Kristie L. Kahl

January 16, 2021 - Frontline use of pembrolizumab monotherapy significantly improved progression-free survival, while demonstrating superior safety, compared with chemotherapy in patients with microsatellite-instability high/mismatch repair deficient metastatic colorectal cancer.

December 10, 2020 - Mindfulness meditation and survivorship education classes reduced depressive symptoms in younger women treated for breast cancer.

December 9, 2020 - Among women who underwent a mastectomy plus reconstructive surgery, those who received a breast cancer diagnosis, received chemotherapy and were younger were reported to have a higher risk of new chronic controlled substance use.

December 7, 2020 - The addition of subcutaneous daratumumab to pomalidomide and dexamethasone significantly reduced the risk of progression or death by 37%, compared with pomalidomide and dexamethasone, in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma who had received ≥1 prior line of therapy.

Treatment with cabozantinib in combination with atezolizumab demonstrated promising clinical activity in patients with advanced clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

Treatment with AMG 160 showed a manageable safety profile with preliminary efficacy in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Olaparib induced a significantly longer duration of overall survival, compared with enzalutamide or abiraterone plus prednisone, in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who had tumors with at least 1 alteration in BRCA1, BRCA2, or ATM and whose disease had progressed during previous treatment with a next-generation hormonal agent.

Findings showed that AMG 330 was safe and tolerable in treating patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia, with cytokine release syndrome as the most frequent and expected adverse event.

Results from the CheckMate 9LA suggested that frontline treatment with nivolumab plus ipilimumab combined with 2 cycles of platinum-doublet chemotherapy in patients with metastatic or recurrent non-small cell lung cancer should be considered a new option for this population.

Following at least 3 years of follow-up, patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer and tumor PD-L1 expression ≥ 1% or < 1% experienced durable and long-term efficacy benefits from frontline treatment with nivolumab plus ipilimumab, compared with chemotherapy.

Brian I. Rini, MD, speaks about the TIVO-3 trial and how its results could provide patients with another “weapon in this disease.”

Integration of a comprehensive geriatric assessment with geriatrician-led management care improved health-related quality of life, unplanned hospital admissions, and treatment discontinuation among older adults undergoing systemic therapy for their cancer.

Treatment with olaparib in the maintenance setting extended overall survival by 12.9 months in women with platinum-sensitive relapsed ovarian cancer with BRCA1/2 mutations, compared with placebo, according to randomized phase 3 trial results presented during a 2020 ASCO Virtual Scientific Program press briefing.

Physicians should “get out there and test early and often,” to align with a potential new paradigm for genetic testing that allows anyone on the treatment team to identify and test individuals, with the specialist ultimately providing risk management, according to Kevin S. Hughes, MD, FACS.

Trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd; DS-8201) induced a confirmed objective response rate of almost 61% and a durable benefit in heavily pretreated patients with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer.

The addition of venetoclax to obinutuzumab reduced the risk for disease worsening or death by 65% compared with obinutuzumab plus chlorambucil in patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Enfortumab vedotin induced responses in 44% of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer, including 12% experiencing a complete response to treatment.

Maintenance therapy with olaparib significantly improved progression-free survival compared with placebo among patients with germline BRCA-mutated metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Frontline pembrolizumab demonstrated non-inferior overall survival compared with standard chemotherapy among patients with PD-L1–positive, HER2-negative, advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer.

In patients with smoldering multiple myeloma, lenalidomide induced a 72% reduction in the risk for progression to symptomatic disease at 3 years.

Patients with recurrent or advanced endometrial cancer demonstrated an overall response rate of almost 30% with dostarlimab treatment.

Combination use of olaparib and neratinib may represent a novel therapeutic option for chemotherapy-resistant patients with HER2-positive, homologous recombination–proficient ovarian cancer tumors.

Treatment with neratinib led to a clinical benefit rate of 54.5% in patients with HER2-mutant cervical cancer.

Combination therapy with pembrolizumab, bevacizumab, and metronomic cyclophosphamide induced a 95% disease control rate and 40% overall response rate among women with recurrent ovarian cancer.

Lenvatinib in combination with weekly paclitaxel induced activity among those with recurrent endometrial and platinum-resistant epithelial ovarian cancer, resulting in a 65% overall response rate.

Adverse events decreased among patients with high-risk ovarian cancer who received a 200- or 300-mg individualized starting dose of niraparib, based upon baseline bodyweight and platelet count, compared with a 300-mg fixed starting dose.

Prior exposure to PARP inhibitor treatment may not lead to resistance in future use with these agents in women with recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer, suggesting that repeat use could become more common.

Patients with recurrent ovarian cancer who received niraparib maintenance therapy experienced more progression-free time without experiencing symptoms or toxicity compared with placebo; the benefit was 4-fold for those with germline (g) BRCA-mutated disease and 2-fold for non-gBRCA-mutated ovarian cancer.

With tremendous advances and the accelerated approval of atezolizumab plus nab-paclitaxel for patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic PD-L1–positive triple-negative breast cancer, provider education in identifying associated toxicities from checkpoint inhibitor therapy is critical.

The previously demonstrated progression-free survival benefit from the addition of alpelisib to fulvestrant appeared consistent among subgroups of patients with hormone receptor–positive/HER2-negative advanced breast cancer who have a PIK3CA mutation.