Christopher Nutting, MD, PhD, of the Royal Marsden Hospital and Institute of Cancer Research, discusses phase III results from the first study to demonstrate the functional benefit of swallow-sparing intensity-modulated radiotherapy in oro- and hypopharyngeal cancers (Abstract 6508).
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.
Farhad Ravandi-Kashani, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses updates from a phase I dose-escalation study of AMG 330, a bispecific T-cell engager molecule. It showed early evidence of an acceptable safety profile, drug tolerability, and antileukemic activity, supporting further dose escalation in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (Abstract 7508).
Leora Horn, MD, of Vanderbilt University, discusses the results of the TERAVOLT study, launched by the Thoracic Cancers International COVID-19 Collaboration. It examined the impact of specific chemotherapy and immunotherapy regimens on hospitalization and risk of death in patients with thoracic malignancies who are also infected with COVID-19 (Abstract LBA111).
Peter Reichardt, MD, PhD, of Helios Klinikum Berlin-Buch, discusses the 10-year survival analysis of 3 years vs 1 year of adjuvant imatinib for patients with high-risk gastrointestinal stromal tumor. The study found that about 50% of deaths can be avoided with longer imatinib treatment (Abstract 11503).
Thierry André, MD, of Hôpital Saint-Antoine, discusses the phase III results from KEYNOTE-177, which showed that, compared with standard chemotherapy of FOLFOX or FOLFIRI, pembrolizumab doubled median progression-free survival, from 8.2 months to 16.5 months, in patients with microsatellite instability–high/mismatch repair–deficient metastatic colorectal cancer (Abstract LBA4).
