scout

July 2019

A study aimed at exploring genomic diversity and defining its associations with clinical outcomes in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer found that alterations in RB1 were a potent predictor of poor survival and that other common aberrations may serve as prognostic indicators of treatment response, according to recent work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

To move the treatment of colon cancer forward, investigators are identifying better biomarkers for response to adjuvant chemotherapy and as early indicators of chemotherapy success, said Jeanne Tie, MD, MBChB, to an audience at the ASCO: Medical Crossfire®: How to Use Liquid Biopsies in Oncology Care hosted by Physicians’ Education Resource®, LLC.

The SOLAR-1 findings were presented during a satellite symposium at the 2019 European Society for Medical Oncology Breast Cancer Annual Congress in Berlin, Germany.&nbsp;The trial demonstrated the role of&nbsp;<em>PIK3CA&nbsp;</em>as a predictive marker for alpelisib&rsquo;s clinical efficacy, said Peter A. Fasching, MD, associate professor of gynecology and obstetrics at Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany, during the symposium.

The ability to activate pattern recognition receptors, carry other genetic &ldquo;cargo&rdquo; to modify immunity, and induce lymphocyte infiltration into cancer is an appealing strategy accomplished by intralesional oncolytic viruses. Thus, the concept of combining these novel therapeutics in the preoperative setting to enhance in situ immunization and antitumor activity systemically, as well as to increase R0 complete resection, may be a useful approach to lead to cure, according to Robert L. Ferris, MD, PhD.

In a posthoc analysis of the phase III SPARTAN trial, lead investigator Julie N. Graff, MD, and colleagues examined the study&rsquo;s apalutamide (Erleada) arm to determine whether the agent affected metastasis-free survival (MFS), time to metastasis (TTM), and location of metastasis as a function of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) nadir.