Latest Conference Articles

Patients with ROS1-positive non–small cell lung cancer showed high response rates and durable responses following treatment with entrectinib.

Patient reported outcomes according to PD-L1 expression did not show clinically meaningful differences in quality of life with either durvalumab or placebo in patients with stage III non–small cell lung cancer, according to a retrospective analysis of the phase III PACIFIC study.

The initial overall survival analysis of the phase III MYSTIC trial of first-line durvalumab (Imfinzi) alone or in combination with tremelimumab compared with platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer, may have been confounded by high rates of post-study immunotherapy given in the control arm.

Antonio Passaro, MD, PhD, of the Division of Thoracic Oncology, European Institute of Oncology, discusses a study that sought to determine the factors that have an impact on 5-year survival among patients treated for metastatic non–small cell lung cancer using ALK TKIs.

Larotrectinib showcased an overall response rate of 71% in patients with non–small cell lung cancer harboring NTRK gene fusions.

Leora Horn, MD, MSc, associate professor of cancer research, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, discusses the use of circulating tumor DNA analysis as a means to monitor response to, as well as resistance to, ensartinib in patients with ALK–positive non–small cell lung cancer.

Sandip Patel, MD, associate professor of medicine at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, discusses the benefit of the immune checkpoint inhibitor combination of ipilimumab (Yervoy) and nivolumab (Opdivo) in patients with rare, high-grade neuroendocrine tumors.

Primary tumor surgery for patients with stage IV HER2-positive breast cancer is associated with an improvement in overall survival, according to results of a retrospective cohort review presented at the 2019 AACR Annual Meeting.

Lecia V. Sequist, MD, MPH, thoracic medical oncologist and director of the Center for Innovation in Early Cancer Detection at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, discusses the rationale for the TATTON trial in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

A third of patients with advanced TRK fusion tumors had objective responses to the second-generation TRK inhibitor LOXO-195 after failure of initial anti-TRK therapy.

Maintenance therapy with rucaparib maintained disease control and was well tolerated in patients with platinum-sensitive, advanced BRCA1/2- or PALB2-mutant pancreatic cancer, according to preliminary interim findings of a single-arm, phase II trial.

Tumor mutational burden identified patients who obtained a survival benefit with the PD-L1 inhibitor durvalumab, as initial therapy versus chemotherapy for advanced non–small cell lung cancer, even though the primary analysis of the randomized trial showed no difference between treatment groups, according to a new analysis.

Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) demonstrated promising antitumor activity with durable responses in patients with pretreated advanced small cell lung cancer.

Eric J. Jacobs, PhD, cancer epidemiologist and strategic director of pharmacoepidemiology, American Cancer Society, discusses results from a prospective cohort study examining the association between BMI and pancreatic cancer mortality.

Steven M. Lipkin, MD, PhD, the Gladys and Roland Harriman Professor of Medicine, professor of medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and vice chair for research in the Weill Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine; and a geneticist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, discusses a study of a cancer prevention vaccine in a preclinical model of Lynch syndrome during the 2019 AACR Annual Meeting

Gilteritinib was found to significantly improve overall survival in patients with relapsed/refractory FLT3 mutation–positive acute myeloid leukemia, according to updated findings of the phase III ADMIRAL trial.

The PI3K-delta inhibitor umbralisib was found to demonstrate an overall response rate of 52% and show an encouraging tolerability profile in patients with relapsed/refractory marginal zone lymphoma, according to findings from a cohort of the phase IIb UNITY-NHL trial.

A majority of patients with large triple-negative breast tumors achieved pathologic complete response when treated with the viral oncolytic talimogene laherparepvec plus neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Sameek Roychowdhury, MD, PhD, associate professor of medical oncology, the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses a phase II study with infigratinib (BGJ398) in patients with cholangiocarcinoma.

Prasad S. Adusumilli, MD, surgeon, deputy chief of Thoracic Service, co-director of the Mesothelioma Program, head of Solid Tumors Cell Therapy, Cellular Therapeutics Center, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discussed the results of a phase I study exploring mesothelin-targeted CAR T-cell therapy in patients with advanced solid tumors during the 2019 AACR Annual Meeting.

The combination of osimertinib and the MET inhibitor savolitinib demonstrated encouraging clinical activity and an acceptable risk-benefit profile in patients with EGFR-mutant, MET-amplified non–small cell lung cancer who previously received EGFR TKIs.

The immune checkpoint inhibitor combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab induced a greater than 40% response rate and was well tolerated in patients with high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma.

CAR T cells targeting mesothelin-expressing tumors demonstrated safety and efficacy in a preliminary clinical evaluation in patients with malignant pleural disease.

The administration of HER2-directed CAR T-cell therapy and lymphodepletion chemotherapy demonstrated antitumor activity and was found to be safe in pediatric and adult patients with advanced HER2-positive sarcoma.

A theme of the 2019 NCCN Annual Conference was the expansion of biomarker testing to guide treatment, and a review of brand-new changes for guidelines in colorectal cancer was no different.

Jarushka Naidoo, MD, BCh, discusses the application of biomarker testing for use of checkpoint inhibitors in patients with cancer.

Anthony J. Olszanski, MD, RPh, discusses the treatment selection process for use of cemiplimab in patients with cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.

An updated guideline (version 1.2019) from the NCCN for the management of ovarian cancer recommends specific PARP inhibitors for the treatment of recurrent disease, describes patient selection criteria for each agent, and establishes criteria for PARP inhibitor maintenance therapy.

Thomas W. Flaig, MD, discusses the latest updates to the NCCN guidelines for the treatment of patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer and highlights the latest approvals of checkpoint inhibitors in this patient population.

PD-L1 testing, while an imperfect biomarker, is the key determinant of frontline immunotherapy selection in the NCCN guidelines for non–small cell lung cancer.