Carmen E. Guerra, MD, MSCE, on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Clinical Trials: Expert Commentary
2023 ASCO Annual Meeting
Carmen E. Guerra, MD, MSCE, of the University of Pennsylvania Abramson Cancer Center, discusses three key abstracts presented at ASCO: strategies to increase accrual of underrepresented populations in Alliance NCTN trials, how patient-clinician education can strengthen partnerships and improve diversity in breast and lung cancer trials, and mediators of racial and ethnic inequities in clinical trial participation among U.S. patients with cancer from 2011 to 2022 (Abstracts 6509, 6510, 6511).
The ASCO Post Staff
Alicia K. Morgans, MD, MPH, and Praful Ravi, MRCP, MBBChir, both of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discuss an individual patient-data analysis of randomized trials from the ICECAP collaborative. A PSA nadir of ≥ 0.1 ng/mL within 6 months after radiotherapy completion was prognostic for prostate cancer–specific, metastasis-free, and overall survival in patients receiving radiotherapy plus androgen-deprivation therapy for localized prostate cancer. These findings may help identify patients for therapy de-escalation trials (Abstract 5002).
The ASCO Post Staff
Nirav N. Shah, MD, of the Medical College of Wisconsin, discusses phase II results showing that split-dose R-CHOP offers older patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) an equivalent dose intensity as R-CHOP-21 through a fractionated dosing schedule, improving tolerability. At the end of treatment for these older patients, a complete response rate of 71% was comparable to outcomes with R-CHOP in younger patients with the disease (Abstract 7554).
The ASCO Post Staff
LaQuisa C. Hill, MD, of Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital, discusses study findings showing that CD5 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells may induce clinical responses in heavily treated patients with relapsed or refractory T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Manufacturing CD5 CAR T cells with tyrosine kinase inhibitors seemed to improve their potency and antitumor activity (Abstract 7002).
The ASCO Post Staff
Christian Pfister, MD, PhD, of Rouen University Hospital, discusses phase III results from the VESPER trial, which showed that dose-dense methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin, and cisplatin provided a better overall survival rate at 5 years and improved disease-specific survival compared with gemcitabine as perioperative chemotherapy in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (Abstract LBA4507).
The ASCO Post Staff
Alicia K. Morgans, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Karim Fizazi, MD, of Institut Gustave Roussy, University of Paris-Saclay, discuss findings from the TALAPRO-2 study, which showed that talazoparib plus enzalutamide improved radiographic progression–free survival over standard-of-care enzalutamide as first-line treatment for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and HRR gene alterations. This regimen also delayed the time to deterioration in global health status and quality of life (Abstract 5004).
