News

Following CMS’ decision to make chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy available to Medicare beneficiaries nationwide, including in the community oncology setting, the Community Oncology Alliance (COA) applauded the decision.

Kieron Dunleavy, MD, discusses the current treatment paradigm in mantle call lymphoma and the emerging potential for CAR T-cell therapy.

In a long-awaited national coverage determination decision, CMS said Wednesday that it approved chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies for Medicare beneficiaries nationwide.

Olaparib demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in radiographic progression-free survival compared with enzalutamide or abiraterone acetate in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who harbor a homologous recombination repair gene mutation and have progressed on prior therapy with either androgen receptor inhibitor, meeting the primary endpoint of the phase III PROfound trial.

Novartis hid manipulated data about its $2 million gene therapy Zolgensma from the FDA; US District Judge Kristine Baker granted a preliminary injunction preventing Arkansas from enforcing 3 abortion restrictions; a federal judge in Ohio expressed support for a plan by attorneys representing cities and counties suing US opioid manufacturers and distributors that would bring every US community into their settlement talks despite objections from most states.

The agency said the gene therapy should remain on the market while it assesses the situation and does not impact their evaluation of data from the human clinical trials.

CMS finalized additional payments for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies and adjusted Medicare payment policies for rural and urban hospitals for fiscal year 2020 by changing the inpatient hospital wage index.

A phase III trial found bevacizumab and pemetrexed were effective as a maintenance therapy, but researchers do not recommend it to treat non–small-cell lung cancer.

Interim data from the first 8 pediatric patients showed that the AAV-CLN6 gene therapy demonstrated a positive impact on motor and language function compared to a natural history dataset, as well as in comparison to in-study sibling pairs.

The FDA has approved pembrolizumab for the treatment of patients with recurrent locally advanced or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus whose tumors express PD-L1 (combined positive score ≥10) as determined by an FDA-approved test, with disease progression after ≥1 prior lines of systemic therapy.

Orphan drug status applies to therapies that will treat fewer than 200,000 patients in the United States.

The investigational therapy has the potential to be a first-in-class neuronal progenitor cell therapeutic with anti-apoptotic activity that improves cerebral blood flow and neurological outcome in stroke.

Deepu Madduri, MD, discusses ongoing trials examining CAR T-cell therapy in myeloma and the potential to use it in earlier lines of therapy.

The CAR T-Cell therapy MB-102 has been granted an Orphan Drug Designation by the FDA, according to Mustang Bio, Inc, the manufacturer of the investigational treatment.

Michael Wang, MD, provides insight on recent advances in mantle cell lymphoma as well as research efforts for patients with a high risk of relapse.

Cytokine release syndrome represents a major concern, and source of costs, associated with the life-saving gene therapy.

A new study looked at the rates of response and remission in patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma  who underwent CD19-directed CAR-T cell therapy.

The CAR T-cell therapy lisocabtagene maraleucel elicited a 71% overall response rate as well as a tolerable safety profile in a cohort of patients with relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma.

A new study looked at targeted vs nontargeted therapy in real world patients with renal cell carcinoma.

A phase 1/2 clinical trial is expected to be initiated in the second half of 2019.

Investigators see potential in adding targeted therapy to dual immunotherapy for intermediate- and poor-risk patients with renal cell carcinoma. In the phase III COSMIC-313 trial, investigators aim to evaluate cabozantinib, nivolumab, and ipilimumab in patients with untreated advanced RCC.

Alison R. Sehgal, MD, discusses the latest developments with CAR T-cell therapy in lymphomas.

Preclinical trials and success stories suggest that much is riding on vector-based therapies for the treatment of rare neurological conditions.

Mazyar Shadman, MD, MPH, discusses earlier use of CAR T-cell therapy in lymphoma, the impact of approved products on future development, and recent data with chemotherapy-free and time-limited therapy in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

PF-06939926 is a recombinant adenoassociated virus serotype 9 (AAV9) capsid carrying mini-dystrophin, a shortened version of the human dystrophin gene, under the control of a muscle-specific promoter.

Researchers conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis on the two FDA-approved CAR T-cell therapies for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

Patients with high-risk relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia who failed or were intolerant of ibrutinib derived more benefit from CD19‐targeted CAR T-cell therapy when the BTK inhibitor was concurrently administered than when it was not.

The CAR T-cell therapy lisocabtagene maraleucel demonstrated high rates of response, including minimum residual disease in blood and marrow in patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma.