April 2021, Vol 11, No 4

Rumors about the entry of Amazon into the healthcare arena have been circulating for years. Now, it has become a reality in all 50 states. Although there is no guarantee that this venture will be successful, it is likely to become a seismic event for all healthcare providers and patients. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge and address its potential impact sooner rather than later. Read Article ›

Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) plus chemotherapy improved progression-free survival (PFS) compared with chemotherapy alone as first-line treatment of metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), according to the results of KEYNOTE-355. Improvement in PFS with the addition of pembrolizumab to chemotherapy was more robust in patients with TNBC and PD-L1 expression. These results were presented at the virtual 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) and add to a growing body of evidence supporting the first-line use of pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy combinations for TNBC. Read Article ›

The combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) plus cabozantinib (Cabometyx) continued to show superior survival outcomes compared with single-agent sunitinib (Sutent) as first-line treatment for patients with advanced renal-cell carcinoma (RCC), according to extended follow-up data from the phase 3 CheckMate-9ER clinical trial presented at the 2021 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium. Read Article ›

The addition of the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)4/6 inhibitor abemaciclib (Verzenio) to standard endocrine therapy reduced the risk for invasive disease recurrence or death compared with endocrine therapy alone by almost 30% in patients with high-risk, hormone receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth receptor 2 (HER2)-negative, early-stage breast cancer. These results come from the primary analysis of the phase 3 monarchE clinical trial that was presented at the virtual 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Read Article ›

Results of the SWOG S1007 RxPONDER clinical trial suggest that some postmenopausal women with early-stage hormone receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth receptor 2 (HER2)-negative breast cancer, and 1 to 3 positive axillary lymph nodes may be able to avoid adjuvant chemotherapy. By contrast, premenopausal women can derive benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy, based on findings of a prespecified interim analysis of the phase 3 RxPONDER clinical trial; the findings were presented at the virtual 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Read Article ›

Cabazitaxel (Jevtana) is approved as third-line therapy for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) after treatment with docetaxel and an androgen receptor inhibitor. A new phase 2 clinical trial shows that the radionuclide therapy that targets the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), ¹⁷⁷Lu-PSMA-617, reduced the risk for disease progression or death by 37% compared with cabazitaxel in men with previously treated metastatic CRPC. Moreover, the TheraP study showed that patients who received ¹⁷⁷Lu-PSMA-617 had fewer side effects and improved quality of life compared with patients who received cabazitaxel. Read Article ›

In patients with metastatic urothelial cancer who received previous therapy, as well as in cisplatin-ineligible patients with this cancer, enfortumab vedotin-ejfv (Padcev) improved overall survival (OS), according to new data presented at the 2021 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium. The data come from the phase 3 EV-301 study and cohort 2 of the phase 2 EV-201 study. Experts believe this antibody–drug conjugate will become a new standard of care in the treatment of patients with advanced urothelial cancer. Read Article ›

Final results from the phase 3 clinical trial ClarIDHy showed that ivosidenib (Tibsovo), a first-in-class oral inhibitor of isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) mutation, prolonged the median overall survival (OS) in patients with previously treated advanced cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) and IDH1 mutation. Although this improvement did not reach statistical significance, after adjusting for crossovers from the placebo group to the ivosidenib group, the difference in median OS improvement was statistically significant. Read Article ›

The HER2-targeted bispecific investigational antibody zanidatamab, either as monotherapy or in combination with chemotherapy, has shown promising antitumor activity in an ongoing phase 1 clinical trial of patients with HER2-expressing biliary tract cancer or gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma, reported Funda Meric-Bernstam, MD, Chair, Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, at the 2021 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. Read Article ›

“Why?” That is the question that parents of toddlers hear countless times a day. It is a word that may elicit an internal—or perhaps an external—groan because it is the start of a litany of “whys” that will not cease until a satisfactory answer is given. What causes toddlers to ask “why?” so frequently? According to a study conducted at the University of Michigan, it is because they really do want an explanation. Read Article ›