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Data from several trials support the efficacy of first-line tyrosine-kinase inhibitors combined with immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in metastatic renal cell carcinoma. However, whether combining these drugs is preferable to using them sequentially remains unclear. Here, we assess the implications for patients and payers of limited access to second-line ICIs in the control arms of trials.
Two recent drug approvals for metastatic breast cancer highlight that the evidence standards required to support FDA approval seem to be decreasing. These two drugs not only failed to improve overall survival, but their effects on progression-free survival were also astonishingly low; in one case, the treatment delayed progression by only 3 days.
Precision oncology is predicated on information derived from high-quality tissue samples. Despite almost half of all patients with cancer receiving radiotherapy, samples from these patients are much less commonly available for use in biomarker studies. Biobanks that include material from radiotherapy studies do exist; the challenge is increasing their visibility and accessibility to researchers to continue our efforts to improve outcomes for our patients.