Latest Conference Articles

Javier Pinilla-Ibarz, MD, PhD, associate member, Malignant Hematology and Immunology Program at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, discusses ongoing research with ibrutinib (Imbruvica) in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. 

Complete marrow clearance of leukemic cells was achieved in 8 of 9 evaluable patients with heavily pretreated or genetically high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia who received concurrent treatment with CTL-119 cell therapy and ibrutinib, results of a pilot study showed.

Ublituximab (TG-1101) in combination with ibrutinib (Imbruvica) met its primary endpoint of showing an improvement in objective response rate (ORR) compared with ibruitinib monotherapy in patients with previously treated high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In a presentation of findings from the phase III GENUINE trial during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting, data were reviewed demonstrating that the combination had an ORR of 78% in this patient population. 

Lenalidomide consolidation therapy following induction with fludarabine and rituximab (Rituxan) was found to increase long-term survival over survival rates seen with FR or FR plus cyclophosphamide in an overall survival plateau that intrigued researchers when examined in patients with symptomatic, treatment-naive chronic lymphocytic leukemia without an 11q deletion.

Eytan M. Stein, MD, internist, hematologic oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the results of a phase I dose escalation and expansion study of enasidenib in mutant <em>IDH-2</em> relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Peter Kaufman, MD, associate professor of Medicine, Norris Cotton Cancer Center, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, discusses the significance of the MONARCH 2 trial, which explored abemaciclib in combination with fulvestrant in patients with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer who progressed on endocrine therapy during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.<br /> &nbsp;

Sunil Verma, MD, department head, Clinical Department of Oncology, Calgary Zone, medical director, Tom Baker Cancer Centre, discusses updated results of the phase III MONALEESA-2 trial of first-line ribociclib plus letrozole in hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Debu Tripathy, MD, chair of Breast Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the phase II ABRAZO study of talazoparib following platinum or multiple cytotoxic regimens in advanced breast cancer patients with germline <em>BRCA</em> 1/2 mutations during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Sara M. Tolaney, MD, MPH, associate director, clinical research, breast oncology, Susan F. Smith Center for Women&rsquo;s Cancers, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses interim results of a trial exploring abemaciclib for the treatment of brain metastases secondary to hormone receptor-positive HER2-negative breast cancer.

Denise Yardley, MD, senior investigator, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discusses the APHINITY trial, which compared chemotherapy plus trastuzumab plus placebo versus chemotherapy plus trastuzumab plus pertuzumab as adjuvant therapy in patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer.

Treatment with&nbsp;chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells that target B-cell maturation protein (BMCA) achieved clinical remissions in 33 out of 35 patients (94%) with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma in early results from a Chinese study presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

When epacadostat, an IDO1 inhibitor, was combined with pembrolizumab (Keytruda), a PD-1 inhibitor, responses were seen in 35% of patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma, according to findings presented during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting. &nbsp;

Approximately 25% of patients with <em>BRCA</em> wild-type serous ovarian cancer may benefit from treatment with PARP inhibitors, along with 12.7% of patients with a non-serous histology, according to findings of genomic analyses in patients with ovarian cancer presented during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting that&nbsp;demonstrate that comprehensive genomic profiling is a valuable tool to integrate into routine ovarian cancer treatment decision making and clinical trial design.

Larotrectinib (LOXO-101), the novel pan-TRK inhibitor, induced responses in 3 out of 4 patients with a&nbsp;<em>TRK</em>&nbsp;fusion&ndash;positive solid tumor, according to findings presented in a press conference June 3 at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Jorge Cortes, MD, deputy chair of the Department of Leukemia, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses initial results from the BFORE trial, which is exploring bosutinib (Bosulif) versus imatinib (Gleevec) for newly diagnosed chronic myeloid leukemia.

Paola A. Ascierto, MD, medical oncologist, director of Melanoma Cancer Immunotherapy and Innovative Therapy, Istituto Nazionale Tumori &ldquo;Fondazione G. Pascal,&rdquo; discusses results of a phase Ib/II dose-escalation study evaluating triple combination therapy with encorafenib, binimetiinib, and ribociclib (Kisquali) in patients with <em>BRAF V600</em> solid tumors and melanoma.

More than half of patients with immunotherapy-relapsed/refractory melanoma benefited from treatment with nivolumab and an anti-lymphocyte activation gene-3 (LAG-3) antibody, according to data from an early clinical study.

The experimental AKT inhibitor ipatasertib in combination with paclitaxel improved progression-free survival (PFS) as a first-line therapy for patients with locally advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer when compared with paclitaxel alone, according to initial findings of the LOTUS trial presented during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.<br /> &nbsp;

Second-generation ALK inhibitor alectinib (Alecensa) demonstrated a 15-month improvement in progression-free survival compared with crizotinib (Xalkori), the first-generation ALK inhibitor and standard of care, in patients with&nbsp;<em>ALK</em>-positive non&ndash;small cell lung cancer.

Dabrafenib (Tafinlar) plus trametinib (Mekinist) achieved an intracranial response (IR) rate of 58% in melanoma that has metastasized to the brain. The median duration of overall response (OR) of 6.5 months was generally shorter than that observed in melanoma patients without brain metastases.&nbsp;These initial findings from the phase II COMBI-MB trial were presented during an oral abstract session at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Lurbinectedin (PM01183) shows activity as a single agent as well as in combination with doxorubicin or paclitaxel in patients with advanced endometrial cancer, according to findings presented during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

In updated findings from the KEYNOTE-059 trial of pembrolizumab in advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer, the PD-1 inhibitor maintained signs of its clinical benefit in this patient population, which is encouraging as the indication is currently under consideration for approval with the FDA.

Nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) or ipilimumab alone are associated with a high incidence of gastrointestinal (GI) toxicity, but most adverse events (AEs) are effectively managed using immunomodulators, which do not appear to inhibit tumor response. Additionally, nivolumab plus ipilimumab significantly improved overall survival (OS) and objective response rate (ORR) versus ipilimumab alone in patients with untreated advanced melanoma.

Overall survival in advanced melanoma treated with targeted therapy had a strong association with high PD-L1 expression and high levels of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, analysis of tissue specimens from a randomized trial showed.

Kathleen N. Moore, MD, assistant professor, The Stephenson Cancer Center, The University of Oklahoma, discusses results of an ongoing clinical trial exploring&nbsp;mirvetuximab soravtansine (IMGN853), a folate receptor alpha-targeting antibody-drug conjugate, in platinum-resistant epithelial ovarian cancer patients, during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Kim Chi, MD, professor, University of British Columbia, discusses results of the phase III LATITUDE trial of androgen deprivation therapy with abiraterone acetate plus prednisone (Deltasone) or placebos in newly diagnosed high-risk metastatic hormone-naive prostate cancer.

The PARP inhibitor niraparib (Zejula) provided significant benefits in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer who had a partial response, with similar treatment effects in patients with or without germline <em>BRCA</em> mutations, according to a post-hoc analysis of data from the ENGOT-OV16/NOVA trial presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Reducing oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy by half could benefit patients with low-risk advanced colon cancer receiving chemotherapy after surgery. The 50% decrease would not notably increase their recurrence risk and would decrease the chances of developing neuropathy,&nbsp;according to findings presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Neoadjuvant and adjuvant dabrafenib (Tafinlar) plus trametinib (Mekinist) increased the overall response rate (ORR) to 85% in patients with high-risk resectable <em>BRAF</em>-mutant metastatic melanoma. And interestingly, the pathologic complete response (pCR) rate with the combination was 58%, as demonstrated in findings presented during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

A 3-drug regimen for advanced melanoma led to objective responses in a majority of patients with advanced <em>BRAF</em>-mutant disease but also proved to be somewhat toxic, a small phase II study showed.