Latest Conference Articles

Denise Yardley, MD, senior investigator, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discusses the results from a recent phase II trial evaluating exemestane with or without enzalutamide in patients with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer.

Julie Nangia, MD, assistant professor of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, discusses getting genetic testing for patients. While the NCCN has guidelines of who should be tested, it may also be possible for physicians to write a letter of medical necessity for other people, such as Ashkenazi Jewish women, who have higher rates of BRCA mutations.

Early-stage breast cancer recurrence and mortality was reduced by shortening the intervals between chemotherapy cycles or administering the drugs sequentially compared with standard dosing techniques, according to meta-analysis results presented at the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Mothaffar F. Rimawi, MD, associate professor and director of clinical research at the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center at Baylor College of Medicine, discusses the NSABP B-47 study, which explored the value of trastuzumab (Herceptin) plus standard adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients with low levels of HER2 protein.

An overall disease control rate of 45% was achieved with sacituzumab govitecan (IMMU-132) therapy in patients with heavily pretreated metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC), according to updated findings of a study presented at the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS). 

In results from the phase Ib/II PANACEA trial presented at the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), the combination of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and trastuzumab (Herceptin) achieved an objective response rate (ORR) of 15.2% in patients with trastuzumab-resistant, PD-L1–positive, HER2-positive breast cancer.

Sir Richard Peto, FRS, a recognized pioneer in epidemiology and health statisticians, will be honored with the William L. McGuire Memorial Lecture Award at the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), to be held December 5 to 9 in San Antonio, Texas. The topic of his award lecture will be announced at a later date, according to a press release from SABCS.

Nilofer Azad, MD, associate professor, Johns Hopkins University, discusses preliminary results from the NCI-Match trial for nivolumab (Opdivo) in patients with mismatch repair-deficient cancers The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 32^nd Annual Meeting.<br /> &nbsp;

Jennifer Wu, PhD, professor, Northwestern University, Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses how soluble MIC can impact response to anti-CTLA-4 therapy during The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 32^nd Annual Meeting.<br /> &nbsp;

Dendritic cells are an essential target for generating immunity against cancer due to their ability to manipulate the immune system and there are a number of potential methods by which DCs can be utilized for cancer immunotherapy, according to Karolina Palucka, MD, PhD.

Metastatic urothelial cancer is a relatively chemotherapy-sensitive malignancy. With contemporary cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy regimens, objective responses are achieved in approximately 50-60% of patients and complete radiographic responses are achieved in approximately 10-20% of patients.

H. Jack West, MD, a thoracic oncologist of Swedish Cancer Institute at Swedish Medical Center, discusses appropriate treatment for patients with stage IV adenocarcinoma who do not harbor oncogenic drivers.

For decades and even to this day, the foundation of metastatic bladder cancer therapy has been cytotoxic chemotherapy. In fact, until recently, the most significant breakthrough in treatment was in the 1980s, when cisplatin-based therapies, specifically MVAC, became the new standard of care.

Head and neck squamous cell cancer is relatively uncommon in the United States compared to other malignancies like non-small&ndash;cell lung cancer and breast cancer. There are about 500,000 cases worldwide every year.

For patients with metastatic melanoma in particular, immune checkpoint inhibitors were a great advancement in therapeutics. Since then, investigators have focused on ways to improve on treatment with these agents, and one potential method is through manipulation of the gut microbiome.

The tumor microenvironment consists of malignant and nontransformed cells and the associations between them. Nonmalignant cells exhibit tumor-promoting functions during all stages of carcinogenesis. Targeting nonmalignant cells and/or communication mediators may have immunotherapeutic application across various tumor types and could complement other therapies as well.

Today, oncologists and their patients face disruptive changes in healthcare practice, medical research, governmental oversight and regulation, business practices, and physician &ndash;patient communication&mdash;changes brought on by the growth and merging of the fields of information technology, medical technology, medical practice, biology, and physics.

From the perspective of a patient and that patient&rsquo;s family, it is completely understandable that the single most important goal of an antineoplastic strategy is to prolong survival and, if possible, produce a cure.

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal of the gynecologic malignancies. Over 22,000 new cases of ovarian cancer are diagnosed each year in the United States, resulting in more than 14,000 deaths per year.

John L. Marshall, MD, chief, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Medstar Georgetown University Hospital director, Otto J. Ruesch Center for the Cure of Gastrointestinal Cancer, discusses the evolving paradigm of gastrointestinal cancers.

John O. Mascarenhas, MD, associate professor of medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, discusses the optimal use of ruxolitinib (Jakafi) and the improved understanding of JAK2 inhibition of polycythemia vera.

The goal of selecting optimal antiemetic therapy continues to be a moving target with the emergence of newer agents and patient-related risk factors, as well as the rapid evolution of guidelines for the management of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting.

Over the past few years, remarkable advances have been achieved in the field of CLL by rationally targeting pathways overexpressed and used by the malignant clone for proliferation and survival. These developments have been achieved by a better understanding of the underlying biology and the disease process.

Checkpoint-based immune therapies have revolutionized the therapy of solid tumors by achieving breakthrough improvements in melanoma, lung cancer, renal cancer, bladder cancers, and head and neck tumors, among others.

Adjuvant treatment with a combination of dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist) continues to show a long-term survival benefit in patients with melanoma, even across subgroup populations, according to a presentation at the 2017 World Congress of Melanoma (WCM).

The treatment armamentarium of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) is expanding to potentially include novel systemic therapies, a refined understanding of genetic changes in patients with pancreatic NETs, and improvements in surgical timing and quality of life (QoL), according to Diane Reidy Lagunes, MD.

Tumor response rates after initial treatment with peptide receptor radionuclide therapy have proven clinical benefit; however, complete response is uncommon.

Determining the true nature, causes, and optimal treatment of neuroendocrine tumors is incredibly important for patients, as even though diarrhea can be a symptom of the disease, it is not always the primary cause.

According to updated results from the phase II ABC trial presented at the 2017 World Congress of Melanoma, Nivolumab (Opdivo) combined with&nbsp;ipilimumab (Yervoy) showed activity in&nbsp;asymptomatic patients with melanoma brain metastases who had not received prior local therapy to the brain.

While immunotherapty has led a transformation for melanoma care, combinations of&nbsp;anti&ndash;PD-1 and CTLA-4 agents are toxic, and biomarkers are not yet available to help personalize treatment. Therefore, Carolina Robert, MD, PhD, says, further research is needed to explore less toxic, more effective options.