ASCO 2021 Liver Cancer Update
The liver cancer trials presented at American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2021 were mainly focused on first-line treatments, with a few trials in the neoadjuvant, adjuvant and second-line setting.
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Lung Cancer Update April 2021
With the World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) 2020 completed last January, several new and clinical relevant phase 2 and phase 3 studies on Lung Cancer have been published. We summarised some key data for you.
ASCO 2019 Breast Cancer: The ASCO19 breast cancer track summarised
Breast cancer: a front-runner when it comes to the development of novel therapeutic strategies. With the advent of newer targeted- and immunotherapies, oncologists have an increment of options to offer their patients. The American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (ASCO) 2019 Breast Cancer track offered an extensive look at the latest advancements and updates from on-going trials covering the various subtypes of breast cancer.
KEYNOTE-158: pembrolizumab in previously treated advanced cervical cancer
Immunotherapy with programmed death 1 (PD-1) antibody pembrolizumab led to an objective response rate (ORR) of 14.6% in previously treated advanced cervical cancer patients with PD-L1–positive disease, as reported by Chung et al. on behalf of the KEYNOTE-158 investigators in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Atezolizumab +/- cobimetinib vs regorafenib for previously treated metastatic colorectal cancer (IMblaze370)
Combining programmed death 1 ligand (PD-L1) inhibitor atezolizumab with MEK-inhibitor cobimetinib in patients with previously treated metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) does not improve the overall survival (OS) when compared to regorafenib, as was reported by the investigators of the IMblaze370 (NCT02788279) trial in the Lancet Oncology.
Olaparib (Lynparza) FDA approved as maintenance for BRCAm ovarian cancer
On 19 December 2018, the FDA approved olaparib (Lynparza®, AstraZeneca) as a maintenance treatment for adult advanced epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer patients who achieving a complete or partial response to first-line platinum-based chemotherapy and who have deleterious germline or somatic BRCA-mutatations (gBRCAm or sBRCAm) by an FDA-aproved test or who are suspected to have deleterious BRCA-mutatations (BRCAm).
Ipilimumab plus nivolumab for persistent or recurrent ovarian cancer
Adding ipilimumab (IPI [Yervoy®, Bristol-Myers Squibb]) to nivolumab (NIVO [Opdivo®, Bristol-Myers Squibb]) induction followed by maintenance with single-agent NIVO had a superior objective tumour response rate and progression-free survival (PFS) when compared to NIVO alone in patients with persistent or recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer.
Nivolumab FDA approved for patients with metastatic small cell lung cancer (SCLC)
On the 16th of August 2018, the FDA granted accelerated approval to nivolumab (Opdivo®, Bristol-Myers Squibb) for use in patients with metastatic small cell lung cancer (SCLC) who progressed after two lines of therapy, including one line of platinum-based chemotherapy.
FDA limits use of atezolizumab and pembrolizumab in urothelial carcinoma
On June 19, the FDA limited the use of atezolizumab and pembrolizumab for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer patients ineligible for cisplatin-containing therapy.
ASCO 2018 Breast Cancer: The ASCO18 breast cancer track summarised
Breast cancer: a front-runner when it comes to the development of novel therapeutic strategies. With the advent of newer targeted- and immunotherapies, oncologists have an increment of options to offer their patients. The American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (ASCO) 2018 Breast Cancer track offered an extensive look at the latest advancements and updates from on-going trials covering the various subtypes of breast cancer.
FDA approved pembrolizumab for chemotherapy-refractory r/m cervical cancer with PD-L1 CPS ≥1
- On June 12, 2018 the FDA approved pembrolizumab (KeytrudaⓇ, Merck & Co. Inc.) for patients with chemotherapy-refractory recurrent or metastatic (r/m) cervical cancer and with a combined positive score (CPS)≥1 PD-L1 level expression.
FDA approved biosimilar pegfilgrastim to decrease the chance of febrile neutropenia in patients with non-myeloid cancers on myelosuppressive chemotherapy
- FDA approved Fulphila (pegfilgrastim-jmdb, Mylan GmbH), a biosimilar of Neulasta (pegfilgrastim, Amgen, Inc.) to decrease the chance of infection due to febrile neutropenia in patients receiving myelosuppressive chemotherapy with clinically significant incidence of febrile neutropenia and with non-myeloid cancers.
FDA safety alert: use of immunotherapy in metastatic urothelial cancer with low PD-L1 expression
On May 18, the United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an alert about the decreased survival in studies with pembrolizumab (Keytruda®) and atezolizumab (Tecentriq®) as single agent first-line therapy for patients with metastatic urothelial cancer (mUCC) and low expression of the programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) protein.
Biosimilar epoetin alfa-epbx approved by FDA for the treatment of anemia due to chronic kidney disease, use of zidovudine for HIV, and concomitant myelosuppressive chemotherapy
- On May 14, 2018 the FDA announced approval of biosimilar epoetin alfa-epbx (Retacrit®, Hospira, a subsidiary of Pfizer) for the treatment of anemia due to chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients on dialysis and not on dialysis, use of zidovudine in patients with HIV infection, and the effects of concomitant myelosuppressive chemotherapy. Epoetin alfa-epbx is also approved for the reduction of allogeneic red blood cell transfusions in patients undergoing elective, noncardiac, nonvascular surgery. Retacrit® is a biosimilar of Epogen/Procrit (epoetin alfa, Amgen).
AACR 2018: first-line atezolizumab, bevacizumab plus chemotherapy active in non-squamous NSCLC
First-line atezolizumab plus bevacizumab, carboplatin and paclitaxel improves PFS in patients with non-squamous NSCLC. Two presentations on the IMPower150 study by Martin Reck (ELCC 2018) and Mark Socinski (AACR 2018) discussed the frontline addition of atezolizumab to bevacizumab and chemotherapy in different lung cancer subgroups (NCT02366143).
Frontline Combination of Pembrolizumab and Chemotherapy: A New Standard of Care for Non-squamous NSCLC
AACR 2018: Frontline pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy in NSCLC reduces the risk of death by more than 50%. The Phase III KEYNOTE-189 trial combined pembrolizumab (Keytruda®) plus standard of care platinum-based chemotherapy in non-squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without EGFR or ALK genetic aberrations (NCT0278680)
FDA approved brentuximab vedotin plus chemotherapy for untreated stage III or IV classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL)
- FDA approved brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris, Seattle Genetics, Inc.) to treat adult patients with previously untreated stage III or IV classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) in combination with chemotherapy. More Information.