Robert J. Motzer, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses health-related quality-of-life data from the phase III CLEAR trial, which compared lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab or everolimus vs sunitinib as first-line treatment for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (Abstract 4502).
Brian K. Link, MD, of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, reviews three abstracts on state-of-the-art therapies for mantle cell lymphoma: bendamustine, rituximab, lenalidomide and bortezomib; treatment patterns and outcomes for previously untreated patients; and venetoclax, lenalidomide, and rituximab in newly diagnosed disease (Abstracts 7503, 7504, and 7505).
Andrew Tutt, PhD, MBChB, of the Institute of Cancer Research, London, discusses findings from the phase III OlympiA trial, which showed that adjuvant olaparib, a PARP inhibitor, following adjuvant or neoadjuvant chemotherapy, may improve invasive disease–free survival in patients with germline BRCA-mutated and high-risk HER2-negative early breast cancer, which might lead to a new indication in this setting (Abstract LBA1).
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).
Peter H. O’Donnell, MD, of The University of Chicago, discusses response and survival results from the phase II KEYNOTE-052 study, which showed that after up to 5 years of follow-up, pembrolizumab continued to elicit clinically meaningful, durable antitumor activity in cisplatin-ineligible patients with advanced urothelial cancer (Abstract 4508).
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.
