Sue Sun Yom, MD, PhD, on HPV-Associated Oropharyngeal Cancer: Challenges in De-intensifying Radiation Therapy
2020 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancers Symposium
Sue Sun Yom, MD, PhD, of the University of California, San Francisco, talks about the variety of evolving ways to deintensify radiation therapy, the critical need to counsel patients on the risks and benefits, and the ethical importance of respecting patient preferences in choosing their cancer therapies.
The ASCO Post Staff
David Adelstein, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, discusses the hypothesis that treatment can be de-intensified in patients with HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer and a good prognosis.
The ASCO Post Staff
Nadeem Riaz, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the biomarkers that have emerged for immunotherapy and their tumor microenvironments, from PD-L1 staining and the Combined Positive Score to next-generation genomic technologies.
The ASCO Post Staff
Assuntina G. Sacco, MD, of the University of California, San Diego, discusses the results of a small phase II study, which suggest that pembrolizumab plus cetuximab may show activity for platinum-refractory/-ineligible patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (Abstract 15).
The ASCO Post Staff
Jill Gilbert, MD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, discusses this ongoing area of investigation and which patients can safely undergo a de-intensification of treatment. Based on two randomized trials, cetuximab should not be substituted for cisplatin as a de-intensification strategy in HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer.
The ASCO Post Staff
Jared Weiss, MD, of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, discusses outcomes for patients with stage III or IV disease who are ineligible for the standard treatment of cisplatin plus radiotherapy. His data suggest that treatment with pembrolizumab/radiotherapy instead is tolerable, with improvements seen in progression-free and overall survival (Abstract LBA1).
