ASCO 2020 Highlights

Interim analysis of the phase 3 JAVELIN Bladder 100 trial showed that maintenance therapy with the PD-L1 inhibitor Bavencio (avelumab) plus best supportive care significantly prolonged survival compared with the current best supportive care alone in patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma, the most common type of bladder cancer, that did not progress (get worse) after treatment with first-line platinum-based chemotherapy.

The new cancer drug Tukysa (tucatinib), when given in combination with Herceptin (trastuzumab) and capecitabine, dramatically improved outcomes for patients with HER2-positive advanced breast cancer that has spread to the brain, according to data presented by Nancy U. Lin, MD, Associate Chief, Division of Breast Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, at the 2020 ASCO annual meeting.

Metastatic breast cancer is cancer that has spread beyond the breast to other parts of the body. Visceral metastases refer to cancer that has spread to the internal organs of the body, specifically those within the chest (such as the heart or lungs) or abdomen (such as the liver, pancreas, or intestines).

Induction treatment with endocrine and targeted therapies has significantly improved survival for patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive advanced breast cancer, but over time almost all patients stop responding to therapy.

Genomic alterations (mutations) characteristic of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) are well-known. In this study, Jeffrey S. Ross, MD, Medical Director, Foundation Medicine, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and colleagues examined whether genomic alterations in intrahepatic CCA of a primary tumor would differ from those found in tissue from a tumor that has metastasized (spread) to other parts of the body and the alterations that are found with liquid biopsy (a test done using a blood sample).

The feasibility of IDH1 mutation detection in plasma circulating tumor-cell DNA from patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) was demonstrated.

The combination of the PD-1 inhibitor Opdivo (nivolumab) and the CTLA-4 inhibitor Yervoy (ipilimumab) has been effective therapy for some types of solid tumor cancers, such as melanoma and lung cancer.

Preliminary results were presented from this phase 2 clinical trial by Lipika Goyal, MD, MPhil, Medical Oncologist, Tucker Gosnell Center for Gastrointestinal Cancers, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, at the 2020 ASCO annual meeting.

In a phase 2 clinical trial, 2 different combinations were studied and compared for use as the first treatments given to patients with cholangiocarcinoma (CCA).