Latest Conference Articles

Individualized treatment for Waldenström's macroglobulinemia (WM) has become a feasible strategy with improved understanding of the disease and expanded treatment options.

As molecular and genetic studies have provided new insights into myelodysplastic and myeloproliferative neoplasms (MDS/MPN), diagnostic criteria and therapeutic strategies for the diseases continue to evolve.

According to a small study reported at the 2016 Society of Hematologic Oncology annual meeting, almost 90% of patients with previously treated light chain amyloidosis responded to single-agent daratumumab (Darzalex).

Therapies currently available to patients with myelofibrosis offer meaningful clinical benefits, but achieving remission will likely require new molecules targeting different pathways

Lenalidomide (Revlimid) has provided evidence of potential to improve survival and reduce the leukemic progression in patients with 5q-deletion (del[5q]) myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS).

Srdan Verstovsek, MD, PhD, Chief, Section for Myeloproliferative Neoplasms at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Department of Leukemia, discusses identifying and treating different myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs).

Frankie Ann Holmes, MD, medical oncologist, Texas Oncology, discusses the implications of the results of the MA17R trial, which is a randomized phase III clinical trial that examined the benefits of extending aromatase inhibitors with letrozole as a treatment for postmenopausal patients with early breast cancer.

Sarat Chandarlapaty, MD, PhD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering, discusses some of the emerging therapies for patients with ER-positive metastatic breast cancer.

Julia White, MD, professor of Radiation Oncology, Ohio State University, discusses some of the alternative procedures that patients with breast cancer may be able to opt for instead of whole-breast irradiation.

There is a lack of targeted agents for triple-negative breast cancer, which makes it one of the most challenging subtypes of breast cancer to treat; however, that may soon be changing.

Dual anti-HER2-directed therapies have emerged as the most beneficial neoadjuvant treatment option for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer, according to Frankie Ann Holmes, MD.

More options are now available for combining and sequencing therapy for patients with estrogen (ER)–positive metastatic breast cancer (mBC), including the deployment of CDK4/6 inhibitors, as clinicians endeavor to individualize the sequencing of therapies to improve patient outcomes, according to Maura N. Dickler, MD.

Clifford A. Hudis, MD, CEO of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, discusses the significance of the relationship between breast cancer and obesity.

When it comes to breast cancer treatments, sometimes less is more, according to Hope S. Rugo, MD.

A better understanding of how patients with triple-negative breast cancer respond to neoadjuvant therapy regimens is helping to further individualize therapy for patients while also informing treatment decisions in the adjuvant setting.

The addition of chemotherapy to standard hormonal therapy does not improve survival rates for patients with early breast cancer who are at low-risk for recurrence using the 21-gene recurrence score.

Angela M. DeMichele, MD, professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, University of Pennsylvania, discusses the biology of triple negative breast cancer and the significant role of DNA repair.

Single-agent abemaciclib as well as taselisib in combination with fulvestrant (Faslodex) could both play a substantial role in breast cancer in the near future, says Maura Dickler, MD.

Joanne Blum, MD, PhD, FACP, physician, Texas Oncology, discusses the combination of fulvestrant and palbociclib (Ibrance) in patients with breast cancer, as well as the synergy fulvestrant has with other CDK4/6 inhibitors.

A new nationwide research project is encouraging patients to share tumor samples and clinical information with researchers in the hope that it will lead to discoveries for new and improved treatment options and, ultimately, a cure, for metastatic breast cancer.

BRCA mutation testing in patients with ovarian cancer could mean a world of difference in treatment, says Robert Coleman, MD.

Early identification of BRCA mutations can significantly help inform future treatment choices for patients with ovarian cancer, says Leslie Randall, MD.

Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the potential impact that regorafenib (Stivarga) could have on the treatment landscape of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Adding utomilumab (PF-05082566), a 4-1BB agonist, to pembrolizumab (Keytruda), a PD-1 inhibitor, was shown to be a safe and effective combination therapy for patients with different types of advanced solid tumors, according to findings from a phase Ib study presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Findings for the new immunotherapy agent targeting claudin18.2 (CLDN18.2) presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting raised the possibility of a new therapeutic agent in a tumor type with relatively few current options. When added to standard chemotherapy, the treatment reduced the risk of death or disease progression by approximately 50% for patients with CLDN18.2-positive advanced gastric cancers.

A phase Ib expansion cohort of the Keynote-029 trial found that a combined regimen of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) at the standard dose (2 mg/kg) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) at a reduced dose (1 mg/kg) was safe and effective for patients with advanced melanoma.

Avelumab showed early positive survival data and lasting responses for patients with pretreated advanced or metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma, according to findings from the phase II JAVELIN Merkel 200 trial presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Pembrolizumab (Keytruda), when studied in 2 clinical trials for the treatment of patients with pretreated recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), showed an objective response rate (ORR) of 18%, according to findings presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Extending aromatase inhibitor (AI) treatment to 10 years post-treatment reduced the risk of recurrence in women with early-stage HR-positive breast cancer by more than a third. Findings of the MA.17R trial also showed that adjuvant therapy extension did not create any new toxicities or quality of life complications for patients.

Nivolumab (Opdivo) treatment provided antitumor responses in patients with microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), whether given as a single agent or in combination with ipilimumab (Yervoy). Interim data from the phase II CheckMate-142 trial was presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.