Gina Columbus

Articles by Gina Columbus

For patients receiving chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, cytokine release syndrome and neurotoxicity are the most common toxicities. A multidisciplinary approach to care is vital for these patients, explained Kimberly Noonan, DNP, ANP-BC, AOCN, in a presentation during the 24th Annual International Congress on Hematologic Malignancies.

Pembrolizumab is now FDA approved for the treatment of patients with Bacillus Calmette-Guerin–unresponsive, high-risk, non-muscle invasive bladder cancer with carcinoma in situ with or without papillary tumors who are ineligible for or have elected not to undergo cystectomy.

Preliminary results from the phase III NeoTRIPaPDL1 Michelangelo study showed that the addition of atezolizumab to combination carboplatin plus nab-paclitaxel did not result in a statistically significant increase in the pathologic complete response rate compared with the combination alone in patients with early high-risk and locally advanced triple-negative breast cancer.

In the phase III APHINITY trial, pertuzumab with trastuzumab plus chemotherapy demonstrated a 0.9% improvement in overall survival and continued to reduce the risk of disease recurrence in patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer in the adjuvant setting, according to a 6-year analysis of the phase III APHINITY trial presented at the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Patients <70 years old with chronic lymphocytic leukemia treated in the minimal residual disease (MRD)–cohort of the phase II CAPTIVATE trial had undetectable MRD rates of 75% and 72% in the peripheral blood and bone marrow, respectively, with the frontline combination of ibrutinib and venetoclax, according to findings presented at the 2019 ASH Annual Meeting.

Patients with treatment-naïve chronic lymphocytic leukemia experienced a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival with acalabrutinib as a single agent or in combination with obinutuzumab when compared with obinutuzumab plus chlorambucil, according to results from the phase III ELEVATE-TN trial presented at the 2019 ASH Annual Meeting.

Patients with treatment-naïve EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer experienced a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival with the combination of ramucirumab and erlotinib compared with erlotinib alone, according to the results of the phase III RELAY trial which was recently published in The Lancet Oncology.

Adding PARP or CHK1 inhibitors to immunotherapies for the treatment of small cell lung cancer is the next step in the pipeline of novel combination approaches, according to Charles M. Rudin, MD, PhD, in a presentation at the <em>20th Annual </em>International Lung Cancer Congress.

Results from the phase III MONARCH 2 trial showed that the addition of the CDK4/6 inhibitor abemaciclib to fulvestrant improved overall survival by 9.4 months compared with fulvestrant and placebo in patients with hormone receptor&ndash;positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer who progressed on prior endocrine therapy, according to data presented at the 2019 ESMO Congress.