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.
James O. Armitage, MD, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and Asher Alban Akmal Chanan-Khan, MD, of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, discuss an important treatment option that significantly improved overall response rate and reduced risk of progression or death by 80% (Abstract LBA7005).
Daniel A. Vorobiof, MD, of the Sandton Oncology Centre, and Bernardo Leon Rapoport, MD, of The Medical Oncology Centre of Rosebank, discuss the first study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a single dose of intravenous fosaprepitant. The use of this NK1 inhibitor and another (rolapitant) in a second study discussed may change the management of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and improve quality of life for patients (Abstracts 9629 and 9615).
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 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.
Ruben A. Mesa, MD, of the Mayo Clinic, discusses pacritinib and its significant efficacy in myelofibrosis (Abstract LBA7006).
