Web Exclusives
At the CCA Summit held during the 2021 ASCO Gastrointestinal (GI) Cancers Symposium, Rachna T. Shroff, MD, MS, Chief, Section of GI Medical Oncology, University of Arizona Cancer Center, Tucson, discussed 15 clinical trials that were presented at the ASCO GI Cancers Symposium on cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) and hepatobiliary diseases. She highlighted key advances related to chemotherapy, targeted therapies, and biomarkers in the management of biliary tract cancers, including CCA.
Targeted therapy has improved survival for patients with cancer across a broad spectrum of disease sites, but until recently, progress has been slow in the treatment of patients with cholangiocarcinoma (CCA).
The recent FDA approval of the first FGFR inhibitor, pemigatinib (Pemazyre), and the positive results from the phase 3 study of the first IDH1 inhibitor, ivosidenib (Tibsovo), represent major breakthroughs in the treatment of patients with cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), a rare cancer associated with poor outcomes. However, the duration of response with these agents is still relatively short.
Patient-derived tumor organoids may have clinical application to predict drug responses in a personalized treatment setting; they have shown concordance with actionable genomic anchors and retrospective treatment outcomes.
In April 2020, the FDA granted accelerated approval to pemigatinib (Pemazyre), the first targeted therapy for cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). The FGFR inhibitor was approved for adults with CCA and FGFR2 fusion.
New cytotoxic chemotherapy regimens and novel combinations are being evaluated in clinical trials in an effort to improve the outcomes of chemotherapy in the adjuvant and palliative settings in patients with biliary tract cancer, including cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), said Angela Lamarca, MD, PhD, MSc, Consultant, Medical Oncology, the Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, United Kingdom. She discussed the future of cytotoxic chemotherapy for this patient population at the 2020 Cholangiocarcinoma Summit.
Patient-reported outcomes from the phase 3 PRIMA clinical trial showed no detrimental effect of niraparib on quality-of-life measures compared with placebo in patients with newly diagnosed ovarian cancer.
Information on clinical aspects of COVID-19 and social and financial support services for the cancer community are abundant.
In a systematic literature review that extracted data from 50 qualifying clinical trials, PARP inhibitor first-line maintenance improved progression-free survival (PFS) “across the board” versus other maintenance treatments in women with advanced ovarian cancer.
In a single-arm, single-institution study, combining pembrolizumab, bevacizumab, and metronomic oral cyclophosphamide led to a median progression-free survival of 10 months in women with recurrent ovarian cancer, with better response in women with platinum-sensitive disease.
