ESMO Congress

The combination of avelumab and axitinib doubled objective response rates and significantly improved progression-free survival compared with sunitinib in patients with treatment-naïve advanced renal cell carcinoma regardless of PD-L1 expression.

The PARP inhibitor niraparib has shown durable clinical activity in later lines of therapy in patients with relapsed ovarian cancer who have BRCA mutations, according to a posthoc analysis of the phase II QUADRA study.

The addition of the PI3K inhibitor alpelisib to fulvestrant nearly doubled median progression-free survival compared with the endocrine therapy alone in patients with HR-positive/HER2-negative advanced breast cancer who have a PIK3CA mutation.

The combination of palbociclib plus fulvestrant led to a clinically meaningful benefit in overall survival in patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer who had progressed or relapsed on prior endocrine therapy.

Distinct gene signatures in renal cell carcinoma correlated with improved progression-free survival with immunotherapy or a targeted agent, according to a new analysis of the phase III IMmotion151 trial.

Massimo Cristofanilli, MD, professor of medicine (hematology and oncology), Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, discusses survival findings from the PALOMA-3 trial in hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.

The addition of atezolizumab to nab-paclitaxel reduced the risk of progression or death by 38% compared with nab-paclitaxel alone in patients with PD-L1–positive metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.

Jonathan E. Rosenberg, MD, medical oncologist, chief, Genitourinary Medical Oncology Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses dosing for the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) in patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma at the 2018 ESMO Congress.

Adding radium-223 dichloride to abiraterone acetate and prednisone did not improve survival in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

MET amplification and EGFR C797S mutations are the most commonly observed alterations associated with resistance to first-line osimertinib in patients with EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer.

The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio is an independent factor for overall survival in patients with metastatic melanoma, whether they receive targeted therapy or immunotherapy.

Cabozantinib and nivolumab with or without ipilimumab show activity in genitourinary tumors, particularly urothelial carcinoma, and have manageable safety profiles.

Marina Chiara Garassino, MD, medical consultant in the Medical Oncology Division, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy, discusses the PACIFIC study for patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Benjamin Besse, MD, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, Paris Sud University, discusses the combination of dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist) for patients with non

Joshua Bauml, MD, assistant professor, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, discusses the FLAURA trial in patients with EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer.

Although anti-PD-1/PD-L1 immunotherapy has greatly improved the treatment of patients with non–small cell lung cancer and is generally well-tolerated, the therapy backfires in a newly defined subset of patients who experience accelerated tumor growth indicative of hyperprogressive disease.

Nearly half of patients with resectable stage IIIB/C BRAF V600-mutant melanoma achieved pathologic complete response with neoadjuvant combination therapy consisting of dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist).

H. Jack West, MD, thoracic oncologist, Swedish Cancer Institute of Swedish Medical Center, discusses the significance of the PACIFIC trial in patients with non

Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) reduced the risk of death compared with standard of care therapy in patients with relapsed/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, but the difference fell just shy of statistical significance.

Sumanta K. Pal, MD, medical oncologist, assistant clinical professor, Department of Medical Oncology and Therapeutics Research, City of Hope, discusses both the CheckMate-214 and CABOSUN trials for patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Adjuvant therapy with vemurafenib for high-risk melanoma led to mixed results, as patients with stage IIIC or later did not benefit, but those with earlier stage disease did.

Reinhard Dummer, MD, of University Hospital Zurich, discusses the results of the phase III COMBI-AD study presented at the 2017 ESMO Congress in patients with stage III BRAF-mutant melanoma.

Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD, deputy director, Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, discusses the phase III results of the FLAURA trial, which explored osimertinib (Tagrisso) in the frontline setting for patients with EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

The combination of bevacizumab plus niraparib demonstrated clinical activity in women with relapsed, platinum-sensitive epithelial ovarian cancer and had a manageable toxicity profile.

Although second-line treatment with combined pazopanib and gemcitabine demonstrated disease control in the majority of patients with metastatic or relapsed uterine or soft tissue leiomyosarcomas, the phase II UNICANCER SARCOME 11 study did not meet statistical endpoints and is considered a negative trial.

Treating primary tumors by administering targeted therapy with sunitinib (Sutent) prior to cytoreductive nephrectomy did not improve the progression-free rate at 28 weeks over a sequence of immediate CN followed by sunitinib in patients with synchronous metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Nivolumab (Opdivo) may represent a new standard option for adjuvant therapy for patients with resected stage IIIB/C and IV melanoma, whether or not they have a BRAF mutation. In a comparison with current standard high-dose ipilimumab (Yervoy), nivolumab demonstrated a significant improvement in relapse-free survival.

The combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) was superior to sunitinib (Sutent) monotherapy as first-line treatment of advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Omid Hamid, MD, director of the melanoma center at the Angeles Clinic & Research Institute in Los Angeles, discusses the phase III results of the ECHO-202/KEYNOTE-037 trial, which explored the IDO inhibitor epacadostat plus pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in patients with advanced melanoma.

Ramucirumab (Cyramza) plus docetaxel improved progression-free survival over docetaxel alone in patients with advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer who have progressed on platinum-based chemotherapy.