Latest Conference Articles

Nivolumab (Opdivo) produced an overall response rate (ORR) of 14% with an acceptable safety profile in patients with gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer, according to data from the phase I/II CheckMate-032 trial.

Pembrolizumab (Keytruda), a PD-1 inhibitor, showcased encouraging activity with some adverse events (AEs) when employed as a treatment for patients with advanced PD-L1

Cathy Eng, MD, FACP, medical oncologist, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the combination of bevacizumab with FOLFOXIRI (irinotecan, oxaliplatin, fluorouracil, and folinate) as a treatment for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

Combining liposomal irinotecan (nal-IRI; MM-398; Onivyde) with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) plus leucovorin dropped the risk of death in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer by 25% following progression on a gemcitabine-based regimen, according to updated data from the phase III NAPOLI-1 trial.

Preoperative treatment with short-course radiation therapy plus 3 cycles of chemotherapy boosted overall survival (OS) and generated fewer adverse events (AEs) compared to standard chemoradiation for patients with locally advanced rectal cancer.

Patients with either gastrointestinal (GI) neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) or NETs of unknown primary origin experienced a 40% or more decrease in their risk of disease progression when treated with everolimus (Afinitor), according to a subanalysis of the phase III RADIANT-4 trial.

Patients with advanced midgut neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) will continue to see major therapeutic benefits from the peptide receptor radionuclide therapy Lu-Dotatate (Lutathera), including an improvement in overall survival and the reduction of progression or death risk by 79%.

Patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) who express higher entropy, a measure of T-cell diversity, could translate to a more favorable prognosis

Novel clinical trials are currently assessing the combination of VEGF-targeted agents and immune checkpoint inhibitors as frontline therapies for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Combining a selective class I oral histone deactylase (HDAC) inhibitor with high-dose interleukin (IL)-2 may boost the latter's antitumor effect in renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Nivolumab shows consistent survival benefit across subgroups as a second-line treatment for renal cell carcinoma (RCC), according to data from an analysis of the phase III CheckMate-025 trial.

Gulley says there are currently a variety of phase III studies looking at new treatments for use in bladder cancer, despite some widely-used agents, such as nivolumab and pembrolizumab, already being approved for other cancer types like melanoma and lung cancer, though not bladder cancer.

Adding celecoxib and zoledronic acid to standard treatment extended survival in men with metastatic prostate cancer commencing first-line hormone therapy, according to updated data from the STAMPEDE trial.

The addition of the CTLA-4 inhibitor ipilimumab to cisplatin and gemcitabine failed to significantly improve the primary endpoint of overall survival (OS) in a phase II study for patients with metastatic urothelial cancer.

The investigational anti-PD-L1 antibody avelumab showed antitumor activity within acceptable safety profile parameters in a recent phase Ib trial for metastatic urothelial cancer refractory to standard therapy.

Hypofractionated radiotherapy and standard radiation therapy demonstrated similar toxicities and neither prevented PSA increases or disease recurrences for men with intermediate-risk prostate cancer better than the other, according to data from the phase III randomized CHHiP trial reported at the 2016 GU Cancers Symposium.

Second-line treatment with atezolizumab (MPDL3280A) resulted in a median overall survival (OS) of 11.4 months in patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC) and who showcased high PD-L1 levels.

A post hoc analysis of the phase III COU-AA-302 clinical trial suggests docetaxel can produce antitumor activity as the first subsequent therapy following disease progression with abiraterone acetate in men with chemotherapy-naive, metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Sartor says the test would lay out molecular data regarding a patient's malignancy and allow community oncologists to determine what would be the best course of treatment. He added that the hope for this study is to replace the "trial and error" method of treatment with something more concrete.

Agarwal says patients whose penile cancer does not spread to their lymph nodes have a 95% chance of survival over the course of 5 years, while survival for those whose cancer spreads to their lymph nodes is significantly less.

Emberton says that in treatment of most solid tumor cancers, oncologists have moved from treating the whole organ to specifically targeting the tumor.

Aspirin, normally associated with heart health, may not extend to the reduction of risk in prostate cancer, according to the results of an observational study.

Resistance to androgen receptor therapies in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) has historically posed a challenge to clinicians. Now, a new blood test that analyzes circulating tumor cells (CTCs) could help overcoming these hurdles.

In a comparison study, cabozantinib significantly boosted progression-free survival (PFS) against everolimus in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) regardless of metastases degree, type, number of prior treatments, or patient risk status.

Saad Usmani, MD, discusses newly approved treatments, as well as these combination therapies currently in clinical trials.

With numerous newly approved drugs for patients with early-stage multiple myeloma reaching the clinics, understanding what drugs, combinations, and sequences to use has become an important area of research. Several recent studies have demonstrated increased efficacy with nominally increased adverse events in these triplet arms.

Neal Young, MD, discusses the advancement of treatment for aplastic anemia. Young said aplastic anemia used to kill almost all patients diagnosed with the disease within a year.

Jeffrey Jones, MD, discusses small molecule inhibitors of B-cell receptor signaling in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Amy Johnson, PhD, discusses the overall high response rates in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) to a new novel bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor called acalabrutinib (ACP-196).

Carboplatin combined with neoadjuvant chemotherapy improves disease-free survival significantly in women with triple-negative breast cancer but not HER2-positive breast cancer.