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).
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).
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.
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).
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.
Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, of Yale Cancer Center, discusses data from the ADAURA study, which showed that compared with placebo, osimertinib as adjuvant therapy after complete tumor resection reduced the risk of disease recurrence or death by 79% in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (Abstract LBA5).
