Richard Pazdur, MD, on the Launch of Project Facilitate
2019 ASCO Annual Meeting
Richard Pazdur, MD, Director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Oncology Center of Excellence and Acting Director of the Office of Hematology and Oncology Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, discusses the launch of Project Facilitate, a new pilot program to assist oncology health-care professionals in requesting access to unapproved therapies for patients with cancer.
Contact Information for Project Facilitate
Health-Care Professionals
Call: 1-240-402-0004
Patients and Their Families
Call: 301-796-3400
Neeraj Agarwal, MD, of Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah Health Care, and Thomas W. Flaig, MD, of the University of Colorado, discuss phase II findings on a novel predictive biomarker of response to the two accepted neoadjuvant regimens for muscle-invasive bladder cancer: methotrexate/vinblastine/doxorubicin/cisplatin and gemcitabine/cisplatin (Abstract 4506).
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).
Kerry A. Rogers, MD, of The Ohio State University, discusses a 3-year follow-up of phase Ib safety and efficacy findings with the selective BTK inhibitor acalabrutinib and the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody obinutuzumab in patients with CLL (Abstract 7500).
Jason Westin, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses findings of the Smart Start study on the chemotherapy-free combination of rituximab, lenalidomide, and ibrutinib in newly diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (Abstract 7508).
Daniel P. Petrylak, MD, of Yale School of Medicine, discusses study results on enfortumab vedotin monotherapy for locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer previously treated with platinum and immune checkpoint inhibitors (Abstract LBA4505).