Peter Schmid, MD, PhD, and Hope S. Rugo, MD, on Breast Cancer: Next Steps in Immunotherapy
2019 ASCO Annual Meeting
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.
Michael A. Thompson, MD, PhD, of Advocate Aurora Health, discusses the implications of the revised diagnostic criteria for multiple myeloma, which removed patients at the highest risk of disease progression from the smoldering group, and a new model for smoldering disease that incorporates revised cutoffs for the previously used parameters (Abstract 8000).
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).
Danny Rischin, MD, of Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, discusses phase III results that support pembrolizumab with and without platinum-based chemotherapy plus fluorouracil as new first-line standards of care for recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (Abstract 6000).
Miriam Knoll, MD, and Zachery Reichert, MD, PhD, discuss the FORCE trial, which is examining whether radiation can create a more durable response to systemic therapy, and whether using newer, more sensitive imaging technologies can improve outcomes (Abstract TPS5096).
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).