Merck and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer announced findings from the phase III EORTC1325/KEYNOTE-054 trial investigating Keytruda (pembrolizumab) as adjuvant therapy in resected, high-risk stage III melanoma.
An immunotherapy administered prior to surgery is yielding outcomes in 45% of patients treated in this small study from researchers on the Stand Up to Cancer-Cancer Research Institute Cancer Immunology Dream Team, who is a scientific partner of Stand Up to Cancer, according to results presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting. It was published online in The New England Journal of Medicine.
In a new study, researchers identified genetic subtypes of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma that could help explain why some patients with the disease respond to treatment and others don't.
The American Society for Radiation Oncology issued an update to its clinical guideline for the use of palliative-intent radiation therapy for patients with incurable non-small cell lung cancer.
Merck said the pivotal phase III KEYNOTE-042 trial evaluating Keytruda, Merck's anti-PD-1 therapy, as monotherapy for the first-line treatment of locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (including nonsquamous or squamous histologies) met its primary endpoint of overall survival.
Incyte Corp. and Merck said an external Data Monitoring Committee review of the pivotal phase III ECHO-301/KEYNOTE-252 study results evaluating Incyte's epacadostat in combination with Merck's Keytruda in patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma determined that the study did not meet the primary endpoint of improving progression-free survival in the overall population compared to Keytruda monotherapy.
Researchers at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Ohio State University has identified a link between rare variants in a number of novel genes and survival after transplantation of blood and marrow from an unrelated donor, opening avenues for improving individual risk prediction and prognosis for patients undergoing BMT.
Researchers funded by the NIH have completed a genomic analysis, known as the PanCancer Atlas, on a data set of molecular and clinical information from over 10,000 tumors representing 33 types of cancer.
Researchers from Mount Sinai and Sema4, a health information company and Mount Sinai venture, discovered that giving metastatic bladder cancer patients simultaneous chemotherapy and immunotherapy is safe and that patients whose tumors have certain genetic mutations may respond particularly well to this combination approach, according to the results of a clinical trial published in European Urology.
Interim results from a randomized clinical trial for patients with desmoid tumors or aggressive fibromatosis show that the drug sorafenib tosylate (Nexavar) extended progression-free survival compared with a placebo. Based on these interim results, the data and safety monitoring board overseeing the trial recommended that the primary results of the study be released.
