Emerging Therapies

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has been striking in various hematologic malignancies, and for the first time this treatment approach is being evaluated in multiple myeloma.
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Elderly patients with Philadelphia-negative B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have overall poor outcomes with current therapies. Results of a new study presented at ASH 2015 suggest that frontline treatment with the investigational antibody-drug conjugate inotuzumab ozogamicin in combination with deintensified chemotherapy is a good option for older patients with this disease.
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Patients with previously treated metastatic urothelial cancer had response rates that exceeded historical standards when treated with an investigational immunotherapeutic agent, updated results of a large phase 2 clinical trial showed. Treatment with the PD-1 ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor atezolizumab led to an overall response rate of 15% in 311 patients, including a 26% rate among patients who had the highest levels of PD-L1 expression. Historical data have demonstrated response rates of about 10% for second-line therapy and beyond.
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Barcelona, Spain—Locoregional therapies for hepatocellular carcinoma and for colorectal cancer (CRC) metastases to the liver continue to demonstrate promising outcomes in clinical trials, according to findings presented at the 2015 European Society for Medical Oncology World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer.
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Vienna, Austria—Patients with advanced, pretreated renal-cell carcinoma (RCC) who have limited treatment options got good news from 2 important practice-changing trials, CheckMate 025 and METEOR, which were presented as late-breaking abstracts at the 2015 European Cancer Congress (ECC). CheckMate 025 showed a survival benefit for nivolumab (Opdivo) over standard therapy with everolimus (Afinitor) in patients with previously treated advanced RCC. This is the first trial to show a survival benefit for an immune checkpoint inhibitor after standard therapy has failed. METEOR showed that cabozantinib (Cometriq) nearly doubled progression-free survival (PFS) compared with standard everolimus in patients with advanced RCC whose disease progressed with previous vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor (VEGFR)-targeted therapy.
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“Everolimus is the first targeted agent to show robust antitumor activity with acceptable tolerability across a broad spectrum of NETs,” said James C. Yao, MD.
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The treatment of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) may benefit from immunotherapy with anti–PD-1 agents, based on results of a recent study using pembrolizumab (Keytruda).
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Copenhagen, Denmark—Biosimilar filgrastim (Nivestim; Hospira), which was approved earlier this year by the European Commission but not yet by the FDA, showed effectiveness for the treatment of neutropenia and febrile neutropenia (FN) in patients undergoing cytotoxic chemotherapy for solid tumors and hematologic malignancies, according to a study presented at the 2015 Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer/International Society of Oral Oncology meeting.
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Vienna, Austria—Immunotherapy is poised to become a game changer for patients with non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
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Boston, MA—Rociletinib, a specially engineered third-generation EGFR inhibitor, is accumulating an impressive track record in early studies of non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The drug is specifically designed for use in patients with NSCLC and the T790M mutation, a heretofore patient population with unmet needs. T790M, the most common mutation associated with resistance to first-line EGFR-directed tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy, is present in 60% of patients with resistance to TKIs.
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