Cheryl L. Willman, MD, on Cancer Genomic Sequencing in Tribal Nations of the American Southwest
AACR Annual Meeting 2022
Cheryl L. Willman, MD, of the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the profound cancer health disparities among Native Americans, exacerbated by low rates of screening and limited access to care. Dr. Willman is heading an effort to promote community engagement in comprehensive genomic sequencing with the hope that researchers will discover novel mutations and genome-wide mutational signatures that can ultimately be translated to improved screening and therapy in this population (Abstract PL03).
The ASCO Post Staff
Ari M. VanderWalde, MD, MPH, MBioeth, of The West Clinic, discusses results from the S1616 trial involving patients with metastatic or unresectable melanoma who had primary resistance to PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitors. Compared with ipilimumab alone, the combination of ipilimumab plus nivolumab benefited some patients: those with tumors that responded to therapy showed an increased amount of CD8+ cells. Because there is no standard treatment for metastatic melanoma after failure of PD-1 inhibitors in BRAF wild-type disease, this research may provide a viable option in the future (Abstract CT013).
The ASCO Post Staff
Maria Elena Martinez, PhD, MPH, of the University of California, San Diego Moores Cancer Center, provides an overview of the key components of the Accelerating Colorectal Cancer Screening and Follow-up through Implementation Science program, challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and opportunities for overcoming these challenges. Although screening and follow-up may reduce the incidence of and mortality from colorectal cancer, these disparities persist in medically underserved populations (Abstract SY30).
The ASCO Post Staff
Marcia R. Cruz-Correa, MD, PhD, of the University of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses a way to possibly transform cancer outcomes by teaming up basic scientists, clinical researchers, and community advocates to work together, decode the complexity of cancer, and find points at which to intervene in the development of tumor cells. One strong focus is on communities disproportionately affected based on their genomic ancestry, geographic location, and ethnicity (Abstract PL06).
The ASCO Post Staff
Jia Luo, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the emerging class of cancer therapies for allele-specific KRAS inhibitors and the importance of their distinct clinical, genomic, and immunologic features. Because KRAS G12D–mutated non–small cell lung cancer is associated with worse responses to immunotherapy, Dr. Luo believes drug development will need to take these differences into account (Abstract 4117).
The ASCO Post Staff
Patricia M. LoRusso, DO, of the Yale University School of Medicine, discusses how patients may benefit in the coming decade from discoveries about agents that target KRAS, and how important the approval of sotorasib turned out to be, as well as other agents in the research pipeline. Dr. LoRusso also talks about the scientific advances in tackling inhibition (Abstract SY20).
