Robert A. Winn, MD, of Virginia Commonwealth University and the Massey Cancer Center, discusses the COVID-19 pandemic and how it is exacerbating disparities in cancer care among racial and ethnic minorities and the medically underserved who are disproportionately affected by the coronavirus (Session VSS06).
Kala Visvanathan, MD, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, discusses her analysis of data from more than 10,000 women with ovarian cancer. The results suggest that atorvastatin and simvastatin, lipophilic statin cholesterol-lowering drugs, reduced ovarian cancer death rates (Abstract 5782).
Alfonso Bencomo Álvarez, PhD, of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, discusses his retrospective study of the incidence and survival for patients with hematologic malignancies residing at the United States/Mexico border. The analysis showed that 10-year survival rates for Hispanic patients with ALL, AML, and CML were significantly lower for those who lived in El Paso than for those who lived elsewhere in Texas (Abstract 4343).
Ralph R. Weichselbaum, MD, of the University of Chicago Cancer Research Center, explores the question of whether radiotherapy is the principal curative treatment with immunotherapy or activates immunotherapy. He also discussed how to improve the interaction of these treatments, perhaps with vaccination, transfer of genetically engineered T cells, or checkpoint inhibitors (Session ED37).
Silvia Formenti, MD, of Weill Cornell Medical College, discusses her continuing work, and the promising results emerging, in combining radiotherapy with immunotherapy to boost abscopal response rates. This combination therapy extends the use of radiotherapy to promote antitumor T-cell responses for both local and metastatic disease (Session ED37).
Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, of the University of California, Los Angeles, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, summarizes the opening plenary session that addressed epigenetics and early detection, how the aging microenvironment governs response to therapy, AI-driven precision medicine, reprogramming human T cells, and opportunities for the future.
