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April 29, 2020___

Today's Rundown

Featured Story

Roche's triple threat—Tecentriq, Cotellic and Zelboraf—stalls melanoma progression

Back in December, Roche unveiled a win for its cocktail of Tecentriq, Cotellic and Zelboraf in patients with BRAF V600-mutated melanoma. And details of that win are here.

Top Stories

Novartis up-and-comer capmatinib successfully fights lung cancer in the brain

Novartis’ up-and-coming targeted therapy capmatinib has already proven it can benefit lung cancer patients with particular genetic mutations, regardless of whether they’ve tried other therapies. Now, the company is showing the drug can also battle tumors in the brain.

Early Trovagene data offer hope for KRAS-mutant colon cancer

Amgen may be leading the race to develop a KRAS inhibitor, but its candidate hasn’t logged the same success in colon cancer as it has in lung cancer. Early data out of AACR suggest a different route to treating patients with KRAS-mutated colon cancer—including those with mutations thought to be undruggable.

Adding Roche's Tecentriq to Xtandi doesn't extend lives in prostate cancer—even in subgroups

Pfizer and Astellas’ Xtandi is a mainstay in for treating metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, and Roche was hoping adding its immuno-oncology blockbuster Tecentriq to the mix would improve results even further. It didn’t.

Thrive's early blood test doubles real-world cancer screening rates

Thrive found its blood test more than doubled the number of cases detected by traditional diagnostics, from 25% to 52% when added to a routine workup—and also revealed several cancers that have no standard screening methods, like mammograms or colonoscopies.

Compugen's checkpoint inhibitor keeps cancer in check

Compugen’s anti-PVRIG antibody showed early promise in a small phase 1 study, curbing tumor growth in more than two-thirds of patients with various solid tumors who had exhausted all other treatment options. The treatment did similarly in tandem with Bristol Myers Squibb’s PD-1 blocker Opdivo, stopping tumor growth in three-quarters of patients.

Merck pads case for less-frequent Keytruda dosing with new melanoma data

After an FDA rejection, Merck is once again awaiting an approval decision on a more convenient dosing regimen for Keytruda. Now, it has some new data to support its case—and at a time when pandemic restrictions are complicating medical care, less-frequent dosing could be more important than ever.

A look at next-gen CAR-T therapies for blood cancers

CAR-T therapies have been a game changer for certain blood cancers, but there's still room for improvement. Some patients may relapse, while others may not have the time or the T cells for a bespoke treatment. Early data presented at the American Association for Cancer Research virtual sessions sketch out some solutions to those problems.

Grail substudy shows its cancer blood test could help focus oncologists' diagnostic work-ups

At the virtual annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, Grail presented a new sub-analysis on its test’s performance, and specifically on how it would fit into everyday clinical practice.

Roche's Tecentriq doesn't amp up Gilead's Yescarta in lymphoma, early study says

With a study of its Yescarta therapy in tandem with Roche’s Tecentriq, Gilead Sciences was aiming to find out whether adding a PD-1/L1 immuno-oncology drug to CAR-T treatment could improve outcomes for lymphoma patients. But after a small, early study, there’s still no evidence it can.

Early Syndax data broach 'undruggable' leukemia mutation

Unlike other gene fusions, which have led to targeted therapies for various cancers, the MLL-r fusion has eluded researchers for decades. Early data from a small leukemia trial give the first clue to how to treat patients with this mutation, long thought to be undruggable.

Iovance details early responses to TIL cell therapy in lung cancer

Moffitt researchers unveiled data at AACR showing that two patients in an early trial of Iovance's tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in non-small cell lung cancer achieved complete responses that have lasted more than a year. But data from larger trials may be needed to parse out the effectiveness of the cell therapy versus other treatments the patients received.