Christine A. Iacobuzio-Donahue, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses her research on the evolutionary features of advanced stage pancreatic cancers and the insights that may be used to help improve patient outcomes (Abstract PL05).
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).
Klaus Pantel, MD, of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, discusses liquid biopsy technologies and biomarkers, with a focus on circulating tumor cells and circulating tumor DNA; clinical applications such as early detection of cancer, improved staging, and surveillance of measurable residual disease; and how best to detect and monitor response to systemic therapies, as well as ways to identify therapeutic targets and resistance mechanisms (Abstract SY08).
Silvia C. Formenti, MD, of Weill Cornell Medicine, discusses research on the best way to integrate radiotherapy with immune modifiers, which might require changes in standard radiation oncology practices. Variables such as the type of treatment fields, the inclusion of draining nodal stations, the degree of exposure of circulating immune cells, the type of dose fractionation, and the timing of radiotherapy during immune checkpoint blockade all can affect the success of immunoradiotherapy combinations (Abstract SY43).
Zev Wainberg, MD, of the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center, discusses preliminary data on the safety and efficacy of TTX-030, an anti-CD39 antibody, in combination with budigalimab and FOLFOX for the first-line treatment of locally advanced or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. The study suggests the regimen may prove to be of benefit as a first-line treatment, regardless of combined positive score status (Abstract CT015).
Matthew L. Meyerson, MD, PhD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses study findings that suggest the variation in frequency of EGFR and KRAS mutations in lung cancer may be associated with genetic ancestry in patients from Latin America. The results indicate it may be possible to identify germline alleles underpinning this link. Finding a germline locus or loci may impact the development of lung cancers with these mutations and may improve lung cancer prevention and screening for populations of Latin American origin, as well as others.
