Karen E. Knudsen, PhD, MBA, on Addressing Disparities in Genitourinary Cancers
2022 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium
Karen E. Knudsen, PhD, MBA, Chief Executive Officer of the American Cancer Society, discusses ways to address the inequities in genitourinary screening, treatment, and outcomes. Her suggestions focus on increasing awareness of screening, identifying risk factors, the dramatic rise in incidence among Hispanic individuals, and the basis for increased mortality in Black men.
The ASCO Post Staff
Hielke-Martijn de Vries, MD, of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, discusses phase II findings on the use of atezolizumab with or without radiotherapy for patients with advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the penis. The study was designed to address the poor prognosis for this disease by exploring whether a protracted schedule of radiotherapy for locoregional disease, in combination with immunotherapy, could improve outcomes (Abstract 3).
The ASCO Post Staff
Simon J. Crabb, PhD, MBBS, of the Southampton Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre, discusses data from the ATLANTIS trial, in which the authors hypothesized that switch maintenance therapy with the PARP inhibitor rucaparib, in patients who have derived clinical benefit from first-line chemotherapy, may improve outcomes for those with metastatic urothelial carcinoma that harbored a composite biomarker for DNA repair deficiency (Abstract 436).
The ASCO Post Staff
Wesley Yip, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses phase II results on neoadjuvant gemcitabine and cisplatin for high-grade upper tract urothelial carcinoma, which was well tolerated and demonstrated a favorable pathologic response rate. Dr. Yip notes that this treatment, given prior to nephroureterectomy, did not significantly delay surgery or increase perioperative complication rates.
The ASCO Post Staff
Alfredo Berruti, MD, of Italy’s University of Brescia, discusses the first study to give adjuvant mitotane to patients with adrenocortical carcinoma, a rare disease with a high risk of relapse after radical surgery. Although theoretically this treatment may be clinically worthwhile, the findings suggest that the need for adjuvant mitotane should always be discussed on a case-by-case basis by the multidisciplinary team, and more study is warranted (Abstract 1).
The ASCO Post Staff
Massimo Di Maio, MD, of the University of Turin, discusses the Meet-URO12 study, which showed that maintenance niraparib plus best supportive care (BSC) did not prolong progression-free survival, compared with BSC alone, among patients with urothelial cancer that did not progress after first-line platinum-based chemotherapy.
