David C. Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, on Chasing His Cure: A Physician Is Battling His Disease and Beating the Odds
ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program
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.
The ASCO Post Staff
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).
The ASCO Post Staff
Alberto F. Sobrero, MD, of the Ospedale San Martino, discusses final results of the IDEA study, which supported the use of 3 months of adjuvant CAPOX, vs 6 months, for most patients with stage III colon cancer. The shorter treatment duration reduced toxicity, inconvenience, and cost (Abstract 4004).
The ASCO Post Staff
Nancy U. Lin, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the HER2CLIMB study of patients with previously treated HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer that had metastasized to the brain. Adding tucatinib to trastuzumab and capecitabine doubled the intracranial response rate and reduced the risk of death by nearly half, compared with trastuzumab plus capecitabine (Abstract 1005).
The ASCO Post Staff
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).
The ASCO Post Staff
Paul G. Richardson, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses early results on a cereblon E3 ligase modulator agent combined with dexamethasone in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, with an overall response rate of 48%. The study is ongoing to further optimize dose and schedule (Abstract 8500).
