Articles related to CHECKPOINT INHIBITORS

In a small study of the PD-1 blocker dostarlimab, 100% of patients with locally advanced mismatch repair–deficient Stage II or III rectal adenocarcinoma experienced remission. The study participants were treated with dostarlimab monotherapy infused every three weeks for six months. The original intent was to follow dostarlimab with chemotherapy, radiation and surgery, but that turned out to be unnecessary.Read the study summary here.

This randomized, open-label, phase III trial compared elacestrant, a novel, oral selective ER degrader, vs. standard of care endocrine monotherapy in patients with ER-positive/HER2-negative advanced breast cancer who had one-two lines of endocrine therapy, required pretreatment with a cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitor, and ≤ 1 chemotherapy. Elacestrant showed a significant PFS improvement versus SOC both in the overall population and in patients with ESR1 mutations.

To date, FDA has approved three next-generation AR inhibitors for nonmetastatic CRPC: apalutamide, enzalutamide, and darolutamide. All three agents improve metastasis-free survival and overall survival. Selection of treatment can be guided by factors such as the patient’s overall health and frailty, potential drug-drug interactions, and the safety profile associated with each agent. This review summarizes the data from the practice-changing SPARTAN, PROSPER, and ARAMIS trials and provides insights on implementation in practice and promotes early intervention with AR inhibitors as standard of care for patients with high-risk nonmetastatic CRPC.

The authors investigated expression of PD-L1 and V-domain Ig-containing suppressor of T cell activation (VISTA) in ACC and their associations with clinicopathological features and survival outcomes. They report that a higher VISTA expression intensity, a larger area, and a higher immunoscore were associated with increased risks of disease progression and overall mortality. However, PD-L1 expression in tumor cells or tumor-infiltrating immune cells was not associated with OS or DFS. The study points to the potential value of VISTA, in addition to PD-L1, as an immunotherapeutic target in ACC.

This one-credit activity features an expert panel providing their perspectives on the latest trends and emerging research regarding biomarker testing and evidence-based biomarker-guided targeted therapy for patients with NSCLC with ROS1 and ALK rearrangements.

This comprehensive review highlights the history of discovering RAS and the decades of studies targeting KRAS-driven lung cancer, to the present applications. Although KRAS inhibitors have 36%–45% objective response rates with a median duration of response of 10 months, many tumors do not respond, and a variety of mechanisms of resistance have been observed, including new KRAS alterations, activation of alternate RTK pathway proteins, bypass pathways, and transcriptional remodeling. The authors conclude with a discussion of ongoing clinical trials aimed at overcoming resistance to KRAS inhibitors.