Articles

San Diego, CA—Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-targeting CD22 therapy induced clinical responses and a high rate of complete remission in children and young adults with relapsed or refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), including patients who had received anti-CD19 CAR T-cell therapy, said Terry J. Fry, MD, Hematologic Malignancies Section, Pediatric Oncology Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute (NCI), at the 2016 American Society of Hematology meeting. These findings create the opportunity for bispecific or multispecific CAR T-cell targeting.

San Francisco, CA—The multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) cabozantinib (Cabometyx) demonstrated encouraging activity in patients with advanced neuroendocrine tumors (NETs), including patients who previously received sunitinib (Sutent) or everolimus (Afinitor), according to results from a phase 2 clinical trial, reported Jennifer A. Chan, MD, MPH, Clinical Director, Program in Carcinoid and Neuroendocrine Tumors, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, at the 2017 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

San Francisco, CA—Pooled data from 2 randomized clinical trials and several open-label extension studies confirmed the safety and quality-of-life effects of long-term (>12 months) use of the somatostatin analog lanreotide (Somatulin Depot) for advanced neuroendocrine tumors (NETs), including functioning and nonfunctioning NETs, reported Alexandria T. Phan, MD, Medical Oncologist, University of New Mexico Cancer Center, Albuquerque, and colleagues, at a poster session at the 2017 Gastrointestinal (GI) Cancers Symposium.

Orlando, FL—The incidence of bladder cancer is on the rise, and bladder cancer is 4 to 5 times more expensive to treat than breast or prostate cancer. The cost of bladder cancer treatment can be reduced by adhering to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network or the American Urological Association treatment guidelines.

Orlando, FL—Clinical trials involving immunotherapy have increased in the past few years, and the oncology community is eagerly awaiting the results. However, not so well-known is what happens to patients who receive immunotherapy outside of the clinical trial setting, including those who are not eligible for clinical trials.

Orlando, FL—One cycle of the bleomycin, etoposide, and cisplatin (BEP) regimen had less toxicity and was as effective as 2 cycles in patients with high-risk, nonseminomatous or germ-cell tumors of the testis (NSGCTT), according to results of a large prospective trial called 111 presented at the 2017 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium. Using 1 cycle of BEP as standard of care would reduce exposure to toxicity, and most patients with testicular cancer are relatively young.

National Harbor, MD—Results of a phase 1/2 study that investigated 2 dosing regi­mens of 2 immunotherapies—the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) plus the CTLA-4 inhibitor ipilimumab (Yervoy)—in patients with previously treated metastatic urothelial carcinoma showed higher response rates and longer median overall survival with the regimen of nivolumab 1 mg/kg plus ipilimumab 3 mg/kg than with the dosing of nivolu­mab 3 mg/kg plus ipilimumab 1 mg/kg.

National Harbor, MD—The investigational CD137 agonist urelumab, given as monotherapy and in combination with the anti–PD-1 monoclonal antibody nivolumab, demonstrated safety and, in some patients with hematologic and solid tumor malignancies, promising antitumor activity, according to results of 2 early-phase studies presented at the 2016 Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer annual meeting.

Orlando, FL—A conditioning regimen before autologous hematopoietic stem-cell transplant (HSCT) consisting of carfilzomib (Kyprolis) plus high-dose melphalan can help sustain post­transplant remission in patients with relapsed multiple myeloma who respond to transplant.

San Francisco, CA—Adding vemurafenib (Zelboraf) to cetuximab (Erbitux) and irinotecan (Camptosar) prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) and improved the disease control rate in patients with BRAF V600E mutation–positive colorectal cancer (CRC).