HCC

The combination of sorafenib plus gemcitabine and oxaliplatin demonstrated &ldquo;moderate&rdquo; benefits compared with sorafenib monotherapy in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, according to findings from an open-label phase II trial recently published in the <em>British Journal of Cancer.</em>

Emil Cohen, MD,&nbsp;discusses the locoregional therapies available for the treatment of patients with HCC and offers insight into optimal strategies.

The FDA has granted P-BCMA-101 with an orphan drug designation for the treatment of patients with relapsed and/or refractory multiple myeloma.

Ramucirumab monotherapy has received an approval from the FDA for the treatment of&nbsp;patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who have an alpha fetoprotein of &ge;400 ng/mL and have been previously treated with sorafenib.

Ahmed Omar Kaseb, MD, associate professor of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, says 2 major challenges in hepatocellular carcinoma are the lack of effective treatments and the co-existing underlying chronic liver disease.

A new meta-analysis has found that the combined regimen of bevacizumab (Avastin) plus erlotinib (Tarceva) is effective in treating advanced or metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma.

Sequential therapy with sorafenib (Nexavar) followed by regorafenib (Stivarga) for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma demonstrated real-life benefit in a study of patients treated in a Japanese hospital.

Besides standard-of-care chemotherapy in the frontline setting, definitive therapy selection in patients with cholangiocarcinoma in both the adjuvant and second-line settings require data from confirmatory clinical trials for further clarification, says Lorenza Rimassa, MD.

A discussion between&nbsp;regulators and special interest groups has cooled some of the excitement generated by the emergence of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy for treating hematologic cancers.

Before a community oncology practice considers getting involved in clinical trials research, there are many factorsto consider. Perhaps foremost is the fact that cancer clinical trials provide the evidence base for new advances in oncology.&nbsp;

Artificial intelligence has made inroads in many industries&mdash;banking, finance, security&mdash;but its adoption in healthcare has been lagging and real-world clinical implementation has yet to become a reality. Nonetheless, proponents say it is only a matter of time and pilot programs are starting to yield some practical results.&nbsp;

Frederick L. Locke, MD, discusses how chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies have evolved over the last 30 years of research in the field of hematologic malignancies.

The success of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy observed in hematologic malignancies has not yet translated into the solid tumor setting; however, efforts continue to try to bring this new modality into the treatment paradigm for solid tumors, including pancreatic cancer.&nbsp;

Because of the complex nature of diagnosing, treating, and managing hepatocellular carcinoma, a multidisciplinary approach in the community setting can provide optimal care to patients with the disease.

An analysis of the genotyping of tumor tissue samples from patients with hepatocellular carcinoma identified frequent alterations and potentially actionable mutations in cases of HCC, and helped to confirm the clinical utility of next-generation sequencing testing for matching patients to targeted therapies and immunotherapies.

Michael A. Morse, MD, FACP, MHS,&nbsp;highlights the latest ongoing research in HCC and predicts what future treatment might look like in this field.

Kevin Staveley-O&rsquo;Carroll, MD, PhD, discusses one of the challenges in treating patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and shares what he thinks are the next steps in overcoming this challenge.

The healthcare community is still awaiting a response from the Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services to the opposition of the agency&rsquo;s proposal to substantially revise the Medicare Part D protected drug classes.

Overtreating men 70 years or older with prostate cancer cost Medicare more than $1.2 billion from 2004 to 2007, according to the results of a retrospective study using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results&ndash;Medicare linked database.

During a <em>Targeted Oncology </em>live case-based peer perspectives program, Ruth He, MD, PhD, discussed her strategies for treating patients with liver cancer as more therapeutic options enter the landscape.

Masatoshi Kudo, MD, PhD,&nbsp;discusses the results from the REFLECT trial and an analysis presented at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, as well as other research currently ongoing for this patient population.

Daneng Li, MD,&nbsp;sheds light on some of the currently available regimens and ongoing research efforts being conducted in HCC and NETs.

Merck,&nbsp;the developer of pembrolizumab, has announced that the coprimary endpoints of the&nbsp;KEYNOTE-240 trial were not met, as adding the agent&nbsp;to best supportive care failed&nbsp;to improve&nbsp;progression-free or overall survival in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma who were previously treated with systemic therapy.

Josep M. Llovet, MD, PhD, discussed the available treatment options for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Although immune checkpoint inhibition&ndash;related hepatotoxicity is a rare occurrence, it leads to ICI treatment discontinuation in more than two-thirds of affected patients, according to the results of a retrospective study presented at the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases&rsquo; 2018 Liver Meeting.