with HCC and how liquid biopsies may help improve the treatment landscape in this patient population.

The FDA has granted Breakthrough Device designation to GALAD score, a serum biomarker-based device that predicts the probability that patients with chronic liver disease will develop hepatocellular carcinoma.

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.

In the community practice setting, patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who receive systemic therapy have a poor prognosis, which reveals an unmet need for more effective treatment options, according to a real-world retrospective observational study. The study aimed to show how treatment patterns related to the overall survival of patients with HCC throughout the United States.

In January 2020, the FDA approved new treatment options in gastrointestinal stromal tumors, bladder cancer, and epithelioid sarcoma. The FDA also granted several Priority Review Designations, orphan drug designations, and a Fast Track designation, as well as a Breakthrough Therapy designation.

Raja E.&nbsp;Abdulnour, MD, discusses modern management strategies for pneumonitis induced by treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors in patients with kidney cancer.

Peter R. Galle, MD, discusses the findings that came from the phase III IMbrave 150 clinical trial, which evaluated the combination of atezolizumab plus bevacizumab versus the standard of care, sorafenib, as frontline treatment of patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

The tyrosine kinase inhibitor lenvatinib demonstrated promising activity and safety in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma in a retrospective multicenter observational analysis in Korea, according to a poster presentation at the 2020&nbsp;Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

A supplemental Biologics License Application has been submitted to the FDA for the combination of atezolizumab and bevacizumab or the treatment of patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma who have not received prior systemic therapy, according to a press release from Roche.

Better rates of overall survival were observed in patients with intermediate-stage hepatocellular carcinoma who had an elevated baseline alpha-fetoprotein level when ramucirumab was used as second-line therapy after sorafenib compared with second-line placebo. These improvements occurred irrespective of patients&#39; Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage and were based on results of a pooled analysis of the phase III REACH and REACH-2 trials

Lenvatinib in combination with nivolumab demonstrated promising antitumor activity in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma with no new safety signals reported.

Frontline lenvatinib followed by an anticancer procedure resulted in prolonged overall survival in patients with&nbsp;unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma when compared against&nbsp;sorafenib, according to results of a post hoc analysis of the REFLECT trial reported at the 2020 GI Cancers Symposium.

The addition of ipilimumab with the combination&nbsp;cabozantinib and nivolumab&nbsp;led to higher response rates, as well as progression-free survival and overall survival in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma compared with the doublet combination alone, according to a presentation at the&nbsp;2020 GI Cancers Symposium, held January 23-25, in San Francisco, California.

In an interview with&nbsp;Targeted Oncology,&nbsp;Kaoru Tsuchiya, MD, discussed the results of the real-world study of lenvatinib in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma that are being presented at the 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Durvalumab and tremelimumab have been granted Orphan Drug Designation for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma, according to a press release from AstraZeneca.

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.