Free Republic

Head and neck cancers are the seventh most common type of cancer worldwide. The chemotherapy drug cisplatin is the gold standard for treating these malignancies. However, more than 30% of patients, including some older adults and those with pre-existing kidney disease or hearing loss, cannot take cisplatin due to severe side effects. The monoclonal antibody cetuximab, while not as effective as cisplatin, is often used as an alternative in these patients. Durvalumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor, has shown promise for treating a wide range of cancers, and has been proposed as a potentially safer and more effective option than cetuximab,...

For patients with embolization-eligible unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (uHCC), the addition of durvalumab (D) and bevacizumab (B) to transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) improves progression-free survival (PFS), according to a study. Riccardo Lencioni, M.D. and colleagues randomly assigned patients with embolization-eligible uHCC to D + B + TACE, D + TACE, or TACE in a 1:1:1 ratio (204, 207, and 205 patients, respectively). The primary end point was PFS for D + B + TACE versus TACE. The researchers found that PFS was significantly improved for D + B + TACE versus TACE (median, 15.0 versus 8.2 months; hazard ratio, 0.77). Across most...

A regimen of pre-surgical immunotherapy and chemotherapy followed by post-surgical immunotherapy significantly improved event-free survival (EFS) and pathologic complete response (pCR) rates compared to chemotherapy alone for patients with operable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to results of a Phase III trial. The AEGEAN trial evaluated durvalumab given perioperatively, meaning therapy is given both before and after surgery. Participants on the trial received either pre-surgical (neoadjuvant) durvalumab and platinum-based chemotherapy followed by post-surgical (adjuvant) durvalumab or neoadjuvant placebo and chemotherapy followed by adjuvant placebo. Of the patients receiving perioperative durvalumab, 17.2% had a pCR compared to just 4.3% of...

Combination immunotherapy with the anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody durvalumab and other novel agents outperforms durvalumab alone in the neoadjuvant (pre-surgical) setting for early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to researchers. The multicenter, randomized Phase II NeoCOAST clinical trial evaluated neoadjuvant durvalumab alone and in combination with each of the following novel immunotherapies: the anti-CD73 monoclonal antibody oleclumab, the anti-NKG2A monoclonal antibody monalizumab, and the anti-STAT3 antisense oligonucleotide danvatirsen. The NeoCOAST study enrolled 84 patients with untreated, resectable (>2cm), stage I-IIIA NSCLC. Eighty-three patients received one 28-day cycle of neoadjuvant durvalumab alone or combined with another therapy. The investigators assessed pathological complete...