Åsmund A. Fretland, MD, of Oslo University Hospital, discusses clinical trial findings on survival outcomes after laparoscopic vs open resection for colorectal liver metastases. The study he conducted with his team showed that the laparoscopic procedure did not jeopardize long-term survival (Abstract LBA3516).
William G. Wierda, MD, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the TRANSCEND CLL 004 trial, which studied the use of an experimental CD19-directed CAR T-cell product in heavily pretreated patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma (Abstract 7501).
Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the first study of ribociclib plus endocrine therapy vs endocrine therapy alone to demonstrate significantly longer overall survival in peri- and premenopausal women with advanced breast cancer (Abstract LBA1008).
Neeraj Agarwal, MD, of Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah Health Care, and Thomas Powles, MD, PhD, of Queen Mary University of London, discuss phase III study findings on outcomes with combination therapy for intermediate/poor-risk and sarcomatoid subgroups of renal cell carcinoma (Abstract 4500).
Hani M. Babiker, MD, of the The University of Arizona, discusses an emerging treatment that inhibits the mitotic spindle and disrupts tumor cell growth. The method has been approved by the FDA to treat some cancers and data show improved progression-free and overall survival (Abstracts 2055, 8551, e14658, e14668, e15653, e20069, e15766).
Amy J. Davidoff, PhD, of Yale University School of Public Health, discusses study findings on how expanding access to Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) reduced racial disparities among patients with advanced cancer. Before the ACA was implemented in 2014, black patients with cancer were less likely than white patients to receive timely treatment, but in states that did not adopt Medicaid expansion, racial disparities persist (Abstract LBA1).
