Novel Combination Active in Large B-Cell Lymphoma, Even After CAR-T
A phase Ib/II study demonstrated that mosunetuzumab (Lunsumio) plus polatuzumab vedotin (Polivy) induced durable responses in patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL), including patients who relapsed after CAR T-cell therapy. The findings were presented at the recent American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting and simultaneously published in Nature Medicine. In this […]
Add-On Clarithromycin Pans Out in Community-Acquired Pneumonia Trial
In a phase III trial, the addition of oral clarithromycin to beta-lactam antibiotic treatment improved the clinical response of people with community-acquired pneumonia who had systemic inflammatory response syndrome, findings that support existing guidelines. In the study, the proportion of patients meeting the primary composite endpoint after 72 hours of treatment — fulfilling criteria for […]
Injectable Ketamine Shows Promise in Treatment-Resistant Depression
Twice-weekly subcutaneous ketamine helped alleviate symptoms of treatment-resistant depression, according to the phase III KADS study. Among those who received at least one flexible treatment dose (0.5-0.9 mg/kg), ketamine was more than 12-times better at inducing remission of depression than the benzodiazepine midazolam (remission rate 19.6% vs 2.0%, OR 12.1, 95% CI 2.1-69.2, P=0.005), reported […]
Adding Mylotarg to Chemo Fails to Boost Survival in NPM1-Mutated AML
There was bad news and good news in a phase III trial evaluating intensive chemotherapy with or without gemtuzumab ozogamicin (Mylotarg) in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients with newly diagnosed, NPM1-mutated disease. For the primary endpoints of event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS), the gemtuzumab ozogamicin-treated group experienced no benefit, but addition of the […]
Second Trial Participant Dies in Alzheimer’s Drug Study
Days before the release of promising phase III trial data of lecanemab, an investigational anti-amyloid drug for early Alzheimer’s disease, a death possibly linked to the treatment was reported. An unpublished case report featured in Science suggested the death of a 65-year-old lecanemab trial participant who also had cerebral amyloid angiopathy — a condition in […]
Durable Remissions in CLL With Fixed-Duration Triplet at 4 Years
Four-year follow-up data from a phase II study evaluating obinutuzumab (Gazyva), ibrutinib (Imbruvica), and venetoclax (Venclexta) in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting. In this exclusive MedPage Today video, Kerry Rogers, MD, of the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center in Columbus, discusses the […]
Two Drugs Better Than One for ‘Rescue’ Asthma Therapy
SAN FRANCISCO — Phase III results look very good for a two-drug combination inhaler in helping asthma patients regain symptom control when maintenance medications weren’t doing the job. In the MANDALA trial, patients using the investigational product PT027, which combines 90 μg of albuterol with 80 μg of budesonide, were significantly less likely to experience […]
Aducanumab Data Finally Published, but Alzheimer’s Experts Spot Problems
The long-awaited results of the twin phase III trials for aducanumab (Aduhelm), the controversial drug approved last year for early Alzheimer’s disease, were published in the Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease (JPAD), a journal whose editor-in-chief is aducanumab researcher and study co-author Paul Aisen, MD, of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. […]
Ripretinib Continues to Demonstrate Benefit in Advanced GIST
An updated analysis of the phase III INVICTUS trial showed improved survival in patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) treated with ripretinib (Qinlock) as later-line therapy, a researcher reported. At 19 months after the primary analysis, median progression-free survival (PFS) with the fourth- or later-line therapy remained stable, at 6.3 months with ripretinib versus […]
Targeting IL-23 Succeeds in Psoriatic Arthritis
The monoclonal antibody risankizumab (Skyrizi) showed significant efficacy for psoriatic arthritis (PsA) in two phase III randomized trials, a researcher reported. In the KEEPSAKE 1 and 2 trials, 1,407 patients with active PsA were randomly assigned to receive subcutaneous risankizumab, 150 mg, or placebo at baseline and then at weeks 4 and 16. On the […]