Interviews

Nikhil I. Khushalani, MD, discusses the rationale for combining nivolumab with bempegaldesleukin for the treatment of patients with newly diagnosed, unresectable or metastatic melanoma in a randomized, open-label phase III trial.

Debu Tripathy, MD, of the Department of Breast Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, MD Anderson Cancer Center, was an investigator in the phase III MONALEESA-7 trial. The purpose of the study was to examine how endocrine therapy, in combination with a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, affects progression-free survival and overall survival in premenopausal patients with HR-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer.

Addressing the need for treatments that are more effective and less toxic for patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia, Paolo Ghia, MD, of the Universita Vita-Salute San Raffaele, and other researchers conducted a phase III randomized, multicentric ASCEND study, testing acalabrutinib monotherapy in comparison with physician’s choice of standard regimens in patients R/R CLL.

Ghanshyam Yadav, MD, a first-year resident in Obstetrics Gynecology & Reproductive Services, Baylor College of Medicine, talks through the results of a preclinical trial that found synergy in the combination of the PARP inhibitor olaparib and the pan-HER tyrosine kinase inhibitor neratinib for uterine serous cancers that overexpress HER2.

Hanneke Poort, PhD, discusses the burden of cancer-related fatigue in women with gynecologic cancers; she also highlights a new intervention technique that is being used at Dana-Farber for these patients.

Andrew Turk, MD, discusses the importance of discussing thyroid cancer at major meetings, such as the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting. It is important for physicians to keep up to date on the latest advancements for treatment options and new understandings of the disease and its subtypes.

Ruben Mesa, MD, discusses the results from a reanalysis of the phase II JAKARTA-2 study in patients with myelofibrosis (MF) who received a previous treatment of ruxolitinib (Jakafi) and failed treatment.

David Spigel, MD, chief scientific officer, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, director of the Lung cancer Research Program, and member of the Association of Community Cancer Centers explains to <em>Targeted Oncology, </em>the ways in which ACCC is improving the care landscape and outcomes for patients with advanced non&ndash;small cell lung cancer.

The Rapid Integration Program, a training initiative for new physician&rsquo;s assistants and nurse practitioners working in the field of oncology, is a Florida Society of Community Oncology (FLASCO) initiative that came from an ASCO meeting. Winston Tan, MD, of the Head and Neck Cancer Center at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, speaking during the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting, was in attendance at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting when the idea for a training program was first introduced.<br /> &nbsp;

Ezzat Elhassadi, MD, a consultant hematologist at the University Hospital Waterford in Ireland, discusses the therapeutic approach for different subtypes of mantle cell lymphoma. MCL is a spectrum of diseases that should be treated differently, he says.

Susan Friedman, executive director and founder, FORCE, a non-profit organization supporting education, advocacy, and research around breast and ovarian cancer, explains the relevance of PARP inhibitors and the recent developments in oncology research that may improve cancer treatment for patients with genetic mutations.

Tanios Bekaii-Saab, MD, discusses the results from the phase III BEACON CRC study; investigators evaluated the efficacy and safety of triplet encorafenib, binimetinib, and cetuximab in patients with&nbsp;BRAF&nbsp;V600E&ndash;mutant metastatic colorectal cancer who previously received up to 2 lines of prior therapy.

The American Oncology Network is helping community oncology practices to flourish. As CEO, Bradley Prechtl, MBA, was instrumental in the organizations formation in 2017 when the need for improvement in community oncology across the United States had become evident.

Paul K. Paik, MD, discusses the benefits to using liquid biopsy compared to a tissue biopsy, particularly in the phase II VISION trial in which patients with non&ndash;small cell lung cancer harboring MET alterations were treated with tepotinib. Patients were divided into 2 cohorts based on whether they were enrolled with either a liquid biopsy or tumor biopsy.

David Spigel, MD, chief scientific officer of Sarah Cannon Research Institute, gives a recap on the phase III PACIFIC study, with facts and perceptions surrounding the latest data that study researchers reported during the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.

David J. Straus, MD, discusses the toxicities associated with the combination of brentuximab vedotin plus doxorubicin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine in patients with stage III/IV classical Hodgkin lymphoma, according to data from the 3-year update of the ECHELON-1 trial presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.

David Spigel, MD, chief scientific officer, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discussed with&nbsp;<em>Targeted Oncology</em>at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting how the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) is the change agent for helping physicians provide their patients with quality care.&nbsp;<br /> &nbsp;

Marina C. Garassino, MD, medical consultant, Thoracic Unit, Fondazione IRCCS &ndash; Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy, discusses the results from the randomized phase III RELAY trial, in which the combination of ramucirumab plus erlotinib was compared to erlotinib plus placebo in patients with EGFR-mutated non&ndash;small cell lung cancer. These data were presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Jorge E. Cortes, MD, discusses the results from the ENESTFreedom study, which evaluated the use of nilotinib as a treatment for patients with BCR-ABL1&ndash;positive chronic myeloid leukemia in the chronic phase.<br /> &nbsp;

Josep M. Llovet, MD, PhD, discusses the evolution of treatment options for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Andrew L. Pecora, MD, FACP, CPE, discusses the biggest areas of research in the field of multiple myeloma. Pecora says that there has been a surprising number of advances in the field, with current research mostly focused on 1 of 3 areas.

Timothy F. Burns, MD, PhD, discusses the value of conducting next-generation sequencing in-house for patients with lung cancer compared with sending out to an external laboratory for molecular profiling results. Burns says he conducts NGS testing on all patients with metastatic and nonsquamous lung cancers. This includes patients that are both smokers and non-smokers.

Eric Pujade-Lauraine, MD, PhD, discusses the exploratory findings from the phase III JAVELIN Ovarian 200 trial, which investigated the use of combination avelumab plus pegylated liposomal doxorubicin in patients with platinum-resistant, refractory ovarian cancer.

Eric Harris, DO, hematologist/oncologist, Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute, gives Targeted Oncology an insiders perspective on the current state of community oncology in Florida and some ways the Florida Society of Clinical Oncology (FLASCO) aids in improving patient care by helping physicians.

Matthew S. Davids, MD, MMSc, discusses the significance of the findings from TRANSCEND CLL 004, a phase I/II trial investigating the CAR T-cell therapy lisocabtagene maraleucel in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Shilpa Gupta, MD, discusses the current role of immunotherapy in treating patients with bladder cancer and how biomarkers have become an unmet need.

Jae H. Park, MD, discusses the current role and challenges in using CAR T-cell therapy in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia. The 2 challenges now in this area are target selection and patient selection.

Alexander Drilon, MD, clinical director, Early Drug Development Service, and associate professor of the Thoracic Oncology Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the data examining the role of entrectinib in patients with non&ndash;small cell lung cancer who are na&iuml;ve to treatment with a ROS1 tyrosine kinase inhibitor.

Ross Mudgway, BS, explains how a multidisciplinary approach as well as open discussions with the patient can help determine the best course of action for patients with metastatic breast cancer.

Robyn M. Scherber, MD, MPH, discusses her advice for treating patients with myelofibrosis that become refractory or resistant to ruxolitinib.