Hani M. Babiker, MD, on Tumor Treating Fields: A Different Approach to Therapy
2019 ASCO Annual Meeting
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).
Hirotsugu Kenmotsu, MD, of Shizuoka Cancer Center, discusses the phase III JIPANG trial findings, which showed that pemetrexed plus cisplatin was not superior to vinorelbine plus cisplatin in terms of recurrence-free survival for patients with completely resected nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (Abstract 8501).
Hope S. Rugo, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco, and Peter Schmid, MD, PhD, of Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, discuss ongoing trials of immunotherapy for early triple-negative breast cancer; immunotherapy in other disease subtypes such as estrogen receptor–positive and HER2-positive; and checkpoint inhibition in PD-L1–negative disease.
Panagiotis A. Konstantinopoulos, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses his phase II study on the response to avelumab in microsatellite-stable and -instable recurrent or persistent endometrial cancer with a polymerase epsilon mutation (Abstract 5502).
Justin F. Gainor, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses updated findings from the ARROW study in which BLU-667, a selective RET inhibitor, demonstrated clinical activity and tolerability in patients with advanced RET fusion–positive non–small cell lung cancer (Abstract 9008).
Miriam Knoll, MD, of Hackensack University Medical Center, and Richard J. White, DO, of Allegheny Health Network, discuss improved overall survival among younger female patients with non–small cell lung cancer who have a lower comorbidity score, lower grade, private insurance, and treatment with intensity-modulated radiation therapy (Abstract 9024).