Howard A. Burris III, MD, FACP, FASCO, President of ASCO, talks about what to expect from this year’s ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program and its many offerings.
David C. Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, of the University of Pennsylvania, who trained as an oncologist, summarizes his opening lecture, a dramatic story of his battle against Castleman, a disease of the lymph nodes, his multiple near-death experiences, and the path that led him to develop a cooperative research effort making a difference for him and other patients with this idiopathic orphan illness.
Meletios A. Dimopoulos, MD, of the University of Athens, discusses phase III results from the BOSTON trial, which showed that once-weekly selinexor, bortezomib, and dexamethasone significantly improved progression-free survival and overall response rates compared with twice-weekly bortezomib and dexamethasone in patients previously treated for multiple myeloma (Abstract 8501).
Eric Zhou, PhD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses an existing online program called SHUTi (Sleep Healthy Using the Internet), that he and his team adapted to the needs of adolescent and young adult cancer survivors. After six online cognitive behavior therapy sessions delivered over 8 weeks, the 22 patients in the study reported a significant reduction in insomnia severity, daytime sleepiness, and fatigue as well as an overall improvement in quality of life.
Patricia Pautier, MD, of Institut Gustave Roussy, discusses final results of the phase II LMS-02 study, which showed the combination of doxorubicin and trabectedin to be an effective first-line therapy for patients with leiomyosarcoma, with an acceptable safety profile (Abstract 11506).
Douglas B. Johnson, MD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, discusses three important melanoma abstracts: the need for more than two doses of nivolumab plus ipilimumab in combination immunotherapy; antitumor activity for low-dose ipilimumab with pembrolizumab after disease progression on PD-1 antibodies; and ipilimumab alone or in combination with anti–PD-1 therapy for metastatic disease resistant to PD-1 monotherapy (Abstracts 10003, 10004, and 10005).
