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Targeted Oncology reviews trending news online for the week of June 12, 2020, including recent news from the FDA, updates in oncology, and new information regarding COVID-19.

The study showed that the development of immune-related adverse events in advanced solid tumors was positively correlated with improved progression-free survival and overall survival in a retrospective analysis, which also showed that Caucasian patients developed immune-related adverse events more frequently than African American patients.

Glioblastoma currently has a dismal survival rate of only 14.6 months from its diagnosis. We believe berubicin, which based on limited clinical data appears to be the first anthracycline to cross over the blood-brain barrier in adults, provides a potentially novel therapy for the treatment of malignant gliomas.

“Larotrectinib is extremely well-tolerated, and when we look at the poster from ASCO, we can actually see there are very few grade 3 toxicities that are attributed to larotrectinib. With a 10% complete response rate and all the patients getting really deep responses, it just blows almost all of the comparative chemotherapies in each of these cancers out of the park."

“The completion of target patient enrollment in the Phase 3 ATHENA trial is an important milestone for Clovis and a critical step toward developing additional therapeutic options for women with advanced ovarian cancer."

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Raajit K. Rampal, MD, PhD, hematologic oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discussed the novel agent, APR-246, and its significance for use in the patients with myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Jeff P. Sharman, MD, discussed the findings for the combination of ublituximab plus ibrutinib as treatment of patients with high-risk relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

The FDA granted approval to pegfilgrastim-apgf, a biosimilar of pegfilgrastim, which is indicated to decrease the incidence of infection due to febrile neutropenia in patients with non-myeloid malignancies who are receiving myelosuppressive anti-cancer agents associated with a clinically significant incidence of febrile neutropenia.

The FDA granted approval to nivolumab for the treatment of patients with unresectable advanced, recurrent, or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma after receiving prior fluoropyrimidine- and platinum-based chemotherapy.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, David G. Maloney, MD, PhD, discussed findings from administration of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy in the outpatient setting for patients with B-cell lymphomas.

"This approach provides potential benefits for both clinicians and patients: clinicians may gain greater control over cancer care, and patients may experience better clinical outcomes and an improved quality of life."

“While the sample size and power are limited, these results suggest that a higher HER2 FISH ratio at baseline core biopsy may be a potential biomarker to select patients for neoadjuvant dual anti-HER2 therapy without chemotherapy."

"While we are disappointed in these study results, Keytruda has been established as an important option in the treatment of metastatic bladder cancer, and we are committed to continuing our research to help more patients with this disease."

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Scott Tykodi, MD, PhD, discussed findings from the analysis from the KEYNOTE-427 trial in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

In an attempt to better understand the critical unmet needs of young survivors of and patients with colorectal cancer, the Colorectal Cancer Alliance launched an annual survey. These latest findings indicate the unique challenges of young-onset CRC and the need to continue improving this treatment landscape.

“We found that the genomic alterations with smoldering multiple myeloma are essentially the same as full-fledged myeloma. This suggests that by the time smoldering multiple myeloma is diagnosed, most of the molecular abnormalities found in myeloma have already occurred.”

“Due to a lack of efficacy observed with lenvatinib monotherapy in anaplastic thyroid cancer, further investigation of lenvatinib in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor may be warranted rather than pursuing further lenvatinib as a single agent.”

In the treatment landscape for advanced cervical cancer, no approved options exist for patients after first-line treatment. Based on phase 2 data, camrelizumab plus apatinib is showing promise.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Robert M. Jotte, MD, PhD, discussed the results of the exploratory analysis of patients with NSCLC from the IMpower150 who had bulky disease.

"I am encouraged by these initial results but further research is necessary to better understand the role of acalabrutinib in treating COVID-19."

“In this case the detection of an expressed CCDC6-RET gene fusion in a tumor metastasis by RNA-based NGS suggested that RET inhibition might be an effective treatment option."

Compelling objective responses and safety results were demonstrated with the combination of cirmtuzumab and ibrutinib in cohorts of patients with mantle cell lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, who were treated in the phase 1b/2 clinical trial.

Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy lead to poor overall survival outcomes it patients who were 75 years or older with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma compared with patients aged 70 to 74 years, but progression-free survival was comparable between the 2 groups.

The FDA has granted margetuximab an orphan drug designation for the treatment of patients with gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancer.

Targeted Oncology reviews trending news online for the week of June 5, 2020, including recent news from the FDA, updates in oncology, and new information regarding COVID-19.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Aberdeen Mehta, MD, MPH, discussed his experiences practicing palliative care in patients with cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic and how new care plans may continue even after the curve flattens.

Following the 2020 ASCO Virtual Scientific Program, Targeted Oncology spoke with oncologists from various fields to hear their insights on what data they found most impactful in this year’s meeting.

Amivantamab (JNJ-61186372) induced durable responses and demonstrated a manageable safety profile in patients with EGFR exon 20-mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to results from the phase I CHRYSALIS study (NCT02609776) presented during the 2020 American Society of Clinical Oncology Virtual Scientific Program.