Immunotherapy Improves Outcomes for Adolescents and Adults With Advanced-stage Lymphoma

Results from a phase III clinical trial are likely to change treatment for newly diagnosed adolescents and adults with advanced-stage classic Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL). The study, published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, included almost 1,000 patients with newly diagnosed stage III and IV lymphoma at more than 200 cancer centers in the U.S. and Canada. All patients were treated with the standard chemotherapy cocktail, consisting of doxorubicin, vinblastine and dacarbazine (commonly referred to as AVD). Patients in one group were treated with Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin), an antibody-drug conjugate that is approved to treat newly diagnosed advanced stage cHL. Patients in the second group were treated with the immunotherapy Opdivo (nivolumab). After about two years, 92% of patients in the Opdivo group survived without seeing cancer progress or come back compared with 83% in the Adcetris group. Those who received immunotherapy were also less likely to discontinue treatment due to side effects compared with those who received Adcetris. “If you can keep people disease-free and alive for two years, generally speaking, it’s very unlikely that beyond two years you’re going to have a lot of events, and therefore we’re quite optimistic these results are going to be durable. But of course, it’s going to be important to follow these patients for a longer period of time,” Jonathan Friedberg, lead study author and director of Wilmot Cancer Institute at the University of Rochester in New York, told CNN.

Upfront Chemotherapy Extends Survival and Remission in Locally Advanced Cervical Cancer

A new study published in the Lancet shows that adding a six-week chemotherapy course before chemoradiotherapy significantly improved survival rates for patients with locally advanced cervical cancer that had not spread to other organs. The international trial, which included 500 patients, found that 80% of those receiving the added chemotherapy survived at least five years, compared to 72% in the control group who received chemoradiation alone—which is the current standard treatment for locally advanced cervical cancer. This short course of chemotherapy before chemoradiation decreased people’s risk of dying by 40% in that time frame, the Guardian reported. Iain Foulkes, the executive director of research and innovation at Cancer Research UK, said the results were remarkable, given the simplicity of adding induction chemotherapy to current treatments. “Not only can it reduce the chances of cancer coming back, it can also be delivered quickly, using drugs already available worldwide,” Foulkes told the Guardian.

Tumor Treating Fields Device Receives Approval for Lung Cancer

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Optune Lua, a tumor treating fields (TTF) device, for use in adult patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer whose cancer has progressed during or after platinum chemotherapy. The device is approved to be used in conjunction with PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitors or docetaxel, which is a taxane-based chemotherapy. The wearable device delivers mild electrical fields that are thought to interrupt cancer cells’ ability to divide. The median overall survival for patients randomly assigned to treatment with Optune Lua and a PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor was 19 months compared with 10.8 months in patients treated with a PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor alone. The median OS for patients randomly assigned to receive Optune Lua and docetaxel was 11.1 months compared with 8.9 months in patients who received docetaxel alone, according to an article on Healio. This is the first TTF device approved for use in metastatic NSCLC, according to Novocure, the device’s manufacturer. The FDA previously approved a TTF device by Novocure for the treatment glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), an aggressive brain tumor.