August 2018

In this letter from the editor, Targeted Therapies in Oncology Editor-in-Chief, Arjun V. Balar, MD, reflects on patient advocacy and those that support patients with cancer. 

No one doubts that molecular testing has rapidly improved care for patients with colorectal cancer, Stanley R. Hamilton, MD, told his audience at the 2nd Annual International Congress on Oncology Pathology.

Preclinical and phase I proof for CYAD-01 as well as preliminary findings from the ongoing THINK trial were presented at the 2018 American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy Annual Meeting.

Although the Oncology Care Model has policy goals of improving care quality and reducing costs, data operationalization has proven to be more complex and confusing than anticipated since its debut in 2015 from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Despite these challenges, many OCM-participating practices have been successful and reap the benefit of value-based care.

Mesothelin-targeted chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy has shown early evidence of efficacy in a phase I trial of patients with malignant pleural disease and mesothelioma, non–small cell lung cancer, or breast cancer. Additionally, significant responses were seen in patients who went on to receive subsequent PD-1 checkpoint inhibition treatment.

During a presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research’s inaugural Advances in Malignant Lymphoma meeting, Mehta-Shah, associate professor in the Department of Medicine with Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, presented preliminary data showing how new pathway-dependent strategies using novel agent combinations may represent a new way to treat patients with T-cell lymphomas.

Targeting EZH2, the catalytic subunit of the multiprotein PRC2, may represent an attractive therapeutic objective in malignant lymphoma, Vincent Ribrag, MD, told his audience at the American Association for Cancer Research’s inaugural Advances in Malignant Lymphoma meeting.

Checkpoint inhibitors are revolutionizing the treatment of patients with both squamous and nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer, and are quickly assuming a predominant role, especially in the frontline setting, due to recent exciting results from large trials.<br /> &nbsp;