Latest Conference Articles

A drug with a greater than 30-year history that was originally investigated as a treatment for trypanosomiasis has garnered interest from investigators seeking a treatment for the rare brain cancer anaplastic astrocytoma.<br /> &nbsp;

Findings from a planned interim analysis of the Ib/II Study 111 showed that lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab induced a disease control rate of 94% in patients with metastatic clear cell RCC who had disease progression following treatment with a PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor.

Chung-Han Lee, MD, PhD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the rationale for the phase II study of lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab for disease progression after PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitor in metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma.<br /> &nbsp;

Patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma assigned to nivolumab plus ipilimumab had a longer treatment-free survival than patients treated with sunitinib. Furthermore, those patients assigned to the combination spent less time experiencing treatment-related adverse events.

In an interview with&nbsp;Targeted Oncology&nbsp;at the IKCS meeting, Gennady Bratslavsky, MD, provided his expert opinion on the optimal first-line therapy for non&ndash;clear cell renal cell carcinoma, a topic he debated on with peers at the 2019 International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Martin H. Voss, reviews the method of design and results for the phase I/II study of the experimental anti&ndash;PD-1 anitbody MEDI0680 plus durvalumab versus nivolumab monotherapy in patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma.<br /> &nbsp;

In an interview with&nbsp;Targeted Oncology during the 2019 International Kidney Cancer Symposium, Yinghong Wang, MD, PhD, MS, discussed the management of gi-related toxicity in patients with kidney cancer from the perspective of a gastrointestinal specialist. She also explained the multidisciplinary collaboration between oncology and gastrointestinal departments to enhance care.&nbsp;

Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston established its immunotherapy toxicity service care team in part because of the experience of David M., a patient treated there for metastatic melanoma that spread to the lung and brain.

Treating clear cell renal cell carcinoma with immune checkpoint inhibitors resulted in vascular changes that may make these tumors more vulnerable to combinations of ICIs and VEGF inhibitors, according to data presented at the 18th International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD, discusses how genomic testing has expanded over the last few years and has impacted the lung cancer treatment paradigm.

Nicholas Bevins, MD, PhD, discusses the results from an in silico comparison of frequently used next-generation sequencing panels. The analysis aimed to identify the impact of the panel composition on tumor mutational burden calculations. Results from the analysis were presented in a poster at the 2019 Association for Molecular Pathology Annual Meeting and Expo.

In an interview with&nbsp;Targeted Oncology, Willemina R. Geurts-Giele, PhD, discussed the accuracy of detecting&nbsp;MET&nbsp;exon 14 skipping mutations in patients with NSCLC with DNA-based NGS panels. These findings were presented at The Association for Molecular Pathology Annual Meeting and Expo.

The emergence of resistance mutations in patients with cancer who receive targeted therapies is an expected development that will require new diagnostic methods of identifying the mechanisms through which these alterations occur, according to Fei Dong, MD, during the 2019 Association for Molecular Pathology Annual Meeting.<br /> &nbsp;

In a presentation describing the utility of circulating tumor DNA liquid biopsy assays at the 14th Annual New York Lung Cancers Symposium, Bob T. Li, MD, MPH, said that plasma genotyping demsonstrates practice-changing potential in non&ndash;small cell lung cancer.

Testing for driver mutations is essential before initiating therapy in patients with non&ndash;small cell lung cancer, because there is a risk that the type of upfront treatment chosen could add to the toxicity of, and spur resistance to, targeted therapy options, Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD, said at the 14th Annual New York Lung Cancers Symposium.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology during the 14th Annual New York Lung Cancers Symposium, Zofia Piotrowska, MD, MHS,&nbsp;discussed the role of osimertinib in treating patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC and how it compares with other therapeutic options in that space.

The identification of&nbsp;<em>MET&nbsp;</em>exon 14 skipping mutations in patients with non&ndash;small cell lung cancer presents a complex diagnostic challenge that requires both DNA and RNA analysis, according to results of a University of Michigan pathology study.

According to Tina Cascone, MD, PhD, in a presentation during the 14th Annual New York Lung Cancers Symposium, neoadjuvant immunotherapy is under investigation for patients with&nbsp;non&ndash;small cell lung cancer and holds hope as a treatment for patients.

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.