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 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 <em>TRK</em> fusion–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 “Fondazione G. Pascal,” 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 />
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 <em>ALK</em>-positive non–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. 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 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, 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.
Georgina V. Long, BSc, PhD, MBBS, professor of medical melanoma oncology, Melanoma Institute Australia, discusses 5-year overall survival data from a phase II trial of dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist) in patients with <em>BRAF V600</em>-mutant unresectable or metastatic melanoma during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.
Progression-free survival (PFS) continues to be superior with the combination of cediranib maleate and olaparib (Lynparza) compared with olaparib alone in patients with recurrent platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer in a randomized open-label study with follow-up to December 2016.
Napabucasin, a first-in-class cancer stemness inhibitor, can be safely combined with full-dose weekly paclitaxel to treat patients with advanced, platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.
Combining the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) with the HDAC inhibitor entinostat demonstrated promising clinical activity and acceptable safety in patients with melanoma who were refractory to immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Patients with recurrent, platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer and germline <em>BRCA</em> mutations had significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) with no decrement in health-related quality of life (hr-QoL) during maintenance therapy with olaparib (Lynparza), according to a review of patient-reported outcomes in a randomized trial.
Comprehensive genomic testing is not yet widespread, but a French study presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting suggested that DNA profiling can be of important value in advancing personalized medicine. Patients who received molecularly targeted agents based on genomic profiles had longer 3-year and 5-year overall survival than those who did not.
Mirvetuximab soravtansine (IMGN853), a folate receptor alpha-targeting antibody-drug conjugate, showed promising activity in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer who had received 1 to 3 prior lines of therapy.
The PARP inhibitor olaparib (Lynparza) provides clinically significant, long-term treatment benefits in patients with platinum-sensitive relapsed serous ovarian cancer, according to the protocol-specified final overall survival (OS) analysis of the phase II Study 19 trial presented during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.
Michael Birrer, MD, PhD, Director, University of Alabama Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses adverse event results of the phase III SOLO2 trial, which explored maintenance olaparib (Lynparza) tablets in patients with <em>BRCA</em>-mutated platinum-sensitive relapsed serous ovarian cancer.
A new, high-intensity genomic sequencing approach for circulating tumor DNA uncovered at least 1 genetic change in both the tumor DNA and the blood of 89% of patients, demonstrating a high rate of concordance between 2 approaches for detecting molecular aberrations, according to a study presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.
The risk of disease progression or death was reduced by 45% with the addition of abemaciclib to fulvestrant compared with that of fulvestrant alone in patients with previously treated HR-positive/HER2-negative breast cancer, according to findings presented during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.
Earlier intervention with abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) lowered the risk of death by nearly 40% for men with high-risk advanced or metastatic prostate cancer who were newly diagnosed or had not yet received hormone therapy in findings from 2 clinical trials presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.