Brian C. Baumann, MD, on Locally Advanced Cancer: Proton vs Photon Therapy
2019 ASCO Annual Meeting
Brian C. Baumann, MD, of Washington University School of Medicine, discusses study findings that showed, for adults with locally advanced cancer across five different disease sites, proton chemoradiotherapy was associated with significantly reduced acute adverse events, with no difference in disease-free or overall survival (Abstract 6521).
Josep Tabernero, MD, PhD, of the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology, discusses phase III findings of the KEYNOTE-062 study showing that, for some patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer, pembrolizumab may improve survival and may be an effective alternative to chemotherapy, with fewer side effects (Abstract LBA4007).
Don S. Dizon, MD, of the Lifespan Cancer Institute, and Richard T. Penson, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, discuss phase III study findings on the PARP inhibitor olaparib, which showed a significantly higher objective response rate vs nonplatinum chemotherapy for patients with ovarian cancer who relapsed, are platinum-sensitive, and have BRCA-mutant disease (Abstract 5506).
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).
Neeraj Agarwal, MD, of the Huntsman Cancer Institute, and Arnaud Méjean, MD, PhD, of the Hôpital Européen Georges-Pompidou, Paris Descartes University, discuss an update to the CARMENA trial with new phase III study results on the benefit of cytoreductive nephrectomy followed by sunitinib vs sunitinib alone in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (Abstract 4508).
Adam Brufsky, MD, PhD, of Magee-Womens Hospital and the Hillman Cancer Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, discusses phase III study findings on neratinib plus capecitabine vs lapatinib plus capecitabine in patients previously treated for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (Abstract 1002).