FDA Grants Breakthrough Status to MK-6482 for Select VHL Disease–Associated RCC
July 29th 2020The FDA has granted a breakthrough therapy designation to MK-6482 for the treatment of patients with von Hippel-Lindau disease–associated renal cell carcinoma who have nonmetastatic tumors of less than 3 centimeters, unless immediate surgery is necessitated.
FDA Grants Breakthrough Therapy Designation, Orphan Drug Designation to MK-6482
July 29th 2020The FDA granted breakthrough therapy designation to MK-6482 for the treatment of patients with von Hippel-Lindau disease-associated renal cell carcinoma and orphan drug designation to MK-6482 for von Hippel-Lindau disease.
Osimertinib Results Show Potential for Earlier TKI Use in EGFR-Mutant NSCLC
July 27th 2020The introduction of tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy earlier in the treatment timeline for patients with EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer holds the promise of improving overall survival for this patient population.
Therapy Provides Readily Available Stem Cell Source to Treat Rare Genetic Diseases
July 22nd 2020Umbilical cord blood provides a readily available source of stem cells to provide better access to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation to safely and effectively treat various noncancerous genetic disorders in children.
Liso-Cel Takes Step Toward EU Approval in B-Cell Lymphomas
July 17th 2020The European Medicines Agency has validated a Marketing Authorization Application for the CD19-directed CAR T-cell therapy lisocabtagene maraleucel for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma, and grade 3B follicular lymphoma following at least 2 prior therapies.
Immunotherapy in Advanced Lung Cancer
July 15th 2020ABSTRACT Historically, platinum-based chemotherapy was the standard of care for metastatic lung cancer. However, since the success of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in melanoma, PD-1/PD-L1 and CTLA-4 immune checkpoint pathways have been established as effective therapies to manage advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and extensive-stage (ES) small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Multiple large-scale randomized clinical trials have analyzed the effects of ICIs in NSCLC, and results of these trials have since translated to the approval of single-agent PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors, and the combination of PD-1 inhibitors with platinum-based chemotherapy has become the new standard of care for patients with advanced NSCLC. Furthermore, in ES SCLC, in which chemotherapy or chemoradiation has been the standard of care for decades, 2 anti–PD-1/PD-L1 agents have been approved for use in the frontline setting for ES SCLC, in combination with chemotherapy. Despite progressive integration of immunotherapy into treatment regimens, there remains a need for reliable biomarkers to precisely determine therapy candidates.
Phase 2 CITYSCAPE Trial Shows Promise for Tiragolumab in NSCLC
July 4th 2020Patients with chemotherapy-naïve, locally advanced, or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer who were treated with tiragolumab plus an anti-PD-L1 agent showed better efficacy versus single-agent checkpoint inhibitor therapy alone.
NCCN Patient Guidelines Highlight Side Effects of Immunotherapy, CAR T-Cell Therapy
July 3rd 2020Immunotherapy and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy are new and important treatments revolutionizing care of some cancers; however, their side effects can be very different than what is seen in traditional approaches, such as chemotherapy.
CAR T-Cell Therapies Show Promise for Multiple Myeloma, but Hurdles Remain
July 2nd 2020There are promising signs that chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies might lead to meaningful advances in the therapy of multiple myeloma. However, investigators will first need to clear a number of key hurdles.
Expert Shares Efforts to Expand Use of CAR T-Cell Therapy to Solid Tumors
June 30th 2020Natalie Sophia Grover, MD, discusses ongoing research with CAR T-cell therapy in hematologic malignancies, efforts examining the potential for this approach in solid tumors, and future directions and challenges with this modality.
COVID-19 Raises Difficult Challenges for CAR T-Cell Therapy Administration
June 27th 2020Patients with B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas and B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia can benefit greatly from chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, but providing that therapy has become much more difficult in the age of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Axi-Cel Retreatment Demonstrates Clinical Efficacy in Large B-Cell Lymphoma
June 24th 2020Findings from an exploratory analysis of the phase 1/2 ZUMA-1 trial demonstrated clinical efficacy in patients with relapsed/refractory large B-cell lymphoma who were retreated with the CAR T-cell therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel.
Selinexor Approved Under Accelerated Pathway to Treat DLBCL
June 24th 2020The FDA granted accelerated approval to selinexor (Xpovio, Karyopharm Therapeutics) for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The oral treatment is to be used after at least 2 lines of systemic therapy.