Ben Leach

A phase III trial exploring necitumumab plus chemotherapy as a first-line therapy for patients with metastatic squamous non-small cell lung cancer has demonstrated an improvement in overall survival when compared to chemotherapy alone.

Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and mantle cell lymphoma showed high response rates to therapy with the novel targeted therapy ibrutinib, further solidifying the safety and efficacy of a drug that has proven very promising in early clinical trials.

After receiving breakthrough therapy designation from the FDA for the treatment of two B-cell malignancies earlier this year, ibrutinib has received an additional breakthrough designation.

The compound LDK378, a highly selective inhibitor of ALK, has been granted "Breakthrough Therapy Designation" by the FDA for the treatment of patients with ALK-positive metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.

The investigational agent ibrutinib was granted "Breakthrough Therapy Designations" by the FDA as a singular therapy for a pair of B-cell malignancies: relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma and Waldenström's macroglobulinemia.

Local ablative therapy plus continuation on the same tyrosine kinase inhibitor could be utilized as a treatment alternative in metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.

A phase III study of axitinib as a front-line therapy for metastatic renal cell carcinoma did not meet its primary endpoint of demonstrating a longer median progression-free survival than sorafenib.