James H. Doroshow, MD, of the National Cancer Institute, describes a new precision medicine initiative called the MATCH trial: Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice. In 2,400 NCI clinical trial sites, 3,000 patients will be screened and their tumors analyzed to determine whether they contain genetic abnormalities for which a targeted drug exists.
James O. Armitage, MD, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and Sagar Lonial, MD, of Emory University School of Medicine, discuss results from two important studies that tested lenalidomide/dexamethasone with or without elotuzumab and daratumumab monotherapy (Abstracts 8508 and LBA8512).
Claus Garbe, MD, of the University of Tuebingen, and Anthony J. Olszanski, RPh, MD, of Fox Chase Cancer Center, discuss the survival of sentinel lymph node-positive melanoma patients with and without complete lymph node dissection (Abstract LBA9002).
Anil D’Cruz, MD, of Tata Memorial Hospital, discusses results from his study that seem to resolve a 50-year-long debate on performing elective neck dissection at the time of primary surgery––a potentially practice-changing finding (Abstract LBA3).
James L. Mulshine, MD, of Rush University Medical Center, and Carolyn Jean Presley, MD, of Yale Cancer Center/Yale School of Medicine, discuss the burden on patients and the Medicare system as new lung cancer CT guidelines are put into effect and treatment of early-stage NSCLC increases (Abstract 7533).
Thomas W. LeBlanc, MD, of Duke University Medical Center, and Eric Roeland, MD, FAAHPM, of the University of California, San Diego Moores Cancer Center, discuss the use of palliative and hospice care for patients with solid tumors vs hematologic cancers and clinicians’ attitudes (Abstracts e20554 and 9524).
