ESMO

For the first time, a randomized clinical trial has shown significant tumor shrinkage with a phos­phoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor in patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, HER2-negative early breast cancer. The phase 3 study LORELEI compared neoadjuvant therapy with letrozole plus placebo versus letrozole plus taselisib, a PI3K inhibitor, in this patient population.

Madrid, Spain—Maintenance therapy with the poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor rucaparib (Rubraca) after response to platinum-containing therapy significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) by 11.2 months in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer compared with placebo, according to overall results of the ARIEL3 trial. The study was presented at the 2017 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress.

Madrid, Spain—Durvalumab (Imfinzi), a PD-L1 inhibitor, improved progression-free survival (PFS) by 11.2 months compared with placebo in patients with locally advanced, unresectable stage III non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that did not progress after standard treatment with chemoradiotherapy. These results—presented at the 2017 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress—come from PACIFIC, the first phase 3 clinical trial of a PD-L1 inhibitor in patients with locally advanced NSCLC outside of the metastatic setting.

Copenhagen, Denmark—Adjuvant immunotherapy with ipilimumab (Yervoy) led to significant improvement in long-term overall survival (OS) among patients with high-risk melanoma, according to results from a 5.3-year follow-up in a randomized clinical trial reported at the 2016 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress and published simultaneously online.

Copenhagen, Denmark—Two more PD-1 targeted drugs staked a claim to a role in treating advanced urothelial cancer, according to data from 2 studies that were reported at the 2016 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress.

Copenhagen, Denmark—The addition of the selective cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitor ribociclib to letrozole (Femara) significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive advanced breast cancer. Compared with letrozole alone, the combination of ribociclib plus letrozole improved PFS by 44%.

Madrid, Spain—Final results from the CLEOPATRA (Clinical Evaluation of Pertuzumab and Trastuzumab) trial show that dual HER2 blockade with the combination of pertuzumab and trastuzumab plus chemotherapy extended overall survival (OS) by almost 16 months compared with trastuzumab plus chemotherapy alone in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

Madrid, Spain—Continuing an EGFR inhibitor after acquired resistance does not slow the progression of advanced non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in patients receiving chemotherapy, according to a report presented at the 2014 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress.

Madrid, Spain—The positive results from 2 studies raised speculation about a possible resurrection of the breast cancer indication for bevacizumab, as reported at the 2014 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress.

Madrid, Spain—Immunotherapy marches on, showing continued progress in treating advanced melanoma. At the 2014 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress, first reports from a phase 3 clinical trial showed that the monoclonal anti–PD-1 antibody nivolumab achieved superior responses and longer progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) compared with standard chemotherapy in the second- or third-line treatment of patients whose melanoma progressed with ipilimumab therapy.