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).
Richard L. Schilsky, MD, Chief Medical Officer of ASCO, talks about some of the most important and practice-changing findings presented this year at the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program, including the use of targeted and immunotherapies in earlier lines of therapy, where they have made a significant impact.
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).
Professor Lourdes Gil Deza, of the Instituto Oncológico Henry Moore, Buenos Aires, discusses her findings on the shortcomings of medical training when it comes to treating transgender patients, and the need to deepen clinical and communication skills to assist this population (Abstract 11002).
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).
Nikhil C. Munshi, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses initial results from the KarMMa tria, showing that idecabtagene vicleucel, a B-cell maturation antigen-targeted CAR T-cell therapy, demonstrated deep and durable responses in patients with heavily pretreated relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. Efficacy and safety data support a favorable clinical benefit-risk profile across the target dose range (Abstract 8503).
