Latest Conference Articles

Keith T. Flaherty, MD, provides an overview of the phase III COMBI-d study, which examined the combination of dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist) as a treatment of patients with BRAF-mutant metastatic melanoma.

Heather A. Wakelee, MD, discusses a study utilizing liquid biopsies in patients with non-small cell lung cancer who harbor EGFR mutations.

Frontline treatment with alectinib reduced the risk of progression or death by 66% compared with crizotinib for patients with advanced or recurrent ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer.

Three-year follow-up data from the phase III COMBI-d study was presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting, revealing impressive overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) data for the dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist) combination therapy for patients with BRAF-mutant metastatic melanoma.

Palbociclib (Ibrance), when added to letrozole, increased the median progression-free survival (PFS) rate in patients with ER-positive, HER2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer by >10 months, according to results from the phase III PALOMA-2 trial presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Patients with recurrent glioblastoma mutliforme reacted well to nivolumab (Opdivo) monotherapy, according to findings from the CheckMate-143 trial that were presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting. The single agent showed a manageable safety profile and promising efficacy signs during the course of the study.

The advent of targeted inhibitors that work on the fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) pathway may alter the disease course and outcomes in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, suggests data from a four-center retrospective study. Lead investigator Apurva Jain, MD, of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center presented the findings at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Maura N. Dickler, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses next steps with abemaciclib following the results of the single-arm MONARCH 1 trial.

A novel dual-pathway inhibitor of tumor angiogenesis passed a preliminary clinical test, demonstrating manageable toxicity and biomarker evidence of engagement with the drug's targets, as reported at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Plasma and urine tests are often a reliable method for the detection of the T790M mutation in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with acquired resistance to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), according to an oral presentation given Monday at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Patients with BRAF-mutant melanoma obtained no survival benefit from combined treatment of anti-BRAF therapy and an immune checkpoint inhibitor, a retrospective analysis showed.

In patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer, data from a phase III trial has shown a significantly higher pathological complete response (pCR) rate with neoadjuvant docetaxel plus carboplatin plus trastuzumab plus pertuzumab versus trastuzumab emtansine plus pertuzumab.

Robert L. Coleman, MD, discusses the importance of early BRCA testing for patients with ovarian cancer.

Discontinuing nivolumab-ipilimumab treatment because of adverse events did not have a detrimental effect on survival among patients with advanced melanoma, follow-up from a randomized trial showed.

Contrary to investigators' expectations, an observational study found that obesity is associated with increased progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients with metastatic melanoma who were treated with a combination of dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist). These results were presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.

In a phase Ib study, combining talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC), an oncolytic virus, with pembrolizumab at full doses had an acceptable safety profile, with evidence of clinical benefit in patients with advanced melanoma.

Infusion with 19-28z chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) modified T-cells led to complete response (CR) rates of 77% to 90% and minimal residual disease (MRD)-CR rates of 68% to 70% in adult patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia (B-ALL).

The phase I KEYNOTE-022 study, which tested pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in combination with dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist) for BRAF-mutant advanced melanoma, has shown a manageable toxicity profile in patients with BRAF V600-mutant melanoma.

The largest-ever genetic analysis of ovarian cancer patients yielded a short list of 11 suspect germline genetic mutations that may be associated with an increased risk for developing ovarian cancer, according to an oral presentation at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Loss of genomic heterozygosity is a marker for the efficacy of rucaparib even in patients without BRCA 1 and 2 mutations, according to a poster presented Monday at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Nivolumab (Opdivo) monotherapy showed improved overall survival (OS) and objective response rates for patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) compared with the investigator's choice of alternative therapy, according to data presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.

It is feasible to administer the PARP inhibitor niraparib in combination with bevacizumab to patients with platinum-sensitive relapsed ovarian cancer with manageable toxicities. The results of a phase I study (NCT02354131) in 12 patients were presented during a poster session at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.

The liquid biopsy testing method from a large genomic analysis of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in blood samples from more than 15,000 patients, was found to be closely correlated with mutations described in databases, and often from tumor biopsies as well, according to research presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Napabucasin (BBI-608, BB608) is a first-in-class cancer "stemness" inhibitor that targets the STAT3 pathway, has acceptable toxicity, and shows some antitumor activity in combination with paclitaxel in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. Results of an early phase trial were presented at a poster session at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Half of patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer had objective responses when treated with a novel inhibitor of heparin-binding growth factors in addition to conventional chemotherapy, a small preliminary clinical trial showed.

Gregory E. Idos, MD, discusses a study examining the yield of multiplex panel testing compared with expert opinion and validated prediction models.

Avelumab (MSB0010718C), a fully human anti-PD-L1 (programmed death-1 receptor ligand) IgG1 antibody, showed activity in patients with heavily pretreated recurrent or refractory ovarian cancer with acceptable toxicity in the phase Ib JAVELIN Solid Tumor trial.

Baseline LDH levels, ECOG performance status, and presence/absence of liver metastasis are clinical characteristics associated with favorable progression-free survival (PFS) in BRAF V600-mutated melanoma patients receiving vemurafenib (Zelboraf) monotherapy or combination cobimetinib (Cotellic) plus vemurafenib, according to an analysis presented at the ASCO 2016 Annual Meeting.

Updated results of the prevalence of germline cancer susceptibility gene mutations in a clinic-based series of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) were given in an oral presentation at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.

The PARP inhibitor olaparib (Lynparza) significantly increased overall survival (OS) in women with platinum-sensitive relapsed serous ovarian cancer when given as maintenance monotherapy. These interim results, a third updated survival analysis, come from an extension of the Study 19 phase II trial and were presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.