At the recent Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) Congress in Anaheim, California, Charles B. Simone, II, MD, FACRO, explained the concepts underlying the treatment of cancer with radiation therapy. In this interview with Oncology Data Advisor, Dr. Simone discusses the different types of radiation treatments and some considerations in choosing treatment. He also shares current evidence from his research about synergy between radiation therapy and checkpoint inhibitors or chemotherapy.
In this interview, Steven Horwitz, MD, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, speaks with Oncology Data Advisor about the recent advancements in the treatment of T-cell lymphoma. Keira Smith: Hi, I'm Keira Smith from Oncology Data AdvisorTM. I'm here today with Dr. Steven Horwitz. Steven Horwitz, MD: Hi, pleasure to be here. I'm Dr. Steven Horwitz. I'm a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Keira Smith: What do you consider some of the ...
The FDA has granted approval to ivosidenib (Tibsovo®, Servier Pharmaceuticals) for patients with previously treated, locally advanced, or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma that has an isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 (IDH1) mutation. In addition, the FDA approved the Oncomine™ Dx Target Test (Life Technologies Corporation) as a companion diagnostic device to determine eligibility for treatment with ivosidenib. "Isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) mutations occur in approximately 13% of patients with intrahe...
The FDA has granted approval to the combination of lenvatinib (Lenvima®, Eisai) plus pembrolizumab (Keytruda®, Merck) for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) who are undergoing first-line treatment. "Lenvatinib in combination with pembrolizumab or everolimus has activity against advanced RCC," wrote Robert Motzer, MD, Jack and Dorothy Byrne Chair in Clinical Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues, in their publication of results of the p...
The FDA has granted regular approval to pembrolizumab (Keytruda®, Merck), in combination with lenvatinib, (Lenvima®, Eisai), for patients with advanced endometrial carcinoma that is not microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) who have disease progression following prior systemic therapy in any setting and are not candidates for curative surgery or radiation. Prior to this regular approval, the FDA granted accelerated approval to the pembrolizumab/lenvatinib co...
Nearly 50% of cancer survivors are undertreated for chronic pain, a condition which negatively impacts cancer-related outcomes, physical function, and quality of life. Due to the challenges of the opioid crisis, non-pharmacologic alternatives for pain management in cancer survivors are greatly needed. In the randomized PEACE trial, results of which were recently published in JAMA Oncology, investigators found that patients receiving electroacupuncture and auricular acupuncture experienced signif...
When patients with hematological malignancies do not receive referrals for hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT), they may face a risk of poorer outcomes. Common reasons behind this lack of referrals include provider confusion over eligibility criteria for HSCT, overestimation of the risks associated with transplant, and confusion regarding the benefit of HSCT. This educational gap regarding the uses and risks of HSCT was identified in the baseline data collected from i3 Health's continuing ...
Results from a phase 3 trial of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) presented this week at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Genitourinary Cancers Symposium and simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine demonstrated that the first-line treatment regimen of lenvatinib, a vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor, plus pembrolizumab, an anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) monoclonal antibody, lengthened ...
The FDA has granted accelerated approval to tepotinib (Tepmetko®, EMD Serono) for patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) exon 14 skipping alterations. "A splice-site mutation that results in a loss of transcription of exon 14 in the oncogenic driver MET occurs in 3% to 4% of patients with NSCLC," wrote the investigators of the phase 2 VISION trial (NCT02864992) in their September publication in The New England Journal of Medicine,...
The FDA has approved FoundationOne® CDx (Foundation Medicine, Inc.) as a companion diagnostic device to identify neurotrophic receptor tyrosine kinase (NTRK) fusions in patients with solid tumors in order to determine eligibility for treatment with larotrectinib (Vitrakvi®, Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, Inc.). FoundationOne is a next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based in vitro diagnostic device previously approved to determine eligibility for more than 20 other FDA-approved targeted therapies...
Patients aged 75 years and older face an increased risk of mortality and postoperative events when undergoing surgical treatment for cancer. In a study recently published in JAMA Network Open, a research team led by first author Armin Shahrokni, MD, MPH, found that patients whose care was managed by both the surgical and geriatric teams experienced significantly better outcomes compared with those whose care was provided by the surgical team alone. In this interview with i3 Health, Dr. Shahrokni...
Recently, the FDA granted accelerated approval to tafasitamab-cxix (Monjuvi®, MorphoSys US Inc.) in combination with lenalidomide for adults with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who are ineligible for autologous stem cell transplantation. In this interview with i3 Health, Gilles Salles, MD, PhD, principal investigator of the phase 2 L-MIND trial, on which the approval was based, discusses the significance of the approval, adverse events of note with tafasitamab/lenal...
In older patients with cancer undergoing surgical treatment, collaboration between surgical and geriatric teams significantly decreases 90-day postoperative mortality. Patients aged 75 years and older face unique challenges when undergoing cancer-related surgery, including an increased risk of adverse postoperative events, a heightened risk of delirium, difficulties in recovering mobility and functional activity, and the need for appropriate care after hospital discharge. However, collaboration ...
The FDA has now approved pexidartinib (TuralioTM, Daiichi Sankyo, Inc.) for adults with symptomatic tenosynovial giant cell tumor (TGCT) that does not respond to surgery and is associated with severe morbidity or functional limitations. This is the first FDA approval for TGCT. A locally aggressive neoplasm of the synovium of joints and tendon sheaths, TGCT is a rare disease that causes inflammation, pain, swelling, and the destruction of joints. Symptoms result in part from colony-stimulating fa...
The FDA has granted accelerated approval to rucaparib (Rubraca®, Clovis Oncology, Inc.) for patients with deleterious germline and/or somatic BRCA-mutated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) who have previously received one line of taxane-based chemotherapy and one or more lines of androgen receptor-directed therapy. The approval was based on TRITON2 (NCT02952534), a phase 2 clinical trial which enrolled 115 patients with BRCA-mutated metastatic CRPC. Patients received 600 mg ...
For patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that test positive for programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), the FDA just approved an effective treatment: nivolumab (Opdivo ®, Bristol Myers Squibb) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy®, Bristol Myers Squibb). A companion diagnostic, PD-L1 IHC 28.8 pharmDx (Agilent Technologies, Inc.), was also FDA approved for selecting patients with NSCLC for treatment with nivolumab/ipilimumab. Previously approved to treat advanced kidney cancer, advanced liver ...
Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) is associated with a poor prognosis, and patients often develop refractory or resistant disease, adverse events, depression, and financial hardship. Mikel Ross, MSN, RN, AGPCNP-BC, OCN®, CBCN®, office practice nurse in the Outpatient Breast Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, spoke with i3 Health about challenging patient questions and the importance of multidisciplinary care in the management of patients with MBC. What are some of the most ...
Often, fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) 2 gene alterations occur in the pathogenesis of cholangiocarcinoma. The FDA recently approved an oral inhibitor of FGFR2, pemigatinib (PemazyreTM, Incyte Corporation), which has shown efficacy in patients with previously treated, locally advanced, or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma with and without FGFR2 gene alterations. FoundationOne®CDx was also approved as a companion diagnostic test for this indication. FDA approval was based on a cli...
Fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) 2 gene alterations can occur in the pathogenesis of cholangiocarcinoma. Pemigatinib (PemazyreTM, Incyte Corporation), a newly FDA approved oral inhibitor of FGFR2, has shown efficacy in patients with previously treated, locally advanced, or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma with and without FGFR2 gene alterations. Approval was granted based a study led by Ghassan Abou-Alfa, MD, MBA from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. In an interview with i3 Health, D...
In patients with previously treated advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC), nivolumab significantly increases overall survival and response rates compared with everolimus, according to the final updated analysis of the phase 3 CheckMate 025 trial. A randomized, open-label trial, CheckMate 025 enrolled 821 patients with advanced RCC previously treated with antiangiogenic therapies. Patients were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive 3 mg/kg of nivolumab intravenously every two weeks or 10 mg of evero...