Aadel A. Chaudhuri, MD, PhD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, discusses circulating tumor DNA, which has the potential to better personalize treatment for patients with oligometastatic cancer and help clinicians determine whether to offer systemic therapy alone or curative-intent local consolidative therapy.
Shauna Campbell, DO, of Cleveland Clinic, discusses results from her study that showed hypofractionated intensity-modulated radiation therapy (H-IMRT) in the definitive or postoperative treatment of head and neck cancers using ≥ 50 Gy in 20 fractions appears to be safe and well tolerated with modest toxicity. Dr. Campbell suggests that prospective studies comparing the safety and efficacy of H-IMRT with those of conventionally fractionated IMRT are warranted (Abstract 2313).
Karen M. Winkfield, MD, PhD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who co-chaired a session (PS 02) on digital health, summarizes the talks, which included ways to reduce disparities with digital innovations and the importance of patient input, especially in the form of patient-reported outcomes and experience measures. Advancing digital health, which the FDA defines as including health information technology, telemedicine, and personalized medicine, can potentially improve cancer care.
Daniel J. Ma, MD, of the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, discusses results from a phase III study of patients with HPV-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. Comparing a 2-week course of de-escalated adjuvant radiation therapy with the standard 6-week course, investigators found that the shorter treatment appeared to have less toxicity, higher quality of life, and similar disease control as the longer standard-of-care treatment (Abstract LBA1).
David A. Palma, MD, PhD, of Ontario’s London Health Sciences Centre, discusses results of the ORATOR2 study, which compared two treatment options that could be de-escalated for patients with HPV-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma: a lower-dose radiation approach (6 weeks instead of 7, often with chemotherapy) vs a transoral surgical approach (with low-dose radiation afterward, for 5 weeks) (Abstract LBA2).
Amar U. Kishan, MD, of the University of California, Los Angeles, discusses findings from a meta-analysis of clinical trials in patients with localized prostate cancer. The phase III results suggest that the use of androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) or prolonged adjuvant ADT with radiotherapy may benefit patients with localized prostate cancer. Further biomarkers are needed to better personalize treatment intensification (Abstract 8).
