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).
Patricia A. Ganz, MD, of NRG Oncology and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA, discusses the NRG/NSABP phase III findings, which showed that partial-breast irradiation was more convenient and resulted in less fatigue but slightly poorer cosmesis at 36 months in patients who did not receive chemotherapy (Abstract 508).
Don S. Dizon, MD, of the Lifespan Cancer Institute, and Matthew A. Powell, MD, of Washington University School of Medicine, discuss phase III findings on paclitaxel plus carboplatin vs paclitaxel plus ifosfamide in chemotherapy-naive patients with stages I to IV, persistent or recurrent carcinosarcoma of the uterus or ovaries (Abstract 5500).
Kamal Chamoun, MD, of University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, discusses how better insurance coverage determines not only the ability of patients with multiple myeloma to afford high-priced oral medications, but their survival of the disease (Abstract LBA107).
Francesca Gay, MD, of GIMEMA, European Myeloma Network, discusses the results of the FORTE trial on the efficacy of carfilzomib/lenalidomide/dexamethasone with or without autologous stem cell transplantation according to risk status in newly diagnosed disease (Abstract 8002).
Toni K. Choueiri, MD, and Ziad Bakouny, MD, both of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discuss a retrospective review of genomically profiled patients with sarcomatoid/rhabdoid renal cell cancer who were found to have better outcomes with immune checkpoint inhibitors and to harbor mutations associated with poor prognosis (Abstract 4514).