ASCO 2015 Highlights

For the first time, a randomized clinical trial has shown significant tumor shrinkage with a phos­phoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor in patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, HER2-negative early breast cancer. The phase 3 study LORELEI compared neoadjuvant therapy with letrozole plus placebo versus letrozole plus taselisib, a PI3K inhibitor, in this patient population.

Madrid, Spain—Maintenance therapy with the poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor rucaparib (Rubraca) after response to platinum-containing therapy significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) by 11.2 months in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer compared with placebo, according to overall results of the ARIEL3 trial. The study was presented at the 2017 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress.

Madrid, Spain—Durvalumab (Imfinzi), a PD-L1 inhibitor, improved progression-free survival (PFS) by 11.2 months compared with placebo in patients with locally advanced, unresectable stage III non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that did not progress after standard treatment with chemoradiotherapy. These results—presented at the 2017 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress—come from PACIFIC, the first phase 3 clinical trial of a PD-L1 inhibitor in patients with locally advanced NSCLC outside of the metastatic setting.

Community oncology has an important role in eliminating barriers to accessing healthcare and reducing disparities in cancer care. Improving access to high-quality, cost-effective cancer care was addressed from a variety of perspectives at the 2017 Association for Value-Based Cancer Care Summit.

Ongoing uncertainty over cost-­sharing reduction payments and premium subsidies threatens the sustainability of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the implementation of various quality initiatives contained within it. Consequently, several health plans are reducing their footprint in the health insurance exchanges, further threatening the stability of the ACA.

San Francisco, CA—Therapies targeting immune responses against solid tumors have led to dramatic improvements in outcomes, but the role for immunotherapy in the treatment of acute leukemia is still being defined.

San Francisco, CA—After nearly 40 years of negligible drug development, in 2017 the FDA approved 4 drugs for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). These novel therapies have been shown to decrease relapse rates, improve response rates in patients with specific mutations, and reduce short- and long-term adverse reactions asso­ciated with current treatment strategies.

Chicago, IL—Treatment with nivolu­mab (Opdivo) led to durable responses and stable disease in a majority of women with relapsed or metastatic cancers caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, according to the results of a phase 1/2 clinical trial—CheckMate-358.

San Francisco, CA—Recent advances in the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma have dramatically altered the trajectory of the disease, as providers now have several efficacious agents in various drug classes at their disposal. At the 2017 NCCN Hematologic Malignancies Congress, Shaji K. Kumar, MD, Division of Hematology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, provided management strategies for newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, including the role of autologous stem-cell transplant (ASCT) and posttransplant maintenance therapy.