OncTimes Talk

Double checkpoint blockade using a single bispecific agent could become the new standard for treating advanced gastric cancer regardless of PD-L1 status, according to research reported at the AACR Annual Meeting 2024.    The investigational bispecific antibody drug cadonilimab (used with chemotherapy) significantly extended life and delayed disease progression among patients with HER2-negative adv...

Linvoseltamab, a B-cell maturation antigen-targeted T-cell-engaging bispecific antibody, brought robust clinical benefit to patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, including those in difficult-to-treat subgroups, in a multi-center, international study reported to the 2024 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting.   After giving his talk in San Diego, lead author Sunda...

An opportunity to detect pancreatic cancer at stages where early intervention can greatly extend life and even make cure possible seems to be on offer, according to findings from a study of a new liquid biopsy method based on so-called exosomes: subcellular molecules shed into the circulation by cancer cells.     At the AACR Annual Meeting 2024 in San Diego, Peter Goodwin talked with Ajay Goel, Ph...

Designed with the help of artificial intelligence to recognize multiple genetic features of each patient's tumor, a small clinical trial of a personalized therapeutic vaccine has shown durable tumor-specific immune responses in patients with surgically resected HPV-negative head and neck squamous cell cancer. The vaccine also prevented relapse in some patients.   At the AACR Annual Meeting 2024, O...

Higher rates of satisfaction and psychosocial well-being and low complication rates were reported by patients who had a new mesh-supported prepectoral method of breast reconstruction using titanized mesh pockets after their surgery for breast cancer. At the 14th European Breast Cancer Conference in Milan, Stefan Paepke, MD, from the Interdisciplinary Breast Centre at the Technical University of Mu...

The value of adding a radiation boost to postoperative radiotherapy for patients younger than 50 with early breast cancer has been confirmed by 10 years of data from the Young Boost trial conducted in the Netherlands. However, by randomizing patients between the standard radiation boost and a lower dose boost, the study demonstrated comparable efficacy for the two boost regimens, with less toxicit...

A 30-year-long population-based study, reported at the 14th European Breast Cancer conference held in Milan, Italy, showed that breast-conserving therapy for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) had become increasingly effective in preventing the emergence of breast cancer over the long term, but that there were still unanswered questions.    The population-based Netherlands Cancer Registry retrospecti...

Most patients whose breast cancer has spread to more than three lymph nodes can nevertheless be spared extensive axillary dissection, according to the findings of a study presented at the 2024 European Breast Cancer Conference in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.   Annemiek van Hemert, a Medical Doctor and PhD candidate at the Surgical Oncology Department of the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek-Netherlands Cancer...

Offering MRI-guided partial breast irradiation before surgery to patients with low-risk breast cancer could become the norm, according to Yasmin Civil, MD, in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Amsterdam UMC in the Netherlands, who reported 5-year results from the ABLATIVE trial to the 14th European Breast Cancer Conference.   The researchers found that single-dose, MRI-guided, partial br...

Adding checkpoint inhibition immunotherapy to adjuvant chemotherapy did not improve survival among patients with triple-negative breast cancers.   These findings from a study reported at the 14th European Breast Cancer Conference were presented by Heather McArthur, MD, MPH, Clinical Director of Breast Cancer and Komen Distinguished Chair in Clinical Breast Research at the University of Texas South...

Artificial intelligence is being harnessed by a team of researchers at Leicester University in the United Kingdom to predict the risk of lymphedema (and potentially other toxicities) from the use of postoperative radiation therapy for breast cancer. The 2024 European Breast Cancer Conference heard the latest news on an artificial intelligence tool that promises to help cancer clinicians individual...

New data from the Phase III KEYNOTE-756 clinical trial show that adding pembrolizumab immunotherapy to chemotherapy before and after surgery for high-risk breast cancer (which was estrogen receptor (ER)-positive and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative) resulted in better outcomes for patients regardless of their age or menopausal status.   The findings were presented at the 14...

About a quarter of all patients with newly diagnosed triple-negative breast cancer will not benefit from neoadjuvant checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy with an agent such as pembrolizumab—even though it improves outcomes among the remaining majority.   At the 14th European Breast Cancer Conference, held in Milan, Italy, Laura van 't Veer, PhD, Program Leader of the Breast Oncology Program at the U...

An early study of patients (Phase I/II) with acute myeloid leukemia found that a new three-drug combination therapy greatly improved outcomes—both in patients with relapsed or refractory disease and as initial therapy.     The new research involved adding quizartinib that targets fms-related tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) oncogene. Mutations of FLT3 are present in nearly a third of all AML tumors. The i...

How best to treat patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma has been made clearer by a report from the multinational Phase III Sympatico Study, presented at the 65th ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition held in San Diego. Lead author Michael Wang, MD, Professor in the Department of Lymphoma & Myeloma at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, told the conference...

2024 is the 20th year of clinical studies conducted as part of the STAMPEDE (Systemic Therapy in Advancing or Metastatic Prostate Cancer: Evaluation of Drug Efficacy) trial, a series of investigational approaches to initial therapy for patients with high-risk prostate cancer. Patient accrual has now ended, but practice-changing data continue to emerge from STAMPEDE. New agents, regimens, and optim...

The multicenter RAMOSE randomized clinical trial has found that doublet growth factor tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy, when compared with standard osimertinib monotherapy, achieved a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival in patients whose advanced non-small cell lung cancers were driven by mutated epidermal growth factor receptor.   First author Xiuning Le, MD, PhD,...

A new targeted drug, revumenib, was found to increase response rates and survival in patients whose previously treated acute leukemias relapsed or were refractory to treatment. A Phase II clinical study found revumenib met its primary endpoint and was stopped early because of a high patient response rate and clinical efficacy.   Revumenib acts on the hitherto untargeted histone-lysine N-methyltran...

A marked improvement in the outlook for patients with locally advanced cervical cancer has been achieved thanks to a neoadjuvant regimen using standard anti-cancer drugs added to usual therapy.     At the ESMO Congress 2023 held in Madrid, Spain, Mary McCormack, PhD, MBBS, FRCR, Consultant Clinical Oncologist at University College London Hospitals, reported findings from the GCIG INTERLACE randomi...

Patients whose advanced non-small cell lung cancers harbor the RET gene fusion should receive initial treatment with the RET-targeted agent selpercatinib rather than chemotherapy or chemotherapy combined with immunotherapy.     This clear message comes from the randomized Phase III LIBRETTO-431 study reported at ESMO Congress 2023 by Herbert Ho Fung Loong, MBBS, FRCP, Associate Professor in the De...

The preferred first-line treatment for patients with uncommon sensitizing mutations in tumor epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) should now be the tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) afatinib, rather than osimertinib, according to Japanese researchers reporting the ACHILLES trial results at the ESMO Congress 2023 held in Madrid.   OncTimesTalk correspondent Peter Goodwin talked with Satoru Miura,...

Patients with high-risk prostate cancer who have been treated with radical prostatectomy gain no additional advantage and face extra toxicity if they choose to have adjuvant radiotherapy. That's according to the findings of the randomized RADICALS study, reported at the ESMO Congress 2023. These results support the use of early salvage radiotherapy for PSA failure after radical prostatectomy rathe...

Although immunotherapies for patients with solid tumors such as melanoma can be dramatically successful, the majority of patients are resistant and require alternative treatments. While the cytokine interleukin-12 is well known for potentiating the effect of immunotherapies, such as checkpoint blockade, it couldn't be used because of toxicity.   At the 2023 AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference...

The process of identifying which patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) can benefit from allogeneic stem cell transplantation in first complete remission (CR1) has taken a step forward thanks to analysis of the UK NCRI AML17 and AML19 studies, reported at the 65th ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition.   Patients who achieved molecular residual disease (MRD) negativity in their peripheral blood we...

With no standard-of-care treatment for patients with high-risk relapsed/refractory follicular lymphoma, promising remissions have been observed in a Phase II study reported at the 65th ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition. The antibody-drug conjugate loncastuximab tesirine in combination with rituximab brought a very high complete metabolic response rate among patients satisfying the criteria for hig...