Articles

Chicago, IL—A mesothelin-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapy demonstrated encouraging antitumor activity in combination with pembrolizumab in patients with mesothelin-associated malignant pleural solid tumors, primarily mesothelioma, who had disease progression after platinum-containing chemotherapy, according to results presented at ASCO 2019.

Chicago, IL—Gilteritinib (Xospata), a recently approved FLT3 inhibitor, prolonged survival in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and an FLT3 mutation in the phase 3 ADMIRAL clinical trial. A new analysis presented at ASCO 2019 was focused on the impact of baseline co-mutations and FLT3-ITD allelic burden on overall response and on overall survival (OS) in patients with relapsed or refractory AML who received treatment with gilteritinib.

Chicago, IL—In the phase 3 CLL14 trial, fixed-duration therapy with the combination of venetoclax (Venclexta) plus obinutuzumab (Gazyva) was superior to the combination of chemotherapy with chlorambucil plus obinutuzu­mab as front-line therapy in older patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and comorbidities. Kirsten Fischer, MD, Center for Integrated Oncology Cologne-Bonn, University Hospital, Germany, presented the study results at ASCO 2019 and were published simultaneously (Fischer K, et al. N Engl J Med. 2019;380:2225-2236).

AVBCC is delighted to announce that John O’Brien, PharmD, MPH, former Senior Advisor to the Secretary, US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), will present a Summit Keynote speech and Q&A at the 2019 AVBCC Summit on Thursday, October 17, in New York City.

Chicago, IL—The addition of the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)4/CDK6 inhibitor ribociclib (Kisqali) to standard endocrine therapy significantly extended overall survival (OS) compared with endocrine therapy alone in premenopausal women with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer, according to results of the phase 3 MONALEESA-7 clinical trial presented at ASCO 2019.

Chicago, IL—Maintenance therapy with the targeted drug olaparib (Lynparza) after first-line platinum-based chemotherapy prolonged progression-­free survival (PFS) in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer and a germ­line BRCA mutation, according to results of the phase 3 POLO clinical trial presented at the plenary session at ASCO 2019. Lead investigator Hedy L. Kindler, MD, FASCO, Medical Director, Gastrointestinal Oncology, University of Chicago Medicine, IL, presented the results.

Chicago, IL—Approximately 25% of children, adolescents, and young adults with advanced cancer were eligible for a targeted therapy after genotyping of their tumors in the Pediatric Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (MATCH) clinical trial. That rate is more than double the 10% that researchers had projected.

Chicago, IL—Fewer than 7% of adults with cancer and even fewer minority patients participate in clinical trials, which negatively affects the ability to determine the safety and efficacy of new and investigational therapies. At ASCO 2019, 2 experts discussed strategies to overcome the barriers to clinical trial participation and to help enroll more patients with cancer in them.

The 2 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies available so far—axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta) and tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah)—may be considered cost-effective treatments for adults with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), depending on the long-term outcomes of these patients, according to a recent cost-effective analysis (Lin JK, et al. J Clin Oncol. 2019 Jun 3. Epub ahead of print).

Until recently, patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma who are ineligible for autologous stem-cell transplantation (ASCT), the multiagent regimen with lenalidomide (Revlimid) and dexamethasone was the standard of care. Results of the prespecified interim analysis of the MAIA trial demonstrated the benefit of adding daratumumab (Darzalex) to this combination therapy (Facon T, et al. N Engl J Med. 2019;380:2104-2115).