April 2022, Vol 13, No 2

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.

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.

Continuous enzalutamide (Xtandi) treatment in combination with docetaxel significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) compared with placebo plus docetaxel in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who had disease progression on enzalutamide alone, according to results from the phase 3b PRESIDE 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

The addition of isatuximab (Sarclisa) to the triplet of lenalidomide (Revlimid), bortezomib (Velcade), and dexamethasone (RVd) achieved superior minimal residual disease (MRD) negativity rates versus standard therapy with RVd alone as induction treatment in transplant-eligible patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, according to results of the phase 3 GMMG-HD7 clinical trial presented at the 2021 ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition.