Personalized Medicine

Atlanta, GA—As single-agent immunotherapies continue to show promising results, the challenge is now to determine which combination regimens with immunotherapies can improve outcomes. According to data presented at ASH 2017, 3 approaches are currently being explored.

Atlanta, GA—A novel, third-generation, oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), PF-114 mesylate, has antileukemic activity in heavily pretreated patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), including those with T315I mutation, said Jorge E. Cortes, MD, Deputy Chair, Department of Leukemia, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, at ASH 2017.

Atlanta, GA—Although chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies directed against the CD19 protein garnered much attention at ASH 2017, CAR T-cells targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA), a protein expressed nearly universally on multiple myeloma cells, were found to be remarkably effective in patients with heavily pretreated multiple myeloma.

Atlanta, GA—The combination of the investigational drug quizartinib plus azacitidine (Vidaza) or low-dose cytarabine has substantial activity in patients with myeloid leukemias and FLT3 mutations.

Atlanta, GA—Treatment with ivosidenib, an IDH1 inhibitor, resulted in an objective response rate (ORR) of 41.6% in a phase 1 dose-escalation and expansion clinical trial in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and IDH1 mutation.

Atlanta, GA—Mogamulizumab, a monoclonal antibody targeting CC chemokine receptor type 4 (CCR4), significantly reduced the risk for disease progression or death in patients with untreated cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) compared with vorinostat (Zolinza), reported Youn H. Kim, MD, Director, Multidisciplinary Cutaneous Lymphoma Program, Stanford Medicine, California, at ASH 2017.

Atlanta, GA—CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy continues to show excellent and durable responses in patients with lymphoma who have no other treatment options. Two studies presented at ASH 2017 provide encouraging news for 2 new drugs, including long-term follow-up of the pivotal ZUMA-1 study of the CAR T-cell therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta), and primary results from the JULIET study of tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah).

Chicago, IL—The addition of the investigational CDK4/CDK6 inhibitor abemaciclib to fulvestrant (Faslodex) extended progression-free survival (PFS) by 7 months in women with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer, reported George W. Sledge, Jr, MD, Professor, Medical Oncology, Stanford University Medical Center, Palo Alto, CA, who presented the results of a large study at the 2017 ASCO annual meeting.

Chicago, IL—Osimertinib (Tagrisso) extends progression-free survival (PFS) compared with standard chemotherapy in patients with EGFR T790M mutation–positive non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have central nervous system (CNS) metastases, reported Marina C. Garassino, MD, Thoracic Oncology Unit, Medical Oncology Department, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy, at the 2017 ASCO annual meeting.

Chicago, IL—The PARP inhibitor olaparib (Lynparza) significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) compared with standard chemotherapy in women with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer with a germline BRCA mutation. Disease progression was delayed by approximately 3 months with olaparib in the multinational, randomized, open-label, phase 3 OlympiAD clinical trial, reported Mark E. Robson, MD, Clinic Director, Clinical Genetics Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, at the 2017 ASCO annual meeting.