Articles

On January 29, 2020, Eli Lilly announced that the FDA granted priority review to their New Drug Application for selpercatinib (LOXO-292) for the treatment of patients with advanced RET fusion-positive non–small-cell lung cancer, RET-mutant medullary thyroid cancer, and RET fusion-positive thyroid cancer.

On January 23, 2020, the FDA granted accelerated approval to tazemetostat (Tazverik; Epizyme), a methyltransferase inhibitor, for the treatment of metastatic or locally advanced epithelioid sarcoma in adults and pediatric patients aged ≥16 years who are not eligible for complete resection.

On January 8, 2020, the American Cancer Society published details of their annual cancer statistics report, including the most recent data on population‐based findings for cancer incidence through 2016 and for mortality through 2017 (CA Cancer J Clin. 2020;70:7-30). The report revealed encouraging news as well as some sobering trends.

Results from TRANSCEND CLL 004 showed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell treatment with lisocabtagene maraleucel in heavily pretreated patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)/small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) who had failed ibrutinib was manageable and produced durable undetectable minimal residual disease responses.

Results from the 3-year update of the phase 2 AIM trial confirmed the effectiveness of ibrutinib + venetoclax therapy for patients with mantle-cell lymphoma, and indicated that treatment interruption was feasible for patients in minimal residual disease–negative complete remissions.

A large observational study showed increased first-line bendamustine-rituximab use among older patients with splenic or nodal marginal zone lymphoma was not associated with significant event-free survival or overall survival benefit versus single-agent rituximab, but led to increased toxicities and costs.

Updated results from a phase 1/2 trial indicate that acalabrutinib monotherapy was associated with a favorable safety profile and showed antileukemic activity in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)/small lymphocytic lymphoma, irrespective of high-risk genomic features.

The FDA approval of avapritinib marks the first time a drug has been approved specifically for patients with GIST harboring PDGFRA exon 18 mutations, which are involved in approximately 10% of GIST cases.