Debora S. Bruno, MD, on NSCLC: Racial Disparities in Biomarker Testing and Clinical Trial Enrollment
2021 ASCO Annual Meeting
Debora S. Bruno, MD, of Seidman Cancer Center at Cleveland Medical Center, discusses study findings that show Black patients with advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer tend to be less likely to undergo biomarker testing or to be treated in clinical trials than White patients. Recommended broad-based testing, says Dr. Bruno, may help ensure equal access to quality care and clinical trials (Abstract 9005).
The ASCO Post Staff
Sumanta K. Pal, MD, of City of Hope, discusses results from a phase II study that sought to determine whether adding berzosertib, a selective ATR inhibitor, to the standard upfront chemotherapy regimen of cisplatin with gemcitabine may improve outcomes in patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma (Abstract 4507).
The ASCO Post Staff
Nadia Harbeck, MD, PhD, of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, discusses first phase III results from a prospective high-risk cohort of patients with luminal breast cancer, which showed a good prognosis in some women with more than four positive lymph nodes and low recurrence scores. The study also showed that a lower postendocrine Ki67 index and limited tumor burden may be promising criteria for chemotherapy de-escalation strategies, even in patients with high recurrence scores (Abstract 504).
The ASCO Post Staff
Sibylle Loibl, MD, PhD, of the German Breast Group, discusses results from the phase III GeparNUEVO study, which investigated neoadjuvant durvalumab in addition to anthracycline/taxane-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with early triple-negative breast cancer (Abstract 506).
The ASCO Post Staff
Geoffrey J. Lindeman, MBBS, PhD, of Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, discusses results from the phase II VERONICA study, which compared venetoclax plus fulvestrant with fulvestrant alone in women with estrogen receptor–positive, HER2-negative, locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer who experienced disease recurrence or progression during or after treatment with CDK4/6 inhibitor therapy (Abstract 1004).
The ASCO Post Staff
Nicholas J. Short, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses early results from a phase II study which showed that combining ponatinib and blinatumomab in patients with Philadelphia chromosome–positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia may prove to be an effective chemotherapy-free regimen that might reduce the need for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (Abstract 7001).
