Articles related to CHEMOTHERAPY

Predictive biomarkers are needed to identify patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) that could enjoy treatment de-escalation, with the attendant reduction in incidence of acute and late toxicities. In an observational study of consecutive patients with patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, pretreatment absolute lymphocyte count was predictive for 5-year overall survival. It also predicted benefit from the use of concurrent cisplatin chemotherapy.

The phase 3 KEYNOTE-048 trial compares pembrolizumab with or without concurrent chemotherapy to cetuximab-chemotherapy in patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck SCC. Patients were evaluated in subgroups based on PD-L1 expression. In median survival, pembrolizumab + chemotherapy outperformed cetuximab + chemotherapy in all patient subgroups regardless of PD-L1 expression. In the PD-L1 CPS 1-19 subgroup, pembrolizumab alone slightly outperformed cetuximab + chemotherapy. In the PD-L1 CPS < 1 subgroup median survival was significantly lower with pembrolizumab alone.

The BILCAP study established capecitabine as the adjuvant standard of care for patients after curatively resected biliary tract cancer (BTC). This publication presents the long-term data of that study. In the intention-to-treat analysis, the median OS was 49.6 months in the capecitabine group compared with 36.1 months in the observation group.

Short-term radiotherapy with preoperative chemotherapy followed by surgery (total neoadjuvant therapy, TNT) was compared to standard long-term chemoradiotherapy in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer. At a median follow-up of 35.0 months, 3-year DFS was 64.5% and 62.3% in the TNT and CRT groups, respectively. There was no significant difference in metastasis-free survival or locoregional recurrence, but the TNT group had better 3-year overall survival than the CRT group (86.5% v 75.1%; P = .033). Treatment effects on DFS and overall survival were similar regardless of prognostic factors. The prevalence of acute grade III-V toxicities during preoperative treatment was 26.5% in the TNT group versus 12.6% in the CRT group (P < .001).

This retrospective cohort study included 2,833 patients with stage IB to IIIA NSCLC who enrolled in the Adjuvant Lung Cancer Enrichment Marker Identification and Sequencing Trial (ALCHEMIST) screening study from August 18, 2014, to April 1, 2019. Although 93% received surgical resection, just 53% had adequate lymph node dissection and 57% received any adjuvant chemotherapy. The authors suggest more effort at optimizing use of proven therapies in this patient population.

Combining BCG with N-803 “results in significant complete response rates and long-term disease-free rates without significant systemic side effects,” reported lead study investigator Sam S. Chang, MD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center. N-803 is a high affinity, interleukin 15 immunostimulatory fusion protein that promotes the proliferation and activation of natural killer cells and CD8+ T cells without binding to regulatory T cells. Its use in this phase two/three study including 83 patients with CIS and 77 with papillary NMIBC. In the CIS group, the complete response rate was 71% with a median duration of response of 23.6 months. NMIBC group had 12- and 24-month disease-free survival (DFS) rates of 57% and 48%, respectively. The median DFS was 23.6 months. In both groups, cystectomy was avoided in more than 90% of patients.