A look ahead at the FDA meeting that could decide the future of 6 cancer drug approvals

Next week, a panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration will convene to debate the merits of six recent cancer immunotherapy approvals handed out by the agency.

In each case, approval was granted on a conditional basis, backed by early data suggesting a treatment benefit that the drugs' makers were asked to confirm with follow-up studies. Now, several years later, those trials have come back with either inconclusive or negative data, resulting in unsupported accelerated approvals the FDA wants reviewed.