Lakshmi Nayak, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, reviews two key abstracts on newly diagnosed primary central nervous system lymphoma and treatment with whole-brain radiotherapy, methotrexate, temozolomide, rituximab, procarbazine, vincristine, and cytarabine (Abstracts 2500 and 2501).
As Thomas Powles, MD, PhD, of Queen Mary University of London, prepares to deliver his late-breaking presentation at the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program (LBA-1), he talks with Christopher Sweeney, MBBS, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, about current therapy: PD1/PDL1 inhibition in second-line treatment and as monotherapy in the first-line setting, as well as the concept of maintenance switch.
Howard A. Burris III, MD, FACP, FASCO, talks about some of the reports of research developments he is looking forward to and how future conferences could incorporate virtual presentations.
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.
Jeremy L. Warner, MD, of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, discusses data from the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium cohort study, which included patients with active or prior hematologic or invasive solid malignancies, reported across academic and community sites (Abstract LBA110).
Christopher Sweeney, MBBS, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, talks with Thomas Powles, MD, PhD, of Queen Mary University of London, about the first study to demonstrate a survival advantage with avelumab for metastatic urothelial cancer. In the trial, avelumab improved median overall survival by 21.4 months compared with 14.3 months with best supportive care (Abstract LBA1).
