ASCO 2015 Highlights

Chicago, IL—A head-to-head comparison of 2 monoclonal antibodies for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) has shown no difference in their benefit when paired with chemotherapy in the first-line setting.

Chicago, IL—AZD9291, a novel mutation-selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), may become a treatment option for patients with advanced, EGFR-mutated non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that has progressed with standard EGFR inhibitors, according to results of a phase 1 study presented at the 2014 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting and highlighted at a press briefing.

Chicago, IL—Obesity increased the risk for breast cancer–associated death in premenopausal patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer, had little effect in postmenopausal women with ER-positive disease, and had no effect in patients with ER-negative disease, according to results of a large study of 80,000 women with early breast cancer that were reported at the 2014 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting.

Chicago, IL—The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends annual low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) lung cancer screening for patients at high risk. What would it mean in terms of cost to society if those recommendations were implemented in the Medicare population?

Chicago, IL—The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) introduced the concept of a breakthrough therapy designation in 2012 to help expedite patient access to new therapies for the treatment of serious or life-threatening diseases.

Chicago, IL—Delaying androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for at least 2 years did not lead to worse overall survival or prostate cancer–specific survival compared with the initiation of ADT within 3 months of rising prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in men with PSA-only relapse (ie, biochemical relapse) after the primary treatment of prostate cancer with surgery or radiation, according to the results of a large population-based study presented at the 2014 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting and highlighted at a press briefing.

Changes in the design and interpretation of phase 3 trials for advanced non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have begun to emerge regarding statistical power, sample size, and the primary end points used. In a new study, researchers explored how the design and interpretation of these trials has changed over the past 3 decades.

Panitumumab (Vectibix) proved noninferior to cetuximab (Erbitux) in overall survival (OS) in patients with chemotherapy-refractory wild-type KRAS exon 2 metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), according to the results of ASPECT (A Study of Panitumumab Efficacy and Safety Compared to Cetuximab).

The identification of oncogenic drivers has helped transform the care of patients with adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer diagnosed in 130,000 patients in the United States and 1 million persons worldwide annually.