FDA approvals in hematology and oncology: Novel agents and new tricks for old drugs

In this episode, we review drugs recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the hematology/oncology space.

David M. Mintzer, MD, of Pennsylvania Hospital, joins host David H. Henry, MD, to highlight some first-time approvals and new indications for older drugs.

Approvals in 2020

Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was approved for a range of new indications last year, including:

• First-line treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic microsatellite instability–high or mismatch repair deficient colorectal cancer. https://bit.ly/2OKw8uF.
• Treatment of adult and pediatric patients who have tumor mutational burden–high (≥10 mutations/megabase) solid tumors that progressed after prior treatment and who have no satisfactory alternative treatment options. https://bit.ly/2NCddkX.
• For use in combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of patients with locally recurrent unresectable or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer whose tumors express PD-L1 (combined positive score ≥10) as determined by an FDA-approved test. https://bit.ly/2ZobcMc.
• To treat patients with recurrent or metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma that is not curable by surgery or radiation. https://bit.ly/3ashYGV.

Avelumab (Bavencio) was approved for maintenance therapy in patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma that has not progressed with first-line platinum-containing chemotherapy. https://bit.ly/3ar8XOs.

Nivolumab (Opdivo) was approved for:

• Patients with unresectable advanced, recurrent, or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma after prior fluoropyrimidine- and platinum-based chemotherapy. https://bit.ly/3ar4bjX.
• Use in combination with ipilimumab as first-line treatment in adults with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma. https://bit.ly/2NbQ60V.

Atezolizumab (Tecentriq) was approved in combination with cobimetinib and vemurafenib for patients with BRAF V600 mutation-positive unresectable or metastatic melanoma. https://bit.ly/2NzkodG.

Osimertinib (Tagrisso) was approved for adjuvant therapy after tumor resection in patients with non–small cell lung cancer whose tumors have EGFR exon 19 deletions or exon 21 L858R mutations, as detected by an FDA-approved test. https://bit.ly/2NC0aQs.

Selinexor (Xpovio) was approved for:

• Use in combination with bortezomib and dexamethasone for the treatment of adults with multiple myeloma who have received at least one prior therapy. https://bit.ly/3s1u1kp.
• Adults with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma not otherwise specified, including disease arising from follicular lymphoma, after at least two lines of systemic therapy. https://bit.ly/2M172GW.

The FDA also approved a new fixed-dose combination of pertuzumab, trastuzumab, and hyaluronidase-zzxf (Phesgo) for subcutaneous injection for: 

• Use in combination with chemotherapy as neoadjuvant treatment of patients with HER2-positive, locally advanced, inflammatory, or early-stage breast cancer (either greater than 2 cm in diameter or node positive) as part of a complete treatment regimen for early breast cancer.
• Use in combination with chemotherapy as adjuvant treatment of patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer at hi