Blinatumomab in place of two chemotherapy blocks raised event-free survival in high-risk childhood ALL

The edition in brief

In AIEOP-BFM ALL 2017, 709 children with newly diagnosed high-risk B-cell ALL were randomised after consolidation to two cycles of blinatumomab or two cycles of chemotherapy; at a planned interim analysis, 4-year event-free survival was 83.0% vs 70.3% (HR 0.51, 95% CI 0.35–0.73), with treatment-related infection in 23.9% vs 69.4% but more neurotoxicity (12.0% vs 3.2%). KEYLYNK-001 randomised 1,367 women with BRCA non-mutated advanced ovarian cancer; chemotherapy plus pembrolizumab followed by pembrolizumab–olaparib maintenance improved progression-free survival over chemotherapy (ITT HR 0.71 at final analysis), while pembrolizumab without olaparib did not, at the cost of more serious adverse events. ALINA's quality-of-life analysis found adjuvant alectinib for resected ALK-positive lung cancer was well tolerated, with population-level physical and mental scores over two years. The CATALINA validation of AI-scored tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes in 1,356 women with early triple-negative breast cancer found AI scores were prognostic but added nothing beyond pathologist scores. The FDA recorded a supplement to the abrocitinib (Cibinqo) application; its content is not stated.