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
Bradley J. Monk, MD, of the University of Arizona, Phoenix, and Creighton University, discusses phase III findings from the KEYNOTE-826 study of overall survival results in patients with persistent, recurrent, or metastatic cervical cancer. Study participants received first-line treatment of pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy, with or without bevacizumab, which reduced the risk of death by up to 40% in three different subsets of patients (Abstract 5500).
The ASCO Post Staff
Tycel J. Phillips, MD, and Alex F. Herrera, MD, both of the City of Hope National Medical Center, discuss findings from the POLARIX study, which provided the largest prospectively collected circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) data set on patients with previously untreated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Achieving ctDNA-negative status was associated with improved outcomes when patients were treated with polatuzumab vedotin-piiq plus combination chemotherapy vs combination chemotherapy alone (Abstract 7523).
The ASCO Post Staff
Sarah K. Tasian, MD, of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, summarizes three studies presented at ASCO: genomic determinants of outcome in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a phase III trial of inotuzumab ozogamicin for high-risk B-cell ALL, and preliminary results from the first-in-child phase II trial of bosutinib in pediatric patients with newly diagnosed chronic myeloid leukemia (Abstracts 10015, 10016, and 10017).
The ASCO Post Staff
Omid Hamid, MD, of The Angeles Clinic & Research Institute, discusses study findings on fianlimab plus cemiplimab-rwlc, which showed clinical activity in patients with advanced melanoma, comparing favorably with other approved combinations of immune checkpoint inhibitors in the same clinical setting. This is the first indication that dual LAG-3 blockade may produce a high level of activity with significant overall response rate after adjuvant anti–PD-1 treatment. A phase III trial of this regimen in treatment-naive patients with advanced melanoma is ongoing (Abstract 9501).
The ASCO Post Staff
Smitha Krishnamurthi, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, and Deb Schrag, MD, MPH, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discuss phase III findings from the PROSPECT trial, which showed FOLFOX chemotherapy with selective use of radiation therapy and sensitizing fluoropyrimidine (5FUCRT) is noninferior to 5FUCRT for the neoadjuvant treatment of patients with locally advanced rectal cancer, prior to low anterior resection with total mesorectal excision (Abstract LBA2).
