ASCO 2015 Highlights

Treatment with time-limited venetoclax (Venclexta)-based combination regimens resulted in superior rates of undetectable minimal residual disease (uMRD) in the peripheral blood at 15 months compared with chemoimmunotherapy (CIT) in fit patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), according to findings from the GAIA (CLL13) clinical trial.

Pembrolizumab (Opdivo) added to best supportive care (BSC) improved outcomes including overall survival (OS) versus BSC alone in Asian patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) previously treated with sorafenib (Nexavar), according to final results from the KEYNOTE-394 trial.

Trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu; T-DXd) continues to show superior antitumor activity and improved survival compared with standard chemotherapy in patients with advanced HER2-expressing gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer, according to updated results from the phase 2 DESTINY-Gastric01 trial. T-DXd is an antibody–drug conjugate comprising an anti-HER2 antibody, a cleavable tetrapeptide-based linker, and a topoisomerase I inhibitor.

The PD-1/CTLA-4 bispecific antibody, AK104, plus chemotherapy represents a potential new first-line treatment option for patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer.

Neoadjuvant enfortumab vedotin (Padcev) showed promising ­antitumor activity in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) who were ineligible for cisplatin therapy, according to preliminary findings from cohort H of the phase 1b/2 EV-103 clinical trial.

The neoadjuvant combination of avelumab (Bavencio) and axitinib (Inlyta) resulted in a partial response (PR) rate of 30% in ­patients with localized renal-cell carcinoma (RCC) at high risk for relapse after nephrectomy, according to results from the phase 2 NeoAvAx clinical trial.

Adjuvant pembrolizumab (Keytruda) continued to provide a disease-free survival (DFS) benefit in patients with renal-cell carcinoma (RCC) at intermediate-high or high risk of recurrence after nephrectomy, according to 30-month follow-up data from the KEYNOTE-564 trial presented at the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.

Adoption of biosimilars continues to rise in the United States, but oncologists’ knowledge regarding these agents has not kept pace, according to data presented at the virtual 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Quality Care Symposium.

The development of biosimilar medicines has provided an opportunity for patient utilization of oncology treatments at a lower cost, particularly in individuals for whom biologicals play a predominant role in providing effective therapeutic and supportive care.

The investigational oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) elacestrant (RAD1901) significantly reduced the risk for death or disease progression and improved progression-free survival (PFS) compared with standard-of-care (SOC) endocrine therapy in patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-­positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer who had progressed on previous endocrine and targeted therapies, according to results of the phase 3 EMERALD clinical trial.