Delivering the keynote address at the 2020 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, David F. Penson, MD, MPH, MMHC, Hamilton and Howd Chair in Urologic Oncology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, highlighted the need to move toward patient-centered decisions beyond survival, focusing on patient-centered outcomes by integrating quality of life (QOL) and [ Read More ]
Short-course (hypofractionated) radiotherapy (RT) and temozolomide (TMZ) followed by TMZ significantly prolonged survival versus short-course RT alone in newly diagnosed elderly patients with glioblastoma. These results of a global cooperative group phase 3 trial were 1 of 4 talks selected for the plenary session at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting. [ Read More ]
Evidence is mounting that 2 immunotherapies are better than 1 as first-line treatment of advanced melanoma. A phase 3 study showed that nivolumab plus ipilimumab was superior to either agent alone, and a phase 1 study suggests that pembrolizumab can be safely and effectively combined as first-line treatment in this [ Read More ]
Alectinib, an oral ALK inhibitor recently approved for the treatment of advanced ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after crizotinib failure, significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) compared with crizotinib in the frontline setting, according to data from a head-to-head open-label phase 3 Japanese study. In December 2015, the FDA granted [ Read More ]
Venetoclax, an investigational oral selective small molecule Bcl-2 inhibitor, added to bortezomib and dexamethasone resulted in impressive response rates in a phase 1b trial of patients with heavily pretreated relapsed/refractory (RR) multiple myeloma (MM). In the trial, the objective response rate (ORR) was higher among patients whose myeloma cells produced [ Read More ]
Atezolizumab has clinically meaningful activity as primary therapy in patients with cisplatin-ineligible locally advanced/metastatic urothelial cancer, according to data from the IMvigor 210 study. Preliminary results also showed encouraging overall survival (OS) data, said Arjun V. Balar, MD, Codirector of the Genitourinary Cancers Program, New York University Langone Medical Center, [ Read More ]
A durable complete response (CR) was achieved in a high proportion of adult patients with refractory B-cell malignancies who were treated with CD19+ chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells made up of a defined 1:1 ratio of CD8+ and CD4+ cells. The data were presented by Cameron John Turtle, MBBS, [ Read More ]
Although the Institute of Medicine recommends taking a shared decision-making approach to discussions about medical treatments, an overview of evidence at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting suggests that clinicians are not very effective in actually following this recommendation. According to Terrance Lynn Albrecht, PhD, this approach requires equal investment by [ Read More ]
Access and adherence to long-term cancer therapies are emerging as major public health issues around the world, as high out-of-pocket costs for oral anticancer agents are linked with noncompliance that can directly affect outcomes.“Solutions should involve increasing access and reducing cost – especially out-of-pocket costs,†said Dawn L. Hershman, MD, [ Read More ]
Ongoing trials at academic centers around the country are testing a new strategy of matching available targeted therapies to molecular abnormalities in tumors instead of treating the site of cancer.MyPathway is one such effort that appears to be paying off, according to preliminary results presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual [ Read More ]
