Interviews

Jonathan Schoenfeld, MD, MPH, discusses the immunologic effects of chemotherapy plus radiation, as well as radiation alone.

Twelves says a common misconception in breast cancer is that with the current flood of new treatments in HER2-positive breast cancer, the issue of breast cancer overall has been largely addressed.

Hamilton says there are currently not very many "good" drugs for treating these metastases. She adds that the mainstay for treating these metastases is usually some form of radiation therapy, such as whole brain radiation.

Siefker-Radtke says her preferred mathod of neoadjuvant chemotherapy is doxorubicin plus ifosfamide with an alternating regimen of etoposide cisplatin.

Beitsch says that while having a study that incorporates several thousands of patients will potentially produce statistically significant results, these larger groups may not account for subtypes in each patient's individual cancer.

Gulley says there is no standard procedure for the third line setting in bladder cancer, and that most oncologists would either turn to single-agent chemotherapy or to clinical trials.

Cooperberg says the likelihood of a patient for staying on active surveillance for 10 or 15 years is around 50%, though men who stay on active surveillance for between 6 months and 5 years generally see progression in their disease.

David Reardon, MD, clinical director, Center for Neuro-Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the future of immunotherapy in glioblastoma and how rindopepimut fits into that paradigm.

Mark Gilbert, MD, neuro-oncologist, chief of neuro-oncology, National Institute of Health, discusses predicting how a patient's brain tumor might act and respond to treatment based on their genetics.

Maciej Michal Mrugala MD, PhD, MPH, chief of the Division of Neuro-Oncology, University of Washington

Michael Lim, MD, director of Brain Tumor Immunotherapy, associate professor of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins Medicine, discusses checkpoint inhibitors in glioblastoma.

Nicholas A. Butowski, MD, director, Translational Research in Neuro-Oncology, University of California, San Francisco, discusses the eligibility of patients with glioblastoma to receive a convection-enhanced delivery of nanoliposomal irinotecan with real-time imaging.

​Rimas Lukas, MD, director, Medical Neuro-Oncology, co-director, Neurology Medical Student Clerkship Program, The University of Chicago Medical Center, discusses the next steps following a phase I study looking at atezolizumab in glioblastoma.

Jonathan R. Strosberg, MD, associate professor, Moffitt Cancer Center, discusses the targeted, systemic radiation treatment 177-Lu-Dotatate (Lutathera), a somatostatin analogue peptide, in patients with neuroendocrine tumors.

Oliver Sartor, MD, medical director, Tulane Cancer Center, discusses how radium-223 dichloride became deemed safe in patients with bone-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). The treatment was tested in an open-label phase I/II trial where patients were given 6 additional doses of radium-223 on top of their original 6-dose regimen.

Carey Anders, MD, assistant professor for the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology, UNC Chapel Hill, discusses the exclusion of patients with breast cancer who have developed brain metastases from clinical trials.

Amitabh Chak, MD, MS, professor of Medicine, director, Clinical Research, Division of Gastroenterolgy Diseases, Case Western Reserve University, discusses advances in esophageal cancer. Chak says some of the more "exciting" developments in the treatment of the disease are transnasal endoscopy, as well as a new type of screening device that acts as a "pap smear" for the esophagus.

Peter Martin, MD, discusses the evolving paradigm of treatment for mantle cell lymphoma. Martin says the evolution of the paradigm currently includes Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor, phosphoinositide 3-kinase inhibitor, immunomodulatory treatments, and immunotherapies.

​Darren Feldman, MD, assistant attending physician for the Genitourinary Oncology Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses how to properly treat neutropenic fever as a toxicity stemming from chemotherapy treatment.

​Daniel Hamstra, MD, PhD, radiation oncologist, Texas Center for Proton Therapy, Texas Oncology, discusses the benefits of shorter radiotherapy treatment sessions for patients with prostate cancer.

Matthew Cooperberg, MD, genitourinary cancer specialist, University of California San Francisco, discusses the appropriateness of a more aggressive approach to men with high-risk prostate cancer. Cooperberg says currently, men will normally respond to surgery followed by adjuvant radiotherapy, as well as systemic therapy.

​Tomasz M. Beer, MD, FACP, deputy director, Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, discusses the potential for genomic tests to result in new treatments.

Heimberger says the treatment paradigm's future is two-pronged, in that it will consist of both combination therapies that activate the immune system and prevent immunosuppression, as well as understand CT and MRI scans of brain cancer patients.

David Reardon, MD, clinical director, Center for Neuro-Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses identifying certain characteristics in a patient's brain tumor in order to administer better treatment.

Susan Panullo, MD, director, Neuro-oncology, director, Neurosurgical Radiosurgery, Weill Cornell Brain and Spine Center, discusses the improvement in quality of life in patients with glioblastoma treated with Optune (NovoTTF-100A).

Lorraine Pelosof, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Hematology and Oncology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, on the increasing proportion of non-smokers developing non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Eric Lim, MD, consultant thoracic surgeon, Royal Brompton Hospital, Senior lecturer in thoracic surgery and reader, Imperial College London, discusses the decline in smoking not correlating to the current amount of lung cancer diagnoses.

Georgia L. Wiesner, MD, MS, director, Clinical and Translational Hereditary Cancer Program, Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, professor of Medicine, cancer geneticist, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, discusses the role genetic testing for colorectal cancer (CRC) plays in families.

​Charles M. Perou, PhD, professor of Genetics, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, UNC School of Medicine, discusses precision medicine in breast cancer and currently known biomarkers.

Geoffrey Shapiro, MD, PhD, director, Early Drug Development Center, Dana Farber, discusses the role of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK4) in some breast cancer subtypes and the lack of targeted agents in triple-negative breast cancer.