Oncology

Indications for pembrolizumab, nivolumab, and atezolizumab are set for examination under the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee for indications granted accelerated approval in breast, urothelial, gastric, and liver cancers.

The liquid biopsy assay RaDaR has been given a breakthrough device designation for use in the detection of minimal residual disease in early-stage cancers.

Take a look back at some of the important news and notes from last week in the world of oncology, featuring news about prostate cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, and more.

Schilsky joined CancerNetwork®’s podcast to discuss ASCO’s Advance of the Year, the top priorities moving forward, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Giorgio Trinchieri, MD, of the National Cancer Institute’s Center for Cancer Research joined CancerNetwork® to discuss enhancing the gut microbiome by way of fecal transplant for better immunotherapy responses.

The medical oncologist and physician scientist based at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center explained recommendations for SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in patients participating in phase 1 oncology clinical trials.

Investigators suggest that results of a study may help to identify concerns of individuals undergoing panel testing and ways to support their needs.

The chief of urologic oncology at City of Hope spoke about how the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the way he cares for patients with cancer as well as how he believes it will continue to impact cancer prevention, detection, and treatment moving forward.

A cancer care expert from The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Hospital talks about what patients and their providers need to know about the COVID-19 vaccine.

With an estimated 2.3 million new cases identified, the Global Cancer Statistics 2020 report indicated female breast cancer was the most commonly diagnosed cancer type.

CancerNetwork® spoke with the CEO of the Union for International Cancer Control to learn more about their efforts in oncology amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, and the work they are doing on World Cancer Day.

CancerNetwork® reviews the biggest news on initiatives and advancements in cancer care on World Cancer Day.

The urologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center spoke about the impact of a decline in cancer screening tests being performed during the first wave of the pandemic.

Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, the developer of BPX-601, can now begin enrolling patients to their phase 1/2 trial again without modification to the study protocol.

The phase 3 RATIONALE 302 trial demonstrated that compared to chemotherapy, tislelizumab showed a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival in the intention-to-treat population of patients with advanced or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

The increasing use of checkpoint inhibitors and other immunotherapies has created a need for the development of a cohesive education program and list of guidelines for treating common toxicities.

The Breast Cancer Index assay is the only of its kind to be recommended in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Guidelines for the treatment of breast cancer as being predictive of extended adjuvant endocrine therapy.

Though the majority of immune-related adverse events (irAEs) can be managed with corticosteroids and other immunosuppressive treatments, life-threatening and sometimes fatal events have still been reported thus revealing a need to develop measures for effective management.

Merus announced that their bispecific antibody was granted fast track designation by the FDA for treating NRG1 fusion–positive solid tumors.

Digital breast tomosynthesis plus synthetic mammography depicted more cancers and found a lower number of stage II cancers at repeat screening compared with FFDM.

This study demonstrated that the concurrent use of this new artificial intelligence tool alongside mammography improved the diagnostic performance of radiologists in the detection of breast cancer without prolonging their workflow.

Idecabtagene vicleucel yielded a clinically meaningful improvements in the quality-of-life of triple-class exposed patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

The last 5 years in prostate cancer have seen exponential growth for the field of biomarkers. Specifically, not only do guidelines that now incorporate many biomarkers offer guidance on how to treat these patients, but they can also assess the potential for developing prostate cancer.

This study found that abbreviated breast magnetic resonance imaging as a supplemental screening test in women with dense breasts shows an increase in cancer detection over digital breast tomosynthesis screening.

The results demonstrated preliminary evidence of monotherapy activity, encouraging efficacy in combination with the PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda), and biomarker data supporting FLX475’s mechanism of action.

The expert in breast imaging spoke about the latest in breast imaging and the new technologies that are helping to advance the field.

The expert in breast imaging spoke about the use of the technology, and why it is more effective than traditional mammograms.

Results from NCI-MATCH support the feasibility and efficiency of using next-generation sequencing (NGS) to triage patients to investigational therapy, provided that a sufficiently large pool of agents is made available.

New research from NCI-MATCH support the feasibility and efficiency of using next-generation sequencing (NGS) to triage patients to investigational therapy, given that a sufficiently large pool of agents is provided.

The researchers hypothesized “that serum PD-L1 may identify a subgroup of patients with HER2-positive [metastatic breast cancer] who may benefit the most from the addition of novel immunotherapies to trastuzumab.”