AACR Annual Meeting

San Diego, CA—Inhibition of fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFRs) 1, 2, 3, and 4 is showing promise in the treatment of cancers driven by FGFR alterations, especially bladder cancer and lung cancer, according to phase 1 studies presented at the 2014 American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting.

San Diego, CA—A multitargeted kinase inhibitor met criteria for a phase 3 clinical trial in breast cancer after statistical modeling of clinical data showed a high probability of success versus standard therapy for patients with HER2-positive/hormone receptor (HR)-negative (HER2+/HR–) disease.

San Diego, CA—Almost 50% of patients with metastatic renal-cell carcinoma (mRCC) had objective responses to third-line treatment with the angiogenesis inhibitor pazopanib, according to the results of a small clinical trial reported at the 2014 American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting.

San Diego, CA—Preliminary results suggest that an investigational antibody-drug conjugate called DEDN-6526A (Seattle Genetics, Genentech) has activity against melanoma, including cutaneous, mucosal, and ocular melanoma, which is considered difficult to treat. The new drug comes on the heels of trastuzumab emtansine, the first antibody-drug conjugate approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of breast cancer.

San Diego, CA—Preliminary data suggest that a novel agent called AG-221 can induce complete remissions (CRs) in patients with relapsed, refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) who harbor mutated IDH2. These exciting results were achieved in patients with an ominous prognosis who have few or no other treatment options. The data were presented at the 2014 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting.

San Diego, CA—Palbociclib, an inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6, demonstrated “striking” activity when combined with conventional hormone therapy for patients with metastatic breast cancer, according to the results of an open-label phase 2 trial presented at the 2014 American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting.

Lung cancer false- positive rates varied 20-fold across the United States, raising questions about the potential impact on organized screening programs, according to data presented at the 2013 American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting.

A chemotherapy–immunotherapy combination has been shown to be extremely effective in a small clinical trial of previously untreated mantle-cell lymphoma, leading to objective responses in every patient, including complete responses in almost 90%, investigators reported at the 2013 American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting.