Data from the phase III COMBI-d study showed a significant survival benefit for patients with BRAF V600E/K mutation-positive metastatic melanoma when treated with the combination of Tafinlar and Mekinist compared to Tafinlar alone.
Patients with previously treated chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma that received Imbruvica (ibrutinib) in combination with bendamustine and rituximab experienced an 80 percent reduction in the risk of progression or death when compared to patients receiving bendamustine, rituximab and placebo in a phase III trial.
FDA granted an Orphan Drug Designation to Reolysin for the treatment of malignant glioma.
The National Cancer Institute Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program approved the following clinical research studies last month. For further information, contact the principal investigator listed.
A phase II study of APD403 in the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting reported positive results in patients receiving highly emetogenic chemotherapy—either high-dose cisplatin, or cyclophosphamide and an anthracycline for breast cancer.
An independent data safety monitoring board recommended that a phase III study of zoptarelin doxorubicin in women with advanced, recurrent or metastatic endometrial cancer continue as planned, after it completed its first interim futility analysis.
Patients with metastatic stomach or esophageal cancers driven by a mutated HER2 gene had markedly improved response rates and survival when Avastin (bevacizumab) was added to a combination of capecitabine and oxaliplatin chemotherapy and Herceptin (trastuzumab).
Researchers found that patients being treated with statins at the time of surgery for renal cell carcinoma had improved overall survival and disease-specific survival.
Interim results from a global, randomized phase II study in people with previously treated non-small cell lung cancer showed that the immunotherapy MPDL3280A doubled the overall survival (HR=0.47) in people whose cancer expressed the highest levels of PD-L1 compared with docetaxel chemotherapy.
Updated long-term survival results from IMAGE 1, a phase II clinical trial evaluating a combination of IMM-101 and gemcitabine as first-line treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer, found that, in patients with metastatic disease, IMM-101 was associated with improving the probability of survival at 12 months to 24 percent, compared to 11.5 percent in patients receiving gemcitabine alone.
