Emerging Therapies

Atlanta, GA—The combination of the investigational drug quizartinib plus azacitidine (Vidaza) or low-dose cytarabine has substantial activity in patients with myeloid leukemias and FLT3 mutations.
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Atlanta, GA—Treatment with ivosidenib, an IDH1 inhibitor, resulted in an objective response rate (ORR) of 41.6% in a phase 1 dose-escalation and expansion clinical trial in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and IDH1 mutation.
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Atlanta, GA—Mogamulizumab, a monoclonal antibody targeting CC chemokine receptor type 4 (CCR4), significantly reduced the risk for disease progression or death in patients with untreated cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) compared with vorinostat (Zolinza), reported Youn H. Kim, MD, Director, Multidisciplinary Cutaneous Lymphoma Program, Stanford Medicine, California, at ASH 2017.
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Chicago, IL—A new high-intensity genomic sequencing strategy (developed by Grail Inc) detects circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) at a high rate. The new approach is a major improvement on previous tests using ctDNA, which focus on a limited number of driver mutations to inform treatment strategies for metastatic disease or to monitor disease burden. The new test offers ultra-deep sequencing with a broad genomic coverage, but it is not ready for prime time to detect occult cancer. At present, the test is a research platform and is not commercially available.
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Chicago, IL—Oral cediranib, an investigational vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitor, in combination with a poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor or with chemotherapy, shows survival benefit in women with relapsed platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer, according to data from 2 studies presented at the 2017 ASCO annual meeting.
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Chicago, IL—The investigational, second-generation EGFR inhibitor dacomitinib reduced the risk for disease progression compared with gefitinib as first-line therapy for patients with advanced non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and EGFR mutation. Results from the phase 3 ARCHER 1050 clinical trial demonstrated a >40% reduction in the risk for disease progression and an average 6.5-month improvement in the duration of response with dacomitinib versus gefitinib.
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Chicago, IL—Larotrectinib (LOXO-101), an investigational agent that targets tropomyosin receptor kinase (TRK) fusions, has demonstrated excellent, consistent, and durable antitumor activity in a range of tumor types in adults and children, reported lead investigator David M. Hyman, MD, Chief, Early Drug Development Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, at the 2017 ASCO annual meeting. Larotrectinib was called “the first oral tumor-agnostic therapy,” because of its unprecedented high response rates in 17 tumor types that express TRK.
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Orlando, FL—Prophylaxis with letermovir beginning after hematopoietic-­cell transplantation (HCT) and lasting through 100 days reduced the risk for clinically significant cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection. Furthermore, letermovir was associated with lower all-cause mortality compared with placebo, reported Francisco M. Marty, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, at the 2017 BMT Tandem Meetings.
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Hollywood, FL—A basket study of the oncolytic immunotherapy PV-10 (10% Rose Bengal disodium for injection), which included patients with tumors originating in various locations, showed that data for gastrointestinal lesions were especially encouraging, reported Paul M. Goldfarb, MD, FACS, a surgeon at Oncology Associates of San Diego, CA, at the 2017 Clinical Interventional Oncology annual symposium.
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San Diego, CA—Anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell administration after autologous stem-cell transplant (ASCT) showed clinical activity in patients with advanced multiple myeloma, according to results of a pilot study presented at the 2016 American Society of Hematology meeting. Substantially longer progression-free survival (PFS) was seen in 2 of 10 patients who received ASCT plus CTL019 than in patients who received first-line ASCT, said Alfred L. Garfall, MD, MS, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
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