Clifford A. Hudis, MD, ASCO Chief Executive Officer, talks about extending the reach and impact of ASCO by partnering with patients who play a key role in advancing science through clinical trial participation. With near-record numbers of registered attendees, the 2023 Annual Meeting fostered new connections and plans for collaborations.
Guillermo Garcia-Manero, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses phase III findings from the COMMANDS trial. Compared with epoetin alfa, luspatercept improved red blood cell transfusion independence and erythroid response, as well as the duration of response in erythropoiesis-stimulating agent–naive, transfusion-dependent patients with lower‐risk myelodysplastic syndromes (Abstract 7003).
Claire Roddie, PhD, MBChB, of University College London, discusses results of the FELIX study, which showed that the second-generation chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy obecabtagene autoleucel is safe for adults with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, even those with a high burden of disease. This agent yielded high rates of complete response and ongoing CAR T-cell persistence in most patients whose disease responded (Abstract 7000).
Narjust Florez, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Heather A. Wakelee, MD, of Stanford University, Stanford Cancer Institute, discuss new data supporting neoadjuvant pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy followed by surgery and adjuvant pembrolizumab as a promising new treatment option for patients with resectable stage II, IIIA, or IIIB (N2) non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (Abstract LBA100).
Nagla Abdel Karim, MD, of the Inova Schar Cancer Institute, University of Virginia, discusses phase II data showing that maintenance atezolizumab plus talazoparib improved progression-free survival in Schlafen-11–selected patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer. This study demonstrated the feasibility of conducting biomarker-selected trials in this disease, paving the way for future evaluation of novel therapies in selected populations (Abstract 8504).
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).
