A prospective cohort study of 323 patients with metastatic NSCLC showed marked increase in detection of therapeutically targetable mutations and improved delivery of molecularly guided therapy when assessed with plasma-based circulatory tumor DNA NGS testing (Read more). Plasma analyzed by Guardant health using Guardant360 panel.

In a recent study, researchers found that the Trabectedin (Yondelis) analog, Lurbinectedin showed higher response rate in patients with metastatic breast cancer and germline BRCA mutations compared to patients without BRCA mutations or an unknown mutation status (Read more).

A recent trial showed women with HER2-positive early breast cancer (small tumors) have similar disease-free survival and lower risk of cardiac toxicity with a 9-week course of adjuvant Trastuzumab (Herceptin) compared to those treated for 1 year (Read more).

In another trial, treatment with the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitor Palbociclib (Ibrance)showed improvement in overall survival in patients with hormone receptor positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative advanced breast cancer that has relapsed or progressed on hormonal therapy (Read more).

As per a recent clinical trial, a combination of immunotherapy and chemotherapy i.e. Atezolizumab & paclitaxel showed improved survival in some patients with metastatic triple negative breast cancer. The combination therapy reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 20% in all patients and 38% in the subgroup expressing PD-L1 (Read more).

Alpha-specific phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor Alpelisib inhibitor has shown improved progression-free survival in Hormone Receptor-positive and HER2 negative advanced breast cancer. Progression-free survival was found to be nearly twice as long in patients with PIK3CA mutations treated with Alpelisib compared to the placebo group (Read more).

In a recent clinical trial, Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) has shown improved survival in patients with head and neck cancer that has recurred or metastasized. Patients with tumor cells expressing PD-L1 (combined positive score [CPS] > 20) showed significantly longer overall survival with Pembrolizumab(14.9 months) than with standard treatment (10.7 months) (Read more).

A two-year study showed chemo-radiotherapy responded better in patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive throat cancer compared to cetuximab with radiotherapy. Patients treated with cisplatin had a significantly higher 2-year overall survival rate (97.5%) than those on Cetuximab (89.4%) (Read more).