Articles

The FDA granted accelerated approval to nivolumab based on a notable clinical benefit in a subset of patients who progressed after receiving the standard first-line chemotherapy with fluoropyrimidine, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan.

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“Compared to those not enrolled in clinical trials, the evidence shows that the minority patients participating in clinical trials had increased overall survival,” said Khilen B. Patel, MD, at the 2018 Society of Gynecologic Oncology Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer.

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A new study presented at the 2018 American Association for Cancer Research meeting suggests that HER2 mutations can be acquired during metastatic cancer and their development represents a previously unreported mechanism of resistance to treatment. Read More ›

Dr Sanjiv Agarwala predicts that the cancer biomarkers of the future may be “mobile biomarkers,” meaning measures of the tumor microenvironment or immune response that change with therapy and may be able to determine treatment efficacy. Read More ›

Dr Sanjiv Agarwala discusses the usefulness of MSI and TMB as novel biomarkers for various cancer types. His argument is that the first FDA approval of a therapy based on MSI rather than tumor type makes this biomarker useful, but TMB is not yet ready for “prime time.” Read More ›

Dr Sanjiv Agarwala describes best practices developed at St. Luke’s Cancer Center, where a committee has been formed in which clinicians and pathologists meet to reach consensus on reflex testing of molecular biomarkers, as well as the value of biomarker testing in enhancing patient care. Read More ›

Dr Sanjiv Agarwala argues that much of the biomarker data in melanoma presented at ASCO 2018 are around the value of PD-L1 testing; however, even PD-L1–negative melanoma patients seem to respond to anti–PD-1 therapy, although some studies suggest PD-L1–negative patients may be better candidates for combination immunotherapy. Read More ›

Dr Sanjiv Agarwala reviews real-world data presented at ASCO 2018 on immunotherapy of melanoma that serve to reassure providers regarding current treatment approaches, but do not offer any significant practice-changing results. Read More ›

Dr David Spigel discusses challenges and solutions to incorporating cancer biomarkers into patient care, including finding pathology resources to do the testing, issues around reimbursement, and educating colleagues on the value and operational aspects of biomarker testing in delivering personalized therapy to patients with cancer. Read More ›

Dr Sanjiv Agarwala talks about exciting new results presented at ASCO 2018 in melanoma, including the durability of anti–PD-1 therapy in providing 40% overall survival at 5 years, updates on adjuvant therapy showing superiority of anti–PD-1 over anti–CTLA-4, and new results in combining immunotherapies. Read More ›