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
Gautam Mehta, MD, of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, discusses how accelerated approval of potentially life-saving cancer therapies has been applied in precision oncology. Although “fast-tracking” drugs presents opportunities and challenges, one possible measure of the program’s success is the fact that, to date, no solid tumor accelerated-approval indications have been withdrawn (Abstract DC06).
The ASCO Post Staff
Timothy A. Yap, MBBS, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses results from a phase Ib expansion trial of the safety and efficacy of the oral ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related (ATR) inhibitor elimusertib in advanced solid tumors with DNA damage response defects. Elimusertib is a selective inhibitor of ATR, a key regulator of responses to DNA damage and replication stress, with antitumor activity in preclinical models of various solid tumors and lymphoma (Abstract CT006).
The ASCO Post Staff
Josh Neman, PhD, of the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, discusses the distribution of brain metastasis to preferential brain regions that vary according to cancer subtype, how neurotransmitters respond, and the ways in which the central nervous system acclimates (Abstract SY32).
The ASCO Post Staff
Iván Márquez-Rodas, MD, PhD, of Spain’s Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, discusses final results of the phase II SPOTLIGHT203 study of systemic pembrolizumab in combination with intratumoral BO-112 for patients with advanced melanoma refractory to anti–PD-1–based therapy. The regimen achieved an overall response rate of 25% and a disease control rate of 65% (Abstract CT014).
The ASCO Post Staff
Charles L. Sawyers, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the battle against treatment resistance and how to overcome it, as well as the power of observational clinical data in precision oncology, derived largely from his experience with Project GENIE, and the role of genetic ancestry (Abstract PL02).
