Latest Conference Articles

In patients with non–small cell lung cancer who were eligible for surgical resection, treatment with one dose of neoadjuvant atezolizumab was considered safe and induced major pathological responses in some patients.

Christine Dierks, MD, discusses the results from the prospective phase 2 ATLEP study of lenvatinib in combination with pembrolizumab as treatment of patients with metastatic anaplastic or poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma.

Although responses were observed with induction avelumab prior to standard of care gemcitabine/carboplatin, clinically meaningful efficacy was not sustained for patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma.

Avelumab in combination with best supportive care as frontline maintenance in patients with advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma who had not progressed on first-line platinum-based chemotherapy led to improvements in both progression-free and overall survival.

The addition of BGB-A333 to tislelizumab led to marked antitumor activity and durable responses with a tolerable safety profile as treatment of patients with urothelial carcinoma in the phase 1/2 BGB-900-101 study.

An improvement in progression-free survival and objective response rate was not observed with the addition of ipatasertib to paclitaxel in patients with PIK3CA/AKT1/PTEN-altered hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer.

Futibatinib demonstrated efficacy and tolerability when administered as treatment of patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma who harbor FGFR2 fusions/rearrangements, according to interim analysis results presented in a poster during the the European Society of Medical Oncology Virtual Congress 2020

Larotrectinib induced durable responses in patients with TRK fusion–positive lung cancer, even in patients with central nervous system metastases, according to results pooled from 2 trials of the TRK inhibitor and presented in a poster at the European Society of Medical Oncology Virtual Congress 2020.

Uday R. Popat, MD, discusses the role of ruxolitinib as treatment of patients with graft-versus-host-disease.

Responses were improved for patients receiving treatment with mogamulizumab with the use of concomitant topical steroids compared with the overall study population in the phase 3 MAVORIC study of patients with mycosis fungoides or Sézary syndrome, according to the results of a post hoc analysis of the study.

Patients with classic Hodgkin lymphoma and human immunodeficiency virus were found to have similar clinical outcomes compared with patients with cHL and no HIV, according to an analysis presented during the eighth annual virtual meeting of the Society of Hematologic Oncology.

Adding the anti-CD38 antibody, daratumumab, to the standard of care regimen of lenalidomide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone, improved depth of response, stringent complete response , and minimal residual disease negativity, in a subgroup of Black patients who had newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, according to findings presented at the eighth annual Society of Hematologic Oncology meeting.

Prognostic factors in patients with myelofibrosis treated with a myeloablative busulfan/fludarabine conditioning regimen prior to allogeneic stem cell transplantation in a single-institution analysis showed that a time from diagnosis to transplant of more than 12 months was associated with poorer overall survival and displayed a trend toward higher non-relapse mortality.

Michael Wang, MD, discusses the role of BTK inhibitors as treatment of patients with mantle cell lymphoma ahead of his presentation at the 2020 SOHO Annual Meeting.

Using a modified pediatric regimen to treat adolescents and young adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia led to superior outcomes compared with historical adult ALL regimen results, according to a retrospective analysis that evaluated 95 AYAs aged 14 to 39 years. Findings were presented at the eighth annual Society of Hematologic Oncology virtual meeting.

Experts in myeloproliferative neoplasms find janus kinase inhibitors to be particularly important to the armamentarium for the treatment of myelofibrosis. With only 2 FDA-approved agents, fedratinib and ruxolitinib, and the inevitability that not all patients will derive benefit, and some will develop resistance, the option of moving beyond JAK inhibition is widely discussed.

Patients with myelofibrosis have complicated pathology and multiple pathways, creating the opportunity to use multiple targeted agents for treatment, but also leading to greater potential for resistance to monotherapy, according to Lucia Masarova, MD.

Jerry L. Spivak, MD, discusses treating patients with polycythemia vera, which is a type of myeloproliferative neoplasm that can often derive from essential thrombocythemia, particularly among women.

Standard treatment for accelerated or blast phase myeloproliferative neoplasms consists of hypomethylating agents or intensive induction chemotherapy and transplant. However, newer studies have suggested that accelerated or blast phase MPNs, such as acute myeloid leukemia, can be treated with molecularly driven targeted therapies.

Srdan Verstovsek, MD, PhD, shares his take home message from his presentation on accelerated and blastic phase myeloproliferative neoplasms during the first Annual Texas MPM Workshop.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Ruben Mesa, director, MD, discussed the role of JAK inhibitors in early myelofibrosis and other promising treatment options coming down the pipeline.

During the 1st Annual Texas MPM Workshop, Aaron Gerds, MD, MS presented on the ruxolitinib in the present and future, as well as the possibilities for moving beyond the JAK-STAT pathway.

Patients considered to have early myelofibrosis are a heterogeneous group for whom disease risk, best treatment strategies, and the probability of mortality are best determined individually by looking at patient’s clinical characteristics and molecular markers together.

"Brain metastases harbor distinct clinically actionable genetic alterations compared to their primary tumors and extracranial sites."

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Stephanie Weiss, MD, reviewed the treatment landscape for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer and gave her predictions on how the paradigm will evolve for patients with brain metastases now that tucatinib has demonstrated efficacy.

In the first pooled prospective study to show the long-term outcomes of cranial radiation in patients with limited brain metastases, it was observed that whole-brain radiotherapy was associated with worse cognitive outcomes and mixed quality of life compared with stereotactic radiosurgery for these patients over time, according to a presentation from Joshua Palmer, MD, at the 2020 Virtual Conference on Brain Metastases.

Quantification of circulating tumor cells in cerebrospinal fluid can be used to predict survival outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed leptomeningeal disease, according to the results of a retrospective analysis presented during the Society of Neuro-Oncology’s 2020 Virtual Conference on Brain Metastases .

Joshua Palmer, MD, discusses a pooled analysis of 2 randomized clinical trials that compared how clinical outcomes and quality of life were impacted with stereotactic radiosurgery versus whole-brain radiation therapy in patients with brain metastases.

Multiple positive responses were observed in an exploratory efficacy analysis evaluating tucatinib in combination with trastuzumab and capecitabine in patients with previously treated HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer with brain metastases in the previously reported HER2CLIMB trial.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology following the SNO Brain Metastasis Meeting, Nancy Lin, MD, discussed the treatment of brain metastases in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer in general, as well as the subgroup analysis of patients with brain metastases in the phase 2 HER2CLIMB clinical trial.