Rimas Vincas Lukas, MD

Rimas Vincas Lukas, MD, of Northwestern University, was the formal discussant of this plenary session abstract on the INDIGO trial findings. “Because of its slowly progressive nature, glioma is insidious. The impact of the disease and its treatments has important consequences for patients, physicians, families, and society. High-risk, low-grade 2 glioma is a clinical designation,” Dr. Lukas told listeners.

Since overall survival is not yet mature, the time to next intervention is a reasonable endpoint to measure. “Most of these patients will be alive at the end of 1 year, so it is difficult to measure survival,” he noted.

Regarding the impact of a drug like vorasidenib, Dr. Lukas emphasized that these patients are young and if the drug can reduce the incidence of seizures and/or influence the long-term consequences of radiation therapy on cognition, that will be a big plus. “We will hear about this in future analyses of this and other studies,” Dr. Lukas said. “We need to determine resistance mechanisms and the optimal sequencing of treatments. Also, vorasidenib will need to be studied in combinatorial regimens,” he added. 

DISCLOSURE: Dr. Lukas has served as a consultant or advisor to Merck and Novocure; has served on the speakers bureau of Merck and Novocure; has received research funding from Bristol Myers Squibb; and has reported other financial relationships with the American Physician Institute, Clinical Care Options, Elton B. Stephens Company, and MedLink Neurology.