October 2021, Vol 12, No 5

According to results from a recent study, balstilimab, an investigational PD-1 inhibitor, demonstrated meaningful and durable clinical activity in patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer. These findings were presented by Cailin E. Joyce, MD, Director, Applied Technology, Agenus, Boston, MA, during the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2021 virtual annual meeting

The use of the PARP inhibitor olaparib (Lynparza) for 1 year after receiving standard chemotherapy in the neoadjuvant or the adjuvant setting significantly improved invasive disease-free survival in patients with high-risk, early-stage, HER2-negative breast cancer and BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, according to results presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2021 virtual meeting.

The addition of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor tucatinib (Tukysa) to trastuzumab (Herceptin) and capecitabine continued to improve overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with HER2 positive metastatic breast cancer, according to updated results from the pivotal HER2CLIMB trial. The findings were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2021 virtual annual meeting by lead investigator Giuseppe Curigliano, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Medical Oncology, University of Milano, Italy, and Director, New Drugs and Early Drug Development for Innovative Therapies, Istituto Europeo di Oncologia, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy.

Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act was associated with significant increases in breast reconstruction surgery among non-Hispanic black women and women with lower income and education levels, according to results of a study presented during the American Society of Breast Surgeons 22nd Annual Meeting. At times, these increases achieved parity with non-Hispanic white women.

The novel BCL-2 inhibitor, lisaftoclax (APG-2575), elicited encouraging responses and acceptable tolerability in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), and other hematologic malignancies, according to results of a phase 1 study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2021 virtual annual meeting.

According to the American Cancer Society, nearly 35,000 new cases of multiple myeloma will be diagnosed in the United States in 2021, and approximately 12,410 deaths will be attributed to the disease.1 However, with the introduction of several novel therapies, the outcomes for patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma have improved significantly over the past decade.

The addition of the PI3K inhibitor copanlisib (Aliopa) to rituximab (Rituxan) reduced the risk for disease progression or death by 48% compared with placebo plus rituximab in patients with relapsed indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in the phase 3 CHRONOS-3 clinical trial. The results of this study were presented at the 2021 virtual American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting and published simultaneously in Lancet Oncology.

Approximately 13% of patients with lung adenocarcinoma harbor the KRAS p.G12C mutation, which is associated with poor clinical outcomes. During the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2021 virtual annual meeting, Ferdinandos Skoulidis, MD, PhD, MRCP, Assistant Professor, Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, provided updated results from the phase 2 component of the CodeBreaK 100 clinical trial, which evaluated sotorasib (Lumakras), a small-molecule inhibitor of the KRAS p.G12C mutation, in previously treated patients with non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors express this aberration. These results were simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Neoadjuvant nivolumab (Opdivo) plus chemotherapy significantly improved pathologic complete response (pCR) rates versus chemotherapy alone in patients with resectable stage IB-IIIA non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to final results from the CheckMate-816 clinical trial. These findings were presented by Patrick Forde, MBBCh, Associate Professor of Oncology and Director of the Thoracic Cancer Clinical Research Program at Johns Hopkins University Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baltimore, MD, during the virtual 2021 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting.

Key topics related to intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) were presented at the 2021 Society of Interventional Oncology (SIO) and the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) meetings and were discussed during the CCA Summit. Bruno C. Odisio, MD, FSIR, Interventional Radiologist and Co-Director of Research, Department of Interventional Radiology, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, reviewed the significance of these findings.