Emma Shtivelman, PhD Cancer Commons Chief Scientist

  •   Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt from Reuters:

    “AstraZeneca’s immunotherapy drug Imfinzi cut the risk of death in patients with mid-stage lung cancer by nearly a third in a closely watched clinical study, reinforcing the case for using the drug in earlier disease.

    “The encouraging overall survival data boosts prospects for a medicine that was approved this week in Europe and has already had a promising U.S. commercial launch, based on its ability to slow disease progression.”

    Go to full article published by Reuters on Sep 25, 2018.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

  •   Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt from Reuters:

    “A drug cocktail with Roche’s Tecentriq added two months to small-cell lung cancer patients’ lives, according to a study, aiding the Swiss group’s bid to win approval in a niche disease area before rivals that now dominate the immunotherapy market.

    “Patients with untreated extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), where cancer has spread, lived a median 12.3 months after getting Tecentriq plus chemotherapy.”

    Go to full article published by Reuters on Sep 25, 2018.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

  •   Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt from OncLive:

    “Poziotinib (NOV120101, HM781-36B) demonstrated high antitumor activity in patients with metastatic, heavily pretreated EGFR and HER2 exon 20 mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to phase II study results presented at the 19th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) in Toronto, Canada.

    To date, the agent specifically induced a best response rate of 55%, including a 43% confirmed objective response rate (ORR) among evaluable patients with EGFR exon 20 mutant NSCLC in the study, said John V. Heymach, MD, PhD, who presented data of the investigator-initiated study of poziotinib in EGFR and HER 2-exon 20 mutant NSCLC (NCT03066206).”

    Go to full article published by OncLive on Sep 24, 2018.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

  •   Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt from Healio:

    “The addition of frontline atezolizumab to carboplatin or cisplatin plus pemetrexed improved PFS among patients with non-small cell lung cancer, according to interim results from a global phase 3 randomized trial presented at International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer’s World Conference on Lung Cancer.

    “IMpower132 is an open-label study of atezolizumab (Tecentriq, Genentech) — a PD-L1 inhibitor — among 578 chemotherapy-naive patients with stage IV nonsquamous NSCLC. Exclusion criteria included EGFR or ALK mutations, untreated central nervous system metastases, autoimmune disease and prior exposure to immunotherapy.”

    Go to full article published by Healio on Sep 25, 2018.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

  •   Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt from Cancer Network:

    “Researchers found that in patients with non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and a Tumor Proportion Score (TPS) ≥ 50, pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy failed to improve overall survival (OS) or progression-free survival (PFS) compared with pembrolizumab alone.

    “Results from the study were presented in a poster presentation at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 19th World Conference on Lung Cancer, held September 23–26 in Toronto.”

    Go to full article published by Cancer Network on Sep 24, 2018.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

  •   Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt from Targeted Oncology:

    “Adult patients with ALK-positive, locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had not received a prior ALK inhibitor experienced a more than 50% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death with treatment with brigatinib (Alunbrig), compared with the first-line standard of care, crizotinib.

    “Brigatinib demonstrated superior progression-free survival (PFS) compared with crizotinib, corresponding to a 51% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death (HR, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.33-74; P = .0007), according to first interim analysis results presented at the 19th World Conference on Lung Cancer and simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine.”

    Go to full article published by Targeted Oncology on Sep 26, 2018.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

  •   Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt from Cancer Network:

    “Hyperprogressive disease (HPD) occurred more commonly among patients with pretreated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) receiving PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1)/PD-L1 (ligand 1) inhibitors than in patients treated with chemotherapy, according to the results of a study published in JAMA Oncology.

    “Among those patients with hyperprogressive disease – defined as disease progression at first evaluation with a variation per month exceeding 50% – treated with immunotherapy there was a higher metastatic burden and poorer prognosis, compared with patients without hyperprogressive disease.”

    Go to full article published by Cancer Network on Sep 21, 2018.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

  •   Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt from Healio:

    “An online prognostic tool accurately determined the risk for late distant recurrence among women with ER-positive breast cancer, according to a single-arm, prospective study.

    “The Clinical Treatment Score post-5 years (CTS5) tool could be used to determine whether patients should continue endocrine therapy 5 years after initial treatment.”

    Go to full article published by Healio on Sep 19, 2018.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

  •   Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt from OncLive:

    “Findings from the MONALEESA-3 trial dispelled the theory that a CDK4/6 inhibitor had to be reserved following recurrence on hormone therapy in postmenopausal patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, explained Dennis J. Slamon, MD, PhD.

    “In the phase III trial, postmenopausal patients with HR-positive, HER2-negative advanced disease who received up to 1 prior line of therapy were randomized 2:1 to ribociclib (Kisqali) plus fulvestrant (Faslodex) or placebo.”

    Go to full article published by OncLive on Sep 18, 2018.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

  •   Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt from OncLive:

    “Treatment with apalutamide (Erleada) was not associated with a significant impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with high-risk nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, according to patient-reported outcome (PRO) data from the phase III SPARTAN trial.

    “In the study overall, patients treated with the addition of apalutamide to standard hormone therapy also had an improvement in metastasis-free survival (MFS) and longer time to symptomatic progression compared with those who were treated with placebo.”

    Go to full article published by OncLive on Sep 17, 2018.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.