April 2019

Immune checkpoint inhibitors as monotherapy and in combinations regimens are producing promising efficacy data in metastatic head and neck cancers, depite struggles in finding the right treatment settings and patient population subsets.

Arjun V. Balar, MD, co-physician editor in chief of <em>Targeted Therapies in Oncology</em>, discusses&nbsp;recent data for bone-seeking radiopharmaceuticals in prostate cancer.

At the 2019 American Society of Clinical Oncology&ndash;Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Clinical Immuno-Oncology Symposium, Natalie Vokes, MD, MPhil, reviews the latest evidence linking tumor mutational burden to outcome in patients treated with immune checkpoint blockade as well as genomic correlates of response within the tumor immunity cycle.

Naiyer A. Rizvi, MD, explained, in a presentation at the European Society of Medical Oncology 2019 International Congress on Targeted Anticancer Therapies, that plasma assays for determining TMB are becoming more diagnostically relevant.

The novel targeted radiation therapy, lutetium 177 prostate-specific membrane antigen, demonstrated safety and therapeutic efficacy in 22 patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, based on findings presented during the ESMO 2019 International Congress on Targeted Anticancer Therapies.

It is rare that treatment guidelines make sweeping changes to treatment recommendations, yet the American Society of Breast Surgeons is urging that the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines on breast cancer treatment be changed to indicate that genetic testing be offered to all patients with breast cancer.

The success of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy observed in hematologic malignancies has not yet translated into the solid tumor setting; however, efforts continue to try to bring this new modality into the treatment paradigm for solid tumors, including pancreatic cancer.&nbsp;

Because of the complex nature of diagnosing, treating, and managing hepatocellular carcinoma, a multidisciplinary approach in the community setting can provide optimal care to patients with the disease.