Immunotherapy

Click here to read the Cover Story, “Growing incidence of Merkel cell carcinoma draws researchers’ attention.”

The Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, the clinical care partner of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has been at the forefront of cellular therapies for cancer treatment since the field emerged. It was there where E. Donnall Thomas, MD, and his team pioneered the use of bone marrow transplant during the 1970s and SCCA’s position remains unchanged in the field of cellular therapies as its research and clinical staff have administered more CAR T-cell therapies to patients than any other facility in the world.

I am feeling rather nostalgic at the moment. Perhaps it’s just because summer is drawing to a close and autumn is on its way. No? Perhaps it’s because this is a banner year of nostalgia as one of my favorite books, The House of God by Samuel Shem — which I have read three times — is now celebrating its 40th anniversary. No! Please, this isn’t true.

The addition of stereotactic body radiotherapy after progression on pembrolizumab prolonged PFS among patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, according to results of a prospective phase 2 study presented during the plenary session of American Society for Radiation Oncology Annual Meeting.

The 7-year research and development alliance between Novartis and the University of Pennsylvania has concluded, with both organizations entering into a new, more limited agreement for the development of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies, according to a Penn Medicine press release.

Yiping Yang, MD, PhD, has been appointed director of the division of hematology at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center — Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.

BARCELONA — Blood-based tumor mutational burden measured using circulating tumor DNA appeared associated with outcomes after first-line treatment with pembrolizumab-based therapy for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, according to study results presented at International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer World Conference on Lung Cancer.

BARCELONA — Nivolumab led to a fivefold improvement in OS at 5 years compared with docetaxel among patients with previously treated advanced non-small cell lung cancer, according to pooled results from the CheckMate 017 and 057 trials presented at International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer World Conference on Lung Cancer.

The FDA has granted orphan drug designation to ADP-A2M4, an investigational specific peptide-enhanced affinity receptor T-cell therapy, for the treatment of soft tissue sarcomas.

BARCELONA —STK11 and KEAP1 mutations appeared associated with poorer outcomes among patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer regardless of treatment with chemotherapy or immunotherapy, according to results of an exploratory analysis of the phase 3 MYSTIC trial presented at International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer World Conference on Lung Cancer.