Author: Editor

The European Treatment Outcome Study (EUTOS) investigated the treatment and treatment outcome of patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). Data of 2904 newly diagnosed CML patients in 20 countries or prespecified regions of Europe were recorded in a web-based registry. 94% of patients were diagnosed in early stage of disease and received treatment with imatinib according to the European LeukemiaNet (ELN) recommendations. Newer treatment options were used by patients in clinical trials or with chromosomal abnormalities. Sub-standard treatments were used rarely, but mainly in older patients. Patient survival probabilities were similar to clinical trial results after adjusting to risk profile.…

In a phase 1b, open-label, dose-escalation, multicentre study of patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), the combination of the BCL-2 inhibitor, venetoclax (ABT-199/GDC-0199), and monoclonal anti-CD20 antibody, rituximab, showed a tolerable safety profile and induced deep and durable responses, with 41% of patients achieving complete response (CR). Presented by Andrew Roberts, MB BS, PhD, FRCPA, FRACP, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, at the 20th Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA) European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

ELOQUENT-2, a phase 3, randomised, open-label study of lenalidomide and dexamethasone with or without elotuzumab in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, met its primary endpoints of progression-free survival and overall response rate. The two-year progression-free survival rate was 41% in the elotuzumab group versus 27% in the control group. The overall response rate in the elotuzumab group was 79% versus 66% in the control group. Presented by Meletios Dimopoulos, MD, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens School of Medicine, Athens, Greece, at the 20th Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA) European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews…

At the 2015 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, James Larkin, FRCP, PhD, Consultant Medical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden, London, UK, discusses the phase 3 CheckMate 067 trial. The results of this trial demonstrate a superior progression-free survival of nivolumab (a PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor) and ipilimumab (a CTLA-4 checkpoint inhibitor) regimen or nivolumab monotherapy versus ipilimumab monotherapy in previously untreated advanced melanoma. European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

RAMASWAMY GOVINDAN, MD of the Washington University School of Medicine discusses Novel immune checkpoint inhibitors

SURESH RAMALINGAM, MD of the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University talks about the CheckMate 057 trial in non-squamous and the CheckMate 017 trial in squamous cell NSCLC of nivolumab versus docetaxel

SURESH RAMALINGAM, MD of the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University discusses MET exon 14 splice variants is the oncogenic driver to target

SURESH RAMALINGAM, MD of the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University discusses the Future for PD pathway inhibitors in NSCLC

SURESH RAMALINGAM, MD of the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University discusses AZD9291 for T790M mutant EGFR is well tolerated.

LECIA SEQUIST, MD of Massachusetts General Hospital discusses TIGER X – Rociletinib for T790M EGFR mutations.

LECIA SEQUIST, MD of Massachusetts General Hospital answers the question How does Rociletinib differ from 1st generations EGFR TKIs?

LECIA SEQUIST, MD of Massachusetts General Hospital discusses ALK inhibitor Alectinib for NSCLC

This was my interview with Dr. Petros Grivas, GU medical oncologist from the Cleveland Clinic at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting. We discussed his work on clinical trials in GU oncology. Website for Dr. Grivas at Cleveland Clinic: http://my.clevelandclinic.org/staff_directory/staff_display?doctorid=18967

In the phase 3 NCCTG N0574 (Alliance) trial, patients with 1 to 3 small brain metastases were randomised to receive stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) alone or SRS followed by whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT). The primary endpoint of the trial was to determine the impact of SRS alone or with SRS combined with WBRT on cognitive progression. At 3 months, cognitive decline in the combination arm was 91.7% compared with 63.5% in the SRS-alone arm (P = .0007). Presented by Jan Buckner, MD, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, at ASCO 2015 European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

A phase 3, randomised controlled trial showed that elective neck dissection improved overall survival by 12.5% and reduced risk of death by 36% when compared with a wait-and-watch approach for therapeutic neck dissection in early, node-negative, oral squamous cell carcinoma. Presented by Anil K. D’Cruz, MS, DNB, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, India, at ASCO 2015 European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

Data from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS), a retrospective cohort study of children diagnosed with cancer from 19701999 at 31 participating institutions, suggests the strategy of modifying therapy to reduce the occurrence of late effects, and promotion of early detection, is significantly reducing the observed late mortality in this population. Presented by Gregory T. Armstrong, MD, MSCE, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, at ASCO 2015 European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

The randomised, double-blind, phase 3 CheckMate 067 trial showed that nivolumab alone or nivolumab plus ipilimumab significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with metastatic melanoma compared with ipilimumab alone. The median PFS in the group treated with the combination therapy was 11.5 months compared with 6.9 months in the nivolumab monotherapy group and 2.9 months in the ipilimumab monotherapy group. Presented by Jedd D. Wolchok, MD, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, at ASCO 2015 European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

LECIA SEQUIST, MD of Massachusetts General Hospital discusses LUX-Lung 8 trial and the role of EGFR inhibitors in Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

RAMASWAMY GOVINDAN, MD of the Washington University School of Medicine answers the question Will immunotherapy combination regimens be both beneficial and safe for patients?

RAMASWAMY GOVINDAN, MD of the Washington University School of Medicine discusses the role of systemic adjuvant therapy for resected T2N0 NSCLC

DAVID ROSS CAMIDGE, MD, PHD discusses what causes mechanism resistance to Rociletinib and AZD929

A phase II trial suggests that anti-CD38 antibody daratumumab is effective as a standalone therapy for heavily treated multiple myeloma. In a group of 106 patients whose disease worsened after at least three prior treatments, nearly one in three responded to daratumumab, and disease progression was delayed by 3.7 months, on average. The estimated one-year overall survival rate was 65%. Presented by Saad Zafar Usmani, MD, Levine Cancer Institute, Carolinas Healthcare System, Charlotte, NC, at ASCO 2015 European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

Interim analysis of a phase III study finds that adding the new anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody obinutuzumab to standard bendamustine chemotherapy significantly delays progression of indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Among patients for whom rituximab therapy no longer provided benefit, the average duration of remission was 29.2 months after receiving the new combination vs. 14 months after bendamustine alone. The trial was stopped early based on these encouraging results. Presented by Laurie Helen Sehn, MDCM, MPH, BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver, Canada, at ASCO 2015 European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

Findings from the PERSIST-1 study of patients with myelofibrosis suggest that pacritinib is significantly more effective than best available therapy (BAT), which includes a range of off-label treatments. At 24 weeks of treatment, 19.1% of patients on the pacritinib arm experienced spleen shrinkage, compared to only 4.7% of patients on the BAT arm. Presented by Ruben A. Mesa, MD, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, Scottsdale, AZ, at ASCO 2015 European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

An interim analysis of a large phase III study suggests that the combination of ibrutinib and bendamustine/rituximab (BR) improves outcomes for patients with chronic-lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) that worsened despite prior therapy. At a median follow-up of 17 months, patients who received ibrutinib and BR had an 80% lower risk of disease progression or death than those who received placebo and BR. Based on this striking benefit, patients were permitted to cross over from the placebo group to receive ibrutinib. Presented by Asher Alban Akmal Chanan-Khan, MD, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, at ASCO 2015 European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews…

DAVID ROSS CAMIDGE, MD, PHD, of the University of Colorado Denver answers the question what is the future for PD pathway inhibitors in combination with platinum-based doublets as frontline therapy for advanced NSCLC?

DAVID ROSS CAMIDGE, MD, PHD, of the University of Colorado Denver discusses the novel investigational agents for crizotinib resistant ALK-positive NSCLC.

DAVID ROSS CAMIDGE, MD, PHD, of University of Colorado Denver discusses the role of T790M mutations in resistance to first generation EGFR TKIs and what role agents such as Rociletinib may have in the future.

This was my discussion at the ASCO Annual Meeting June 1, 2015 with Dr. Petros Grivas, medical oncologist specializing in prostate and bladder cancers at the Cleveland Clinic. He discusses his work in translating genomic profiling to the clinic through clinical trials. http://my.clevelandclinic.org/staff_directory/staff_display?doctorid=18967

Findings from a phase I/II study suggest that nivolumab is safe and effective in advanced liver cancer. Based on the results of the phase I part of the study, eight (19%) of the 42 evaluable patients responded to the anti-PD-1 antibody with tumour reduction beyond 30%. More importantly, the responses have been durable and surpassed 12 months in four patients. The overall survival rate at 12 months was 62%. Presented by Anthony B. El-Khoueiry, MD, University of Southern California Norris, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Los Angeles, CA at ASCO 2015, Chicago, IL European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

Findings from a randomised phase III study indicate that PD-1 immunotherapy is an effective treatment option for patients with non-squamous, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Among patients with advanced disease that worsened after receiving platinum-based chemotherapy, those treated with nivolumab lived on average three months longer than those treated with docetaxel chemotherapy. Presented at ASCO 2015, Chicago, IL by Professor Luis Paz-Ares, MD, PhD, Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid, Spain European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

Dr. Mark Kris, MD of Memorial Sloan Kettering discusses the role of MET in NSCLC and why earlier TKIs and antibodies have been disappointing.

Dr. Mark Kris of Memorial Sloan Kettering discusses phase II study of cabozantinib in RET rearranged NSCLC at the annual meeting in Chicago

This was my interview with Dr. Alok Khorana of the Cleveland Clinic at the ASCO Annual Meeting on May 30, 2015. Earlier that day, there was a presentation demonstrating significant benefit using pembrolizumab in patients with microsatellite unstable (MSI) tumors.

This is my conversation with Dr. Alok Khorana, Director of the GI Malignancy Program at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Khorana will be presenting an abstract Saturday, May 30, 2015 at the ASCO Annual Meeting on this research. He discusses incorporation of global oncology approaches to trials studying venous thrombemboli in GI cancers, and upcoming trials in this area.

Dr. Mark Kris, MD or Memorial Sloan Kettering discuss the role of BRAF mutations in NSCLC and the potential treatment with BRAF and MEK inhibitors.

Dr. Mark Kris, MD of Memorial Sloan Kettering discusses the Lung Cancer Mutation Consortium and the role of Next Generation Sequencing in NSCLC.

At the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2014 Congress, Dr Eleni Efstathiou (The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX) discusses prospective management strategies for prostate cancer. Topics of interest include radiotherapy, androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT), inhibitors of nuclear export and androgen-signalling inhibitors. European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

At the 14th St. Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference 2015, Prof. Dr. med. Peter Fasching (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany) summarises the status of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors in preclinical and clinical development for the treatment of breast cancer. Prof. Dr. med. Fasching explains the design of the EMBRACA study, which is a 2:1 randomised phase 3 study comparing the efficacy and safety of the PARP inhibitor, talazoparib, versus physician’s choice in patients with locally advanced and/or metastatic BRCA-related breast cancer. This programme is supported by BioMarin Pharmaceutical European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

At the 14th St. Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference 2015, Prof. Dr. med. Michael Untch (HELIOS Klinikum Berlin-Buch, Berlin, Germany) and Prof. Dr. med. Peter Fasching (Friedrich-Alexander-Universitä?t Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany) discuss the functions of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 proteins in response to DNA damage in BRCA-related breast cancer. The development of molecular profiling in BRCA-related breast cancer has allowed an increasingly accurate assessment of tumour biology and should allow us to utilise this mutation in the treatment of the cancer. This programme is supported by BioMarin Pharmaceutical European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

At the 14th St. Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference 2015, Dr Catherine Kelly (Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland) reviews what is known about the functions of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) and outlines the rational development of PARP inhibitors as anticancer agents for tumours associated with BRCA gene mutations. Dr Kelly focuses on the phase 3 EMBRACA study, which is evaluating the PARP inhibitor, talazoparib, versus physician’s choice in patients with locally advanced and/or metastatic BRCA-related breast cancer. This programme is supported by BioMarin Pharmaceutical European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

At the 14th St. Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference 2015, Prof. Dr. med. Peter Fasching (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany) describes targeting the defect in DNA repair in BRCA-related breast cancer with poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors. In BRCA-related breast cancer cells, DNA double-strand break repair is impaired, so inhibition of PARP, which has a role in DNA single-strand break repair, increases the susceptibility for additional DNA damage and cell death. Accordingly, PARP inhibitors may be important novel therapeutic agents for the treatment of BRCA-related breast cancer. This programme is supported by BioMarin Pharmaceutical European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews…

Michael Kolodziej, MD, National Medical Director, Oncology Strategies, Aetna, Inc. talks about Next Steps in Oncology Payment Reform for Established Provider & Payer Teams

At the 14th St. Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference 2015, Prof. Dr. med. Michael Untch (HELIOS Klinikum Berlin-Buch, Berlin, Germany) and Prof. Dr. med. Peter Fasching (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany) discuss the clinical development of the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor, talazoparib, for the treatment of BRCA-related breast cancer. The ongoing EMBRACA study is a 2:1 phase 3 study comparing the efficacy and safety of the PARP inhibitor, talazoparib, versus physician’s choice in patients with locally advanced and/or metastatic BRCA-related breast cancer. This programme is supported by BioMarin Pharmaceutical European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

Roberta L. Buell, Principal, OnPoint Oncology, LLC discusses the Top 2015 Reimbursement Issues & ICD-10 Update from the Coding Mistress

Robert Baird Jr., RN, MSA, Chief Executive Officer, Dayton Physicians Network discusses Payment Reform for Established Provider & Payer Teams

David Eagle discusses what Are the Key Cost Drivers of Cancer Care moving forward at the COA meeting in Orlando

At the 14th St. Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference 2015, Dr Catherine Kelly (Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland) reviews the medical and social implications of BRCA gene mutation testing. Women with a deleterious BRCA gene mutation can be offered various management options, including prophylactic surgery and chemoprevention, to reduce the risk of breast cancer development. It is important for clinicians to understand and respond to a patients subjective experience during the clinical management process. This programme is supported by BioMarin Pharmaceutical European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

James W. Hodge, PhD, MBA, Investigator, Laboratory of Tumor Immunology & Biology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Center talks about Perspective from the NCI: Importance of Immunotherapy Trials

Phil Johnson, MS, RPh, Director of Pharmacy (Retired), Moffitt Cancer Center talks about Biosimilar Overview: Opportunities & Issues