Interviews

Adam Fisch, MD, PhD, a clinical fellow in molecular genetic pathology at the Brigham’s Women’s Hospital, discusses the key points from a patient case he presented at the 2019 Association for Molecular Pathology Annual Meeting and Expo, in which the patient with acute myeloid leukemia harboring a FLT3-TKD mutation lost the mutation following relapse on gilteritinib.

Neeraj Agarwal, MD, discusses the results from the randomized phase III TITAN trial, which enrolled over 1,000 patients with newly diagnosed metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer and randomized them to either androgen deprivation therapy plus the novel androgen receptor inhibitor apalutamide or ADT alone.

Jeff P.&nbsp;<a>Sharman</a>, MD, discusses the safety profile of acalabrutinib that was demonstrated in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.targetedonc.com/conference/ash-2019/patients-with-cll-treated-on-the-elevatetn-trial-experience-improved-pfs-with-acalabrutinib"><strong>the phase III ELEVATE-TN trial</strong></a>. The trial&nbsp;&nbsp;evaluated acalabrutinib&nbsp;&nbsp;as a single agent or in combination with obinutuzumab versus obinutuzumab&nbsp;&nbsp;plus chlorambucil in patients with treatment-na&iuml;ve chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Brain C. Baumann, MD, assistant professor of radiation oncology, Department of Radiation Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis, explains the rationale for the study of adjuvant chemotherapy plus radiation versus radiation alone in patients with locally advanced bladder cancer.

Emese Zsiros, MD, PhD, FACOG, assistant professor of oncology, Department of Gynecologic Oncology, Center for Immunotherapy, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center explains the rationale for the a phase II study, which combined pembrolizumab with bevacizumab in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer. Zsiros presented data on the study in early 2019 at the SGO Annual Meeting.

Adil Daud, MD, compares the roles of immunotherapy versus dabrafenib plus trametinib targeted therapy combinations in patients with advanced melanoma. The latter combination is appropriate and even preventative in select patients, but the decision between checkpoint immune therapy and immunotherapy comes down to what is best for each patient.