Merry-Jennifer Markham, MD, ASCO’s Cancer Communications Chair, gives her views on key papers presented at the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program, addressing gynecologic malignancies and COVID-19.
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).
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).
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.
Rachel E. Sanborn, MD, of the Providence Cancer Institute, discusses three key abstracts on EGFR-mutated non–small cell lung cancer: a final overall survival analysis of bevacizumab plus erlotinib; concurrent osimertinib plus gefitinib for first-line treatment; and first-line treatment with a tyrosine kinase inhibitor with or without aggressive upfront local radiation therapy (Abstracts 9506, 9507, 9508).
