Highlights From ASCO

After decades with no advances in the treatment of SCLC, this could be a new standard of care for some patients.

Poor implementation of survivorship care plans ultimately limits the ability to determine whether or not they work, according to Sarah A. Birken, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

An educational survivorship workshop increased knowledge and confidence levels and demonstrated educational merit in a group of primary care providers (PCPs), according to research presented by Genevieve Chaput, MD, at the ASCO Cancer Survivorship Symposium.

As the cost of cancer care continues to rise, it’s not just the patients’ finances that are affected. Recent research has linked high out-of-pocket costs to nonadherence and early discontinuation of treatment.

The PARP inhibitor olaparib significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) compared with standard chemotherapy in women with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer with a germline BRCA mutation. Disease progression was delayed by about 3 months with olaparib in the multinational, randomized, open-label phase 3 study known as OlympiAD, reported Mark E. Robson, MD, at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

In the SARC028 phase 2 multicenter trial, reported at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting, pembrolizumab achieved encouraging responses in soft tissue sarcoma, especially undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (UPS) and liposarcoma.

Oral cediranib, an investigational VEGF inhibitor, in combination with a PARP or chemotherapy inhibitor, appears to have a survival benefit in women with relapsed platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer, according to data from 2 studies presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

A new study has shown that combination immunotherapy can yield significant clinical benefits—even in heavily pretreated populations.

New research into gut bacteria may shed light on the mystery of responsiveness to immunotherapy. The multi-institutional study, presented at the 2017 ASCO-SITC Clinical Immuno-Oncology Symposium, showed that patients with metastatic melanoma who responded to anti—PD-1 agents had increased diversity of intestinal microbiome.

When combined with chemotherapy, a vaccine against the human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) elicited strong T-cell responsiveness and improved clinical outcomes in patients with advanced cervical cancer.