Articles related to CHECKPOINT INHIBITORS

In this JAMA Original Investigation, the researchers studied 19,529 patients with Medicare coverage who initiated first systemic therapy for advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) using 1 of 4 regimens of checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy, cytotoxic chemotherapy, and combined chemoimmunotherapy. The goal? To gauge the uptake and effectiveness of immunotherapy among older patients outside clinical trials.

As a TROP-2-directed antibody-drug conjugate with an SN-38 payload that has shown preliminary activity in metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC), sacituzumab govitecan (SG) – brand name Trodelvy –was evaluated and compared to current treatments to gauge whether SG objective response rates (ORRs) and median overall survival (OS) outperform the average of 10% ORR and 7 to 8 months OS.  

The Journal of Clinical Oncology presents a Rapid Communications summary of the PENELOPE-B trial, a double-blind, placebo‐controlled, phase III study in women with HR+, HER2- primary breast cancer without a pathological complete response after taxane‐containing NACT and at high risk of relapse. With about one-third of women relapsing, palbociclib – a cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and 6 inhibitor – was examined.

In this Q&A with Dr. Jorge Cortes, the Director of the Georgia Cancer Center, the drug asciminib is discussed based on its utility as a third-generation TKI as well as its favorable, unique characteristics. Early data has shown promising results with few adverse events, possibly illuminating the drug as a potential first-in-class agent.

According to research presented at the virtual ASCO GI Cancers Symposium from the phase 3 ALTER0703 trial, anlotinib was beneficial in Chinese patients with refractory metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC), with particular overall survival (OS) improvement – the primary endpoint – among patients with RAS/KRAS/BRAF-wildtype.

Dr. David P. Carbone, Director of the Thoracic Oncology Center at Ohio State University, comments on a study evaluating the efficacy of anti–PD1/PD-L1 monotherapy for patients with NSCLC and active brain metastases: “…the initial hope that PD‑1 inhibitors could be active on brain metastases has not been fully fulfilled, and the aggressive use of stereotactic radiation in that setting is useful.”