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
Alberto Bossi, MD, of Institut Gustave Roussy, discusses phase III findings showing that combining prostate radiotherapy with systemic treatment did not improve overall survival in men with de novo metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer and low metastatic burden. However, best outcomes (radiographic progression–free-survival and overall survival) were observed in men receiving the standard of care plus abiraterone acetate plus prednisone with radiotherapy (Abstract LBA5000).
The ASCO Post Staff
Tycel J. Phillips, MD, of City of Hope National Medical Center, and Emanuele Zucca, MD, of the Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland and the International Extranodal Lymphoma Study Group, discuss findings from the largest prospective study of patients with primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma. The trial data support omitting radiotherapy in patients who achieve complete metabolic response after immunochemotherapy (Abstract LBA7505).
The ASCO Post Staff
Tycel J. Phillips, MD, and Swetha Kambhampati, MD, both of City of Hope National Medical Center, discuss new findings showing that the real-world effectiveness and safety of brexucabtagene autoleucel were similar to data from the pivotal ZUMA-2 trial in patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma, regardless of prior BTK inhibition, bendamustine, or autologous stem cell transplantation (Abstract 7507).
The ASCO Post Staff
Rana R. McKay, MD, of the University of California, San Diego, and Brian I. Rini, MD, of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, discuss the 5-year follow-up results with the combination of a checkpoint inhibitor plus a VEGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor as first-line treatment for patients with advanced clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Pembrolizumab plus axitinib continued to demonstrate improved survival outcomes as well as overall response rate vs sunitinib for patients with previously untreated disease (Abstract LBA4501).
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).
