Articles related to CHEMOTHERAPY

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.

Chemoradiotherapy with high-dose cisplatin every three weeks is the standard adjuvant treatment for patients with locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck with high risk for recurrence. However, the cisplatin dose is frequently reduced because of dose-related toxicities which can result in insufficient cisplatin delivery. Chemoradiotherapy with weekly cisplatin at a dose of 40 mg/m2 is widely used as a possible alternative, albeit without sufficient evidence. This clinical trial was conducted to prove the noninferiority of weekly cisplatin to three weekly cisplatin plus radiation therapy (RT).

This update on the PACIFIC trial comparing durvalumab with placebo in patients with unresectable, stage III non–small-cell lung cancer demonstrated robust and sustained OS and durable PFS benefit. The updated, exploratory analyses of survival, approximately 5 years after the last patient was randomly assigned demonstrate robust and sustained OS and durable PFS benefit with durvalumab after chemoradiotherapy. An estimated 42.9% of patients randomly assigned to durvalumab remain alive at 5 years and 33.1% of patients randomly assigned to durvalumab remain alive and free of disease progression. These results establish a new benchmark for standard of care in this setting.