Articles

Chicago, IL—The theme of the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting was “Making a Difference in Cancer Care With You.” The meeting attracted 38,000 attendees from around the world over 5 days.

Multidrug chemotherapy regimens, with or without radiotherapy, have proved to be highly successful in achieving long-term remissions in the majority of patients with advanced-stage Hodg­kin lymphoma. However, depending on the treatment given, approximately 30% of patients with advanced-stage Hodgkin lymphoma do not achieve long-term remission.

Washington, DC—In the longest follow-up on single-agent nivolumab (Opdivo) to date, 5-year overall survival was 16% in patients with advanced non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the updated results of a phase 1b dose-ranging study (CA209-003). This represents a quadrupling of 5-year overall survival with standard platinum doublets, which is approximately 4% for patients with metastatic NSCLC.

National Harbor, MD—A higher readmission rate after surgery had a significant association with improved survival for patients with ovarian cancer, according to 2 studies reported at the 2017 Society of Gynecologic Oncology meeting.

Advances in immunotherapy are benefiting increasing numbers of patients living with cancer. Since 2011, the FDA approved 15 immunotherapies in oncology, including 5 immunotherapy drugs in 2016. This surge of progress using cancer immunotherapy has led the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) to name “Immunotherapy 2.0” as its cancer advance of the year for a second year in a row.

National Harbor, MD—A randomized clinical trial of olaparib strengthened the PARP (poly ADP-ribose polymerase) inhibitor’s role as maintenance therapy for patients with ovarian cancer and BRCA mutation, demonstrating dramatic improvement in progression-­free survival (PFS) versus placebo.

National Harbor, MD—Patients with recurrent metastatic cervical cancer surpassed all historical standards for 1-year survival when treated with an investigational immunotherapy targeting human papillomavirus (HPV) infection.

National Harbor, MD—Patients with relapsed high-grade ovarian cancer with BRCA mutation derived the greatest benefit from the poly ADP-­ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor rucaparib (Rubraca) if their disease remained platinum sensitive, a new analysis of a large phase 2 clinical trial showed, as reported at the 2017 Society of Gynecologic Oncology meeting.

Orlando, FL—Prophylaxis with letermovir beginning after hematopoietic-­cell transplantation (HCT) and lasting through 100 days reduced the risk for clinically significant cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection. Furthermore, letermovir was associated with lower all-cause mortality compared with placebo, reported Francisco M. Marty, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, at the 2017 BMT Tandem Meetings.