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
Penelope Bradbury, MBChB, of Canada’s Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, discusses phase III findings showing that, in patients with treatment-naive unresectable pleural mesothelioma, cisplatin and pemetrexed with pembrolizumab improved median overall survival with acceptable tolerability (Abstract LBA8505).
The ASCO Post Staff
Nirav N. Shah, MD, of the Medical College of Wisconsin, discusses the efficacy and safety of pirtobrutinib, a highly selective, noncovalent BTK inhibitor, studied for more than 3 years in the BRUIN trial. The results showed that the use of pirtobrutinib continues to have durable efficacy and a favorable safety profile in heavily pretreated patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma and prior BTK inhibitor therapy. Responses were observed in patients with high-risk disease features, including blastoid/pleomorphic variants, elevated Ki67 index, and TP53 mutations (Abstract 7514).
The ASCO Post Staff
Arlene O. Siefker-Radtke, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses phase III findings showing that for patients with advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma and FGFR alteration who already had been treated with a PD-(L)1 inhibitor, erdafitinib significantly improved overall and progression-free survival, as well as overall response rate, compared with investigator’s choice of chemotherapy (LBA4619).
The ASCO Post Staff
Reid Merryman, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses his findings on the regimen of epcoritamab plus rituximab and lenalidomide for patients with high-risk follicular lymphoma. Regardless of whether their disease progressed within 24 months of first-line chemoimmunotherapy, this regimen showed antitumor activity and a manageable safety profile in patients with relapsed or refractory disease. Epcoritamab, a subcutaneous T-cell–engaging bispecific antibody, may abrogate the negative effects of high-risk features (Abstract 7506).
The ASCO Post Staff
Narjust Florez, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Filippo Gustavo Dall’Olio, MD, of Institut Gustave Roussy, discuss circulating tumor DNA tumor fraction, and its link to survival in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with maintenance durvalumab in the UNICANCER SAFIR02-Lung/IFCT1301 trial. Tumor fraction was positive in 16% of patients randomly assigned to receive durvalumab in the study. This population seems to have a limited benefit from maintenance durvalumab after induction chemotherapy (Abstract 2516).
