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Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells targeting the tyrosine kinase receptor ROR1 can be transferred into patients safely and the cells expand in vivo, according to first in-human study of CAR T cells in patients with solid tumors.

The FDA has approved olaparib (Lynparza) as a maintenance treatment for patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline or somatic BRCA-mutated advanced epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who are in complete or partial response to frontline platinum-based chemotherapy, as approved by an FDA-approved companion diagnostic assay.

Improvements observed in progression-free survival and overall survival with the addition of first-line atezolizumab (Tecentriq) to nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane) in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) or inoperable locally advanced TNBC are exclusive to those patients with PD-L1 expression ≥1% in immune cells, according to a biomarker subgroup analysis of the phase III IMpassion130 study.1

Delayed treatment with chemotherapy of more than 30 days after surgery for patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is associated with worse survival rates and outcomes than those who receive adjuvant chemotherapy within 30 days of their procedure, according to findings from a retrospective study performed in Peru presented at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS).

Lisocabtagene maraleucel (liso-cel; JCAR017) appeared tolerable and induced an 81.3% best overall response rate and 43.8% complete response rate in heavily pretreated, high-risk patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who previously received ibrutinib (Imbruvica), according to dose-finding results of a small phase I/II trial.

Because of the risk for developing secondary malignancies, and given the association between smoking and cancer, all patients who smoke should be counseled about quitting, according to Linda Sarna, PhD, RN, FAAN.