John L. Marshall, MD, of Georgetown University, discusses how the cost of care affects behavior and decision-making on the part of patients and oncologists.
Lee S. Schwartzberg, MD, of The West Clinic, describes a new initiative of the Association of Community Cancer Centers, designed to speed the adoption of immunotherapeutics in the community setting, where 60% of cancer patients are treated.
Jan C. Buckner, MD, of the Mayo Clinic discusses adjuvant whole-brain radiotherapy and the need for initial treatment with radiosurgery and close monitoring to preserve cognitive function in patients with brain metastases (Abstract LBA4).
Howard I. Scher, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the updated criteria that will guide clinical trial design and conduct for therapeutics being tested in castration-resistant prostate cancer (Abstract 5000).
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.
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).
