HCC

According to early results of an ongoing early-phase study presented at the 2018 Society of Interventional Radiology Annual Scientific Meeting, image-guided injections of talimogene laherparepvec immunotherapy (T-VEC, Imylgic) were deemed tolerable in patients with advanced-stage liver metastases.

Lung Cancer

Selective internal radiation therapy with yttrium-90 resin microspheres was better tolerated compared with sorafenib in patients with advanced unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma, However, findings from the phase III SARAH trial did not improve rates of overall survival or progression-free survival. A radiotherapy approach was compared with this targeted therapy in the SARAH trial.

Lenvatinib mesylate, an oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor, will continue to be developed and commercialized worldwide by its creator, Japan’s Eisai Co. Ltd, in a strategic collaboration with Merck, which is better known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada. The partnership between the 2 companies was announced on March 7.

Lung Cancer

According to findings from the phase III REFLECT trial now published online in the <em>Lancet,</em>^&nbsp;lenvatinib improved progression-free survival and was noninferior for overall survival compared with sorafenib for the frontline treatment of patients with&nbsp;unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

In phase II data reported at the&nbsp;2018 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, treatment with the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) elicited promising progression-free survival and overall survival results&nbsp;in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma who received previous treatment with sorafenib.

According to findings from the phase III&nbsp;CELESTIAL trial released ahead of the&nbsp;2018 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium,&nbsp;cabozantinib (Cabometyx) improved median overall survival by 2.2 months compared with placebo&nbsp;for patients with previously treated advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

Madappa Kundranda, MD, PhD, recently discussed the cases of 2 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and the treatment considerations and decisions he would make when treating these patients. Dr. Kundranda, Director of Gastrointestinal Oncology at Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center, Phoenix discussed these cases during a <em>Targeted Oncology</em>&nbsp;live case-based peer perspectives dinner.

Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy with bb2121 demonstrated an objective response rate of 94% in patients with&nbsp;relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, according to findings from a dose-escalation study. The senior study author, James N. Kochenderfer, MD, presented updated findings from the study during the 2017 ASH Annual Meeting, and commented that 89% of patients had a very good partial response or better, and 56% of patients had a complete remission.&nbsp;<br /> &nbsp;