Articles
In the phase 2 OVARIO study, median progression-free survival has not yet been reached in women with advanced ovarian cancer who are being treated with the combination of niraparib and bevacizumab after response to first-line platinum-based chemotherapy plus bevacizumab. The combination did not appear to cause cumulative toxicities.
An all-oral regimen in women with recurrent platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer did not show superiority to platinum-based regimens on the outcome of progression-free survival.
In a meta-analysis of 7 large randomized clinical trials, PARP inhibitors were not significantly more likely to cause secondary hematologic malignancies compared with control groups.
A pooled analysis of 2 studies using rucaparib for the treatment of patients with recurrent high-grade ovarian cancer supported the approved starting dose of 600 mg twice daily.
A global phase 3 randomized study is currently enrolling patients with stage III or IV high-grade nonmucinous epithelial ovarian cancer to assess the efficacy of an investigational anti–PD-1 humanized monoclonal antibody plus standard of care as first-line treatment and maintenance. The primary outcome measure is progression-free survival.
Amina Ahmed, MD, Paula Anastasia, RN, MN, AOCN and Ali McBride, PharmD, critically review the clinical trial data supporting the use of PARP inhibitors and bevacizumab as first-line maintenance therapy in ovarian cancer.
The September issue of The Oncology Pharmacist (TOP) contains important news and insights for today’s oncology pharmacist, including highlights of recent virtual oncology conferences covering a range of topics, from strategies aimed at reducing drug costs and improving patient care, to the latest data on novel agents and combinations that are showing promise in the treatment of hematologic malignancies and solid tumors.
Updated results of the phase 3 CASPIAN clinical trial continue to show that durvalumab (Imfinzi) added to standard chemotherapy improves overall survival (OS) for patients with treatment-naïve extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC), according to a presentation at the ASCO 2020 virtual annual meeting.
An analysis of the Value Framework of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) shows that the Net Health Benefit score of cancer drugs continues to evolve over time after their FDA approval, based on data presented at the ASCO 2020 virtual annual meeting. This analysis showed a substantial change in more than 25% of cancer drugs in their Net Health Benefit 3 years after their initial approval.
By William King
There has been an increased focus on the study of tumor alterations that may predict treatment benefit or serve as possible actionable targets in cancer. During the virtual American Urological Association 2020 Annual Meeting, Kyrollis Attalla, MD, Urology Oncology Fellow, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Ridgewood, NY, discussed findings of a recent study that looked at the landscape of actionable genomic alterations and the corresponding evidence to support these alterations as predictive of response to targeted therapy in patients with renal-cell carcinoma (RCC).