ASCO 2015 Highlights

The clinical and economic impact of multiple myeloma is tremendous. With the onset of novel therapies used in multiple myeloma, as well as the release of new data demonstrating progression-free survival and overall survival, therapy used in multiple myeloma is now on the radar for payers, despite the relatively low incidence of the disease.

Delivering higher doses of external-beam radiation over a shorter period (hypofractionated radiation) was as effective as conventional radiation in preventing treatment failure in men with intermediate- to high-risk prostate cancer.

Innovative medications target the molecular structure of cancer cells with increasing precision, resulting in reduced adverse effects. Novel therapies enlist the patients’ own immune systems to defeat cancer. At the same time, as personalized medicine comes of age, improved diagnostic tests match the right patients to these new treatments.

Azacitidine is the current standard of care for high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), but many patients experience treatment failure. No study has previously analyzed patient outcomes of those who fail azacitidine therapy. This new analysis combined data from 4 international clinical trials to describe patient outcomes after failing azacitidine treatment (Prébet T, et al. J Clin Oncol. 2011;29:3322-3327).

The second-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) dasatinib and nilotinib produce optimal cytogenetic response after 3 months of treatment in themajority of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in the chronic phase, a much faster rate than the 12 to 18 months for the peaked response reported with imatinib (Jabbour E, et al. J Clin Oncol. 2011;29:4260-4266).

A phase 3 study comparing the efficacy and safety of rituximab alone and in combination with bortezomib in patients with relapsed grade 1 or 2 follicular lymphoma who were rituximab- naive or rituximab-sensitive showed extended PFS with the drug combination comparedwith rituximab alone (Coiffier B, et al. Lancet Oncol. 2011;12:773-784).

This is the first phase 3 clinical trial to compare the effectiveness of 2 second- generation antiangiogenic agents —axitinib and sorafenib—for meta - static renal-cell cancer, showing great promise for the investigational drug axitinib (Rini BI, et al. Lancet. 2011;378: 1931-1939).