30-Second Takeaway
- Anti-EGFR rechallenge improves disease control and PFS in ctDNA RAS/BRAF WT chemorefractory mCRC, without demonstrated OS benefit
- Adding PD-1 blockade to cisplatin-based chemoradiotherapy improves failure-free and distant-metastasis–free survival in locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma
- Validated ctDNA MRD after two cycles of therapy in Hodgkin lymphoma strongly stratifies 4-year PFS, especially when combined with PET-2
- Neoadjuvant nivolumab plus SABR achieves very high pCR rates in resectable early-stage NSCLC, with nontrivial perioperative mortality
- Midostaurin with intensive chemotherapy substantially improves survival in FLT3-mutated AML patients aged 60 and older in real-world practice
Week ending February 14, 2026
Targeted rechallenge, MRD tools, and intensified systemic strategies across solid tumors and AML
Anti-EGFR rechallenge outperforms standard care in ctDNA RAS/BRAF WT chemorefractory mCRC
This meta-analysis pooled three phase II RCTs including 320 patients with chemorefractory metastatic colorectal cancer and ctDNA RAS/BRAF wild-type disease. Anti-EGFR rechallenge significantly improved disease control rate versus standard of care (OR 3.39, 95% CI 2.13-5.39). Objective response rate also favored rechallenge (OR 5.13, 95% CI 2.30-11.41), with longer progression-free survival (HR 0.674, 95% CI 0.499-0.909). No overall survival benefit was detected (HR 0.895, 95% CI 0.736-1.087).
PD-1 blockade plus chemoradiotherapy improves disease control in locoregionally advanced NPC
This meta-analysis included three phase III RCTs with 1237 previously untreated patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Adding PD-1 inhibitors to definitive chemoradiotherapy significantly improved event/failure-free survival (HR 0.66, 95% CI 0.49-0.89). The greatest benefit was seen in distant metastasis-free survival (HR 0.61, 95% CI 0.43-0.85). Locoregional relapse-free survival trended better, with clear benefit in cisplatin-based regimens (HR 0.53, 95% CI 0.34-0.82), and severe toxicity was similar.
ctDNA MRD-2 robustly stratifies relapse risk in advanced Hodgkin lymphoma
In the GHSG HD21 trial, MRD after two cycles of therapy (MRD-2) was assessed using the validated LymphoVista ctDNA assay. MRD-2 positivity was associated with markedly inferior 4-year PFS versus MRD-2 negativity (36.7% vs 82.2%; HR 5.3, 95% CI 2.0-13.8). Inverse probability weighting estimated 4-year PFS of 72.2% for MRD-2 positive and 95.3% for MRD-2 negative patients in the reference set. Combining MRD-2 with PET-2 defined low-, intermediate-, and high-risk groups with clearly separated relapse risk.
References
Numbered in order of appearance. Click any reference to view details.
Additional Reads
Optional additional studies from this edition.