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Today-

We are reporting from the 2020 ESMO Virtual Congress!

We are recapping some of the top news that are being presented during the conference—and in just a bit we’ll be speaking with Dr Robert Coleman to get his take on the biggest abstracts in gynecologic cancers, and also with Dr Shilpa Gupta on the latest in genitourinary cancers.

Welcome to OncLive News Network! I’m Gina Mauro.

In renal cell carcinoma, results of the phase 3 CheckMate-9ER trial showed that the combination of nivolumab and cabozantinib was found to double progression-free survival and objective response rates, and also significantly improve overall survival, compared with sunitinib, in patients with advanced disease who have not received prior treatment.

In basal cell carcinoma, the PD-1 antibody cemiplimab established encouraging clinical activity in patients with locally advanced disease who progress on or are intolerant to hedgehog inhibitors, regardless of PD-L1 expression, according to primary cohort results of a phase 2 trial presented during the meeting.

In an interim analysis of a subset of patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma harboring FGFR2 fusions/rearrangements, the oral small molecule inhibitor futibatinib was shown to be efficacious and tolerable. Investigators recorded a 37.3% objective response rate in the analysis of 67 patients with at least 6 months of follow-up. One patient had complete response and 24 patients had partial response.

Findings from the phase 3 IPATunity trial showed that the combination of ipatasertib plus paclitaxel did not improve efficacy in patients with PIK3CA/AKT1/PTEN-altered hormone receptor–positive advanced breast cancer. However, follow-up for overall survival is ongoing.

A subgroup analysis from the phase 3 JAVELIN Bladder 100 trial demonstrated that frontline maintenance therapy with avelumab plus best supportive care provided an overall survival benefit compared with best supportive care alone across prespecified subgroups of patients whose disease had not progressed with frontline induction chemotherapy. Avelumab was approved by the FDA earlier in 2020 for this indication.

Two phase 2 trials in cervical cancer showcased activity with the PD-1 inhibitor balstilimab in patients with recurrent/metastatic disease. As a single agent, he response rate was 14% of all patients with the disease 19% in PD-L1–positive patients. For patients who received balstilimab plus the CTLA-4 inhibitor zalifrelimab, the ORRs were 22% and 27% in PD-L1–positive patients with recurrent/metastatic cervical cancer, respectively.

A first-in-human trial showed that the novel FAP-targeted 4-1BB agonist RO7122290 demonstrated an acceptable safety profile as a single agent and in combination with atezolizumab. Moreover, there were favorable pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic effects, and the preliminary antitumor activity supports further investigation in clinical trials.