Oncology Times - OncTimes Talk

The fibroblast growth factor receptor-3 (FGFR-3) inhibitor TYRA-300 has been found safe with dose-dependent responses and disease control in the Phase I SURF301 trial. The study included 41 patients who had been heavily pre-treated for their advanced solid tumors with activating FGFR3 mutations/fusions, bringing the hope of avoiding toxicities from the use of non-specific pan-FGFR inhibition.

The findings were reported by Ben Tran, MBBS, FRACP, at the 2024 EORTC-NCI-AACR 2024 Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics Symposium held in Barcelona, Spain. Tran is a Medical Oncologist and Associate Professor at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre Melbourne, Australia. He also is Chair of the Germ Cell Tumour Subcommittee for the Australian and New Zealand Urological and Prostate Cancer Trials.

The mini-protein radiopharmaceutical AKY-1189, designed to deliver the alpha-emitting isotope Actinium-225 (225Ac) to tumors expressing the Nectin-4 transmembrane protein, has been found to achieve favorable dosing to tumors, while minimizing exposure to non-target tissues, including the kidney.

Data on the biodistribution and tumor uptake of the drug were reported at the 2024 EORTC-NCI-AACR 2024 Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics Symposium held in Barcelona. Researcher Machaba Mike Sathekge, PhD, Professor and Head of the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the University of Pretoria and Steve Biko Academic Hospital in South Africa. He is also CEO of Nuclear Medicine Research Infrastructure and Chairman of the South African Medical Research Council.

In a Phase I study with 318 patients in China and Australia the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) IBI354 was found to be safe and have promising efficacy in patients whose breast and other solid tumors tested positive for HER2 or were categorized as “HER2-low.”

At ESMO Congress 2024, the study also reported a low rate of interstitial lung disease in patients treated with the ADC. Oncology Times correspondent Peter Goodwin talked with Christina Teng, PhD, the presenting author of the new research from Scientia Clinical Research and the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney, Australia.

Sustained responses and long-term overall survival have resulted from checkpoint inhibitor therapy for advanced melanoma, transforming the prognosis for as many as half of patients. This is according to 10-year survival outcomes from the Phase Ill CheckMate 067 trial of nivolumab plus ipilimumab in advanced melanoma that were reported at the ESMO Congress 2024.

At the conference, Oncology Times reporter, Peter Goodwin, caught up with James Larkin, FRCP, PhD, Professor and Medical Oncologist at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London.

Patients with newly diagnosed, surgically resected MGMT-unmethylated glioblastoma may benefit from treatment with a therapeutic mRNA vaccine called CVGBM, according to findings from a first-in-human, Phase I safety and dose-escalation study from Tübingen, Germany, reported at the ESMO Congress 2024 held in Barcelona.

The CVGBM vaccine encodes multiple molecular features derived from tumor-associated antigens, all of which were judged to be potentially relevant in glioblastoma.

After reporting her group’s findings to the ESMO Barcelona meeting, first author Ghazaleh Tabatabai, MD, PhD, a neurologist, Professor of Neuro-Oncology, and Chair of the Department of Neurology and Interdisciplinary Neuro-Oncology at the University Hospital, Tübingen, Germany, talked about the findings with Oncology Times reporter Peter Goodwin.

A large, expanded-cohort pooled analysis of neoadjuvant immunotherapy for patients with resectable Stage III melanoma has reported very high rates of durable survival. The findings from the world’s biggest center of expertise in melanoma were announced at ESMO Congress 2024.

The study included patients from clinical trials and real-world studies who had pure immune checkpoint inhibitor neoadjuvant therapy, or combinations including BRAF/MEK targeted therapy. After giving her talk in Barcelona, lead investigator Georgina Long, AO, PhD, MBBS, FRACP, Professor and Co-Medical Director at the Melanoma Institute Australia, University of Sydney, gave Oncology Times reporter Peter Goodwin the details.

Drug resistance can be delayed and treatment outcomes predicted in patients with ovarian cancer with the help of relatively low-cost molecular precision management techniques using liquid biopsies. These are being developed by a team at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) led by Jian Yu Rao, MD, Vice Chair of Diagnostic Technology Innovation at UCLA, where he is also Chief of Cytopathology and Director of International Telepathology.

At the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO) held in Xiamen, China, Rao gave Oncology Times reporter Peter Goodwin details of the molecular methods he had just outlined to the conference.