David A. Palma, MD, PhD, on HPV-Associated Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Radiotherapy vs Surgery
2021 ASTRO Annual Meeting
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).
The ASCO Post Staff
Erin Murphy, MD, of Cleveland Clinic, discusses new data that show no apparent difference in cognitive performance up to 2 years post-treatment among adults with low-grade glioma who were treated with concurrent radiotherapy and temozolomide (Abstract 3258).
The ASCO Post Staff
Matthew Manning, MD, of Cone Health Cancer Center, discusses findings that showed changes to the way cancer care is delivered may help eliminate racial disparities in survival among patients with early-stage lung and breast cancers. Identifying and addressing obstacles that kept patients from finishing radiation treatments for cancer were associated with improved 5-year survival rates for all patients (Abstract 53).
The ASCO Post Staff
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.
The ASCO Post Staff
Daniel F. Hayes, MD, of the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, discusses whether liquid biopsies can provide insight into the challenge of curing metastatic breast and possibly other cancers, how oligometastases are similar to a primary cancer, and why some kinds of local therapy for widespread disease might improve survival and lead to a cure.
The ASCO Post Staff
Diana D. Shi, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, discusses studies being planned and already underway to test BAY 2402234, a de novo pyrimidine synthesis inhibitor that possibly could be used clinically to target IDH-mutant gliomas and may act as a tumor-selective radiosensitizer (Abstract 167).
