(BioSpace) May 16, 2019 - The trial evaluated margetuximab in patients with HER2-positive metastastic breast cancer who had already been treated with anti-HER2-targeted therapies.

(Posted: May 17, 2019)

Trastuzumab deruxtecan makes Margetixumab clinically irrelevant

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(Huntsman Cancer Institute) May 13, 2019 - In the largest study of its kind, more than half of patients with advanced prostate cancers appear to be strong candidates for targeted cancer therapies.

Tomasz M. Beer, MD, FACP (Posted: May 14, 2019)

While it is undoubtedly exciting to find that more than half of the men with advanced prostate cancer have a genomic alteration which we may be able to match to a drug, this is a very long way indeed from demonstrating a patient benefit. There are countless examples of targeted drugs that yielded little or no benefit in prostate cancer and many other malignancies. This is an important first step, but what is needed next are careful studies that demonstrate what drugs can help which patients based on genomic findings. The routine use of such approaches outside of a clinical trial is not yet warranted with some very specific and not common exceptions. This is not yet an argument for molecularly directed therapy for more than half of our patients.

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(AstraZeneca) May 8, 2019 - AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited today announced positive top-line results for the pivotal Phase II DESTINY-Breast01 trial of trastuzumab deruxtecan (DS-8201). The HER2-targeting antibody drug conjugate (ADC) and potential new medicine was evaluated in patients with HER2-positive, unresectable and/or metastatic breast cancer previously treated with trastuzumab emtansine.

Debu Tripathy, MD (Posted: May 08, 2019)

The development of testing of new antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs, also known as immunoconjugates) is rapidly growing as these agents allow for more cancer cell-specific drug delivery and the use of more potent cytotoxic drugs than can be given by conventional administration. Every such drug has its own "operating characteristics" depending on the antibody/antigen system used, the nature of the linker attaching the antibody to the active drug and the cytotoxic "payload". In the case of trastuzumab deruxtecan, impressive response rates were shown in pretreated patients with HER2+ breast cancer the Phase I setting. Responses nearing 50% were even shown in a separate cohort of patients who had lower HER2 expression in the negative range by conventional definitions. While the results of the Phase II trial have not yet been made public, there is significant enthusiasm as the Phase III registration trials for both HER2+ and HER2-low get off the ground.

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