Global Oncology

The European Medicines Agency has accepted a marketing authorization application for enfortumab vedotin-ejfv for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer who have previously received a PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitor and a platinum-containing chemotherapy in the neoadjuvant or adjuvant, locally advanced or metastatic setting.

Adagrasib yielded durable responses and broad disease control, in addition to providing extensive predicted coverage throughout the dosing interval, in patients with KRAS G12C–mutant advanced non–small cell lung cancer.

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare has approved pemigatinib for the treatment of patients with unresectable biliary tract cancer with a FGFR2 fusion gene, worsening following chemotherapy.

CA-125 surveillance alone could be used to detect disease progression in patients with advanced ovarian cancer and an abnormal CA-125 level at the beginning of frontline maintenance therapy with olaparib and bevacizumab, according to an analysis from the phase 3 PAOLA-1.

Judith E. Hurley, MD, discusses the baseline characteristics of patients with breast cancer in the Caribbean vs those in the United States.

QIAGEN and INOVIO Pharmaceuticals, Inc. are extending their collaborative efforts with a new agreement to develop liquid biopsy–based companion diagnostic assays for INOVIO agents, according to a news release from INOVIO.

The addition of daratumumab to lenalidomide and dexamethasone resulted in improved progression-free survival vs Rd alone in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma who were not eligible for transplant—even in frail patients.

The European Commission has approved an expanded label for pembrolizumab for use as a single agent in the treatment of select adult and pediatric patients aged 3 years and older who have relapsed/refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma.

The United Kingdom’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence will not recommend olaparib for the treatment of patients with hormone-relapsed, metastatic prostate cancer that harbors BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations that has progressed on abiraterone acetate or enzalutamide.

Teclistamab demonstrated encouraging clinical activity, along with a tolerable safety profile, in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

Maintenance treatment with lenalidomide was found to be a safe treatment for patients with multiple myeloma who are diagnosed with COVID-19, supporting use of the immunomodulatory drug in this patient population.

The triplet regimen of melphalan flufenamide with dexamethasone and either daratumumab or bortezomib demonstrated encouraging clinical activity and was well tolerated in patients with heavily pretreated relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

Ixazomib-based triplet regimens as induction therapy elicited higher rates of efficacy compared with ixazomib/dexamethasone alone, followed by single-agent ixazomib maintenance, in patients with transplant-ineligible newly diagnosed multiple myeloma.

Health Canada has approved the BTK inhibitor zanubrutinib for the treatment of adult patients with Waldenström macroglobulinemia.

February 26, 2021 - The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use granted a positive opinion to dostarlimab as a treatment for patients with recurrent or advanced microsatellite instability–high/mismatch repair deficient endometrial cancer who have progressed on or following platinum-based chemotherapy.

The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has adopted a positive opinion for the combination of cabozantinib plus nivolumab for use as a frontline treatment in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.

Arutha Kulasinghe, PhD, discusses identifying COVID-19–associated gene signatures through spatial transcriptomics.

Anita Lavery, MD, MRCP, discusses the current state of cancer care during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland.

Marina Garassino, MD, discusses the distribution of the coronavirus disease 2019 vaccine to patients with cancer in Italy.

Arutha Kulasinghe, PhD, discusses cancer care during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in Australia.

February 17, 2021 – Pamrevlumab, a first-in-class inhibitor of connective tissue growth factor activity, is being evaluated in combination with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane) in a phase 3 trial for patients with unresectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer, a population in need of new options.

February 9, 2021 - The European Commission has granted a full marketing authorization for fedratinib for the treatment of disease-related splenomegaly or symptoms in adult patients with primary myelofibrosis, post-polycythemia vera myelofibrosis, or post-essential thrombocytopenia myelofibrosis who have not received JAK inhibitors or who have received ruxolitinib.

February 4, 2021 - In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, investigators have turned to tried-and-true cancer drugs to see whether they can be used to combat the virus.

February 4, 2021 — The Israeli Ministry of Health has approved selinexor for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma or diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

February 4, 2021 - The China National Medical Products Administration has granted a conditional approval to gilteritinib for use in adult patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia with a FLT3 mutation detected by a validated test.

February 3, 2021 - The combination of ceralasertib plus durvalumab improved overall response rate in patients with non‒small cell lung cancer who progressed on an anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy.

February 2, 2021 — Larotrectinib was found to elicit high response rates, durable responses, and to extend survival benefit in patients with advanced lung cancer whose tumors harbor an NTRK gene fusion, including those with central nervous system metastases.

February 2, 2021 - The time to treatment deterioration for symptoms such as cough, dyspnea, and pain in the chest was found to be comparable between treatment-naïve patients with ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer who received lorlatinib versus crizotinib.

February 1, 2021 — Targeted circulating tumor DNA methylation marker panels possess the potential for early blood-based detection of lung cancer with a high sensitivity and specificity.

February 1, 2020 - The European Medicines Agency’s Committee of Medicinal Products for Human Use has recommended a label expansion for pembrolizumab for use as a single agent in adult and pediatric patients aged 3 years and older with relapsed/refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma for whom autologous stem cell transplant has failed or following at least 2 previous therapies when ASCT is not an option.