HCC

Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses results of the CELESTIAL trial. The results were clinically and statistically significant, Abou-Alfa notes. 

Overall survival was extended in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and elevated baseline alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) who received second-line treatment with ramucirumab (Cyramza) versus placebo, according to findings from the phase III REACH-2 trial.

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.