Melinda L. Telli, MD, of Stanford University, discusses results of a phase II study on neoadjuvant talazoparib in germline BRCA1/2 mutation–positive, early HER2-negative breast cancer. In this setting, talazoparib monotherapy was active and yielded pathologic complete response rates comparable to those observed with combination anthracycline and taxane-based chemotherapy regimens (Abstract 505).
Narjust Duma, MD, of the Carbone Cancer Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Gladys I. Rodriguez, MD, of South Texas Oncology and Hematology, talk about the underrepresentation of Hispanic individuals in medicine, especially in oncology, and their efforts to create the first Young Investigator Award in Recognition of an Outstanding Latina Researcher to encourage Hispanic women to enter medicine and cancer research.
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).
Matt D. Galsky, MD, of the Tisch Cancer Institute at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discusses results from a phase II trial designed to test gemcitabine and cisplatin plus nivolumab as neoadjuvant therapy in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer and to better predict benefit in those who opted out of cystectomy (Abstract 4503).
Ann S. LaCasce, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses results from the CALGB 50801 Alliance study, which showed that a PET scan–adapted approach may reduce the need for radiation treatment and may improve progression-free outcomes in patients with stage I/II bulky classic Hodgkin lymphoma (Abstract 7507).