Latest Conference Articles

Mark G. Kris, MD, discusses treatment options for <em>MET</em>-mutant non&ndash;small cell lung cancer.

In an interview with&nbsp;<em>Targeted Oncology</em> during the <em>14th Annual </em>New York Lung Cancers Symposium, Benjamin P. Levy, MD, discussed therapeutic strategies for patients with oncogenic-driven and nondriver NSCLC.

Noeadjuvant therapy for lung cancer provides significant benefits compared with adjuvant therapy, according to&nbsp;Jamie E. Chaft, MD. In a presentation at the&nbsp;<em>14th Annual </em>New York Lung Cancers Symposium, Chaft explained why neoadjuvant therapy is beneficial even though adjuvant therapy is still the standard of care at a number of cancer centers.

Wasif M. Saif, MD, discusses available novel therapies for hepatocelluclar carcinoma.

Kevin Halling, MD, PhD, discussed the clinical utility of RNA-sequencing methods in patients with cancer at the 2019 Association for Molecular Pathology Annual Meeting and Expo. Halling says RNA sequencing is a very powerful diagnostic technique.

At the 2019 Association for Molecular Pathology Annual Meeting and Expo, Adam Fisch, MD, PhD, presented a unique patient case where a patient with acute myeloid leukemia harboring a <em>FLT3</em>-TKD mutation lost the mutation following relapse on gilteritinib.<br /> &nbsp;

A technique involving BH3 profiling is emerging as a promising drug discovery tool for assessing whether a tumor is primed for cell death and would respond to anticancer therapy, according to a presentation at the 2019 Association for Molecular Pathology Annual Meeting.

Immunotherapy combination regimens have revolutionized the first-line treatment paradigm for patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma, explained Robert J. Motzer, MD, at the <em>37th Annual</em> CFS.

PARP inhibitors are increasingly relevant for frontline maintenance indications and potentially in combination with chemotherapy for treatment-na&iuml;ve ovarian cancer, including for those with <em>BRCA</em>-wildtype disease, Leslie M. Randall, MD, said to the audience at the <em>37th Annual</em> CFS.

Immunotherapies and targeted therapies have greatly impacted the treatment of advanced melanoma and are beginning to make their way into earlier settings, with FDA approvals for adjuvant therapies and studies ongoing in the neoadjuvant space, according to a presentation by Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, at the <em>37th Annual</em> CFS.

A. Oliver Sartor, MD, discusses a discrepancy found between conventional imaging and PSMA PET/CT scanning for prostate cancer.&nbsp;

There are at least two dozen different B-cell maturation antigen-directed therapies being explored in clinical trials, Sham Mailankody, MBBS, told attendees at the 37 Annual CFS.&nbsp;Mailankody, an assistant attending physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, New York, highlighted the most promising anti-BCMA agents across several modalities, including CAR T-cell therapy, bispecific antibodies, and antibody-drug conjugates.

Deciding between a watch-and-wait approach and systemic therapy in patients with newly diagnosed follicular lymphoma should be carefully assessed based on specific disease characteristics, with follow-up tailored toward patients&rsquo; risk of relapse, according to John P. Leonard, MD.

A number of promising biologic therapies are beginning to transform the treatment of adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, with the greatest potential seen with blinatumomab and inotuzumab ozogamicin in combination with chemotherapy, according to a presentation by Hagop M. Kantarjian, MD, at the 37th Annual CFS.<br /> &nbsp;

Treatment targeting molecular pathways such as <em>BRAF, </em>HER2<em>,</em> and <em>RAS</em> has typically been reserved for later lines of therapy for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Benjamin A. Weinberg, MD, said that agents targeting these pathways are not yet ready for the upfront setting, but data from ongoing trials suggest that these agents may eventually have a role to play in first- and second-line treatment.

In an interview with <em>Targeted Oncology</em>, Daniel Catenacci, MD, discussed the clinical trials supporting immunotherapeutic options for patients with GEJ cancer. He also highlighted how physicians can sequence these agents appropriately in their patients.

Immunotherapeutic agents have grown in popularity for treating mismatch repair&ndash;deficient metastatic colorectal cancer, becoming the standard of care in the second line, Howard Hochster, MD, told an audience at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Oncology Conference. Furthermore, ongoing clinical trials suggest that these agents may play a larger role in treating CRC going forward.

David H. Ilson, MD, PhD, discusses the current role of pembrolizumab in patients with gastric cancer or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma based on the results from the KEYNOTE-062 trial.

What is the ideal first-line therapy for nonresectable, non&ndash;transplantable eligible, liver-only hepatocellular carcinoma? In a debate at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Oncology Conference, Mark Yarchoan, MD, had the unenviable task of convincing the audience that systemic therapy was the way to go.

In an interview with <em>Targeted Oncology</em>, Michael A. Choti, MD, MBA discussed the treatment landscape for patients with pancreatic cancer, as well as how the role of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in this space is changing. He highlights advantages of neoadjuvant strategies, and also some other treatment options for patients with pancreatic cancer.

Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, discusses the current role for ramucirumab for the treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma in the second-line setting.

The FOLFIRINOX regimen remains the treatment of choice for patients with pancreatic cancer even as clinical trials exploring potential therapies, including CD40 and CPI-613, offer the possibility of new options for a notoriously difficult-to-treat disease, Davendra P.S. Sohal, MD, MPH, told an audience at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Oncology Conference.

Using a measure known as the growth modulation index, patients with TRK fusion&ndash;positive cancers who were treated with larotrectinib had a clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival compared with the time to progression on their prior treatment, an analysis of patients enrolled in 1 of 3 clinical trials has found.

George Sledge, Jr., MD, discusses the overall survival data of the phase III MONARCH-2 trial in advanced hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.

In the CheckMate-358 study, the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab showed durable clinical activity in patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer, regardless of tumor PD-L1 expression.

In the phase III ATTRACTION-3 study, nivolumab prolonged overall survival compared with chemotherapy in patients with previously treated advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, according to findings presented at the 2019 ESMO Congress.

Progression-free survival was not improved with pembrolizumab over chemotherapy in patients with&nbsp;malignant pleural mesothelioma, missing the primary endpoint of the phase III European Thoracic Oncology Platform PROMISE-meso trial presented at the 2019 ESMO Congress.

The risk of progression or death was reduced by 63% with&nbsp;ivosidenib as treatment of pretreated patients with IDH1-mutant advanced cholangiocarcinoma&nbsp;compared with placebo, according to data from the phase III&nbsp;ClarIDHy study that was presented at the 2019 ESMO Congress.

CDK4/6 inhibitor&nbsp;abemaciclib plus endocrine therapy led to significant benefits in a population of predominantly Chinese women with advanced&nbsp;hormone receptor&ndash;positive/HER2-negative breast cancer, according to data from 2 randomized trials presented at the 2019 ESMO Congress.

In patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma, atezolizumab and chemotherapy improved median progression-free survival by 1.9 months compared with placebo and chemotherapy. However, no overall survival benefit was seen, according to results of the phase III IMvigor130 trial presented at the 2019 ESMO Congress.