The ASCO Post Staff
Nikhil Khushalani, MD, Vice Chair for the Department of Cutaneous Oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center, offers his thoughts on the role of immunotherapy in the treatment of advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC). Dr. Khushalani discusses the three currently approved immunotherapeutic agents for this disease—cemiplimab-rwlc, pembrolizumab, and cosibelimab-ipdl—and their confirmatory trials as well as adverse event profiles. He also talks about choosing optimal treatment strategies for patients, and studies currently exploring monotherapy vs combination therapy regimens.
References
1. Migden MR, Rischin D, Schmults CD, et al: PD-1 blockade with cemiplimab in advanced cutaneous squamous-cell carcinoma. N Eng J Med 379:341-351, 2018.
2. Hughes BGM, Guminski A, Bowyer S, et al: A phase 2 open-label study of cemiplimab in patients with advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (EMPOWER-CSCC-1): Final long-term analysis of groups 1, 2, and 3, and primary analysis of fixed-dose treatment group 6. J Am Acad Dermatol 1:68-77, 2025.
3. Grob JJ, Gonzalez R, Bassett-Seguin N, et al: Pembrolizumab monotherapy for recurrent or metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma: A single-arm phase II trial (KEYNOTE-629). J Clin Oncol 25:2916-2925, 2020.
4. Maubec E, Boubaya M, Petrow P, et al: Phase II study of pembrolizumab as first-line, single-drug therapy for patients with unresectable cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas. J Clin Oncol 26:3051-3061, 2020.
5. Clingan P, Ladwa R, Brungs D, et al: Efficacy and safety of cosibelimab, an anti-PD-L1 antibody, in metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. J Immunother Cancer 10:e007637, 2023.
6. Zandberg DP, Allred JB, Rosenberg AJ, et al: Phase II (Alliance A091802) randomized trial of avelumab plus cetuximab versus avelumab alone in advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. J Clin Oncol 43:2398-2408, 2025.
Over the past year, several important studies in ovarian cancer have been presented at multiple oncology meetings and published in a number of peer-reviewed publications. In this installment of a two-part discussion for The ASCO Post Newsreels, Ursula A. Matulonis, MD, and Joyce F. Liu, MD, MPH, discuss antibody-drug conjugates and clinical trials including PRIMA and ATHENA. In part two of this feature, Dr. Matulonis and Dr. Liu talk about low-grade serous ovarian carcinoma and an important recently published study.
Filmed November 22, 2024
The ASCO Post Staff
Arvind N. Dasari, MD, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses data presented at the ESMO Gastrointestinal Cancers Congress 2025, which showed that adding circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) testing to current standard of care surveillance for patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) better identified patients who are appropriate candidates for metastasis-directed therapy.
Reference
- Dasari NA, Nakamura Y, Sorscher S, et al: Clinical utility of including circulating tumor DNA monitoring in standard of care colorectal cancer surveillance. ESMO Gastrointestinal Cancers Congress 2025. Abstract 2O.
The ASCO Post Staff
Atish D. Choudhury, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist and clinical/translational investigator at the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses forms of hormonal therapy for patients with prostate cancer, with a focus on the HERO trial, which evaluated oral relugolix vs injectable leuprolide in patients with advanced hormone-sensitive disease. Dr. Choudhury touches on additional analyses from HERO as well, including the effects seen with relugolix on major cardiovascular events.
References
1. Shore ND, Saad F, Cookson MS, et al: Oral relugolix for androgen-deprivation therapy in advanced prostate cancer. N Engl J Med 382:2187-2196, 2020.
2. Saad F, George DJ, Cookson MS, et al: Relugolix vs leuprolide effects on castration resistance-free survival from the phase 3 HERO study in men with advanced prostate cancer. Cancers 15:4854, 2023.
3. Tombal B, Collins S, Morgans AK, et al: Impact of relugolix versus leuprolide on the quality of life of men with advanced prostate cancer: Results from the phase 3 HERO study. Eur Urol 6:579-57, 2023.
4. Spratt DE, George DJ, Shore ND, et al: Efficacy and safety of radiotherapy plus relugolix in men with localized or advanced prostate cancer. JAMA Oncol 5:594-602, 2024.
The ASCO Post Staff
Erika Hamilton, MD, Director, Breast Cancer Research at Sarah Cannon Research Institute, provides a look at “where we stand in 2025” in the field of oral selective estrogen receptor degraders (SERDs) for patients with estrogen receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. She discusses the first and only FDA-approved oral SERD, elacestrant, indicated for use after CDK4/6 inhibitor therapy in patients with ESR1 mutations; reviews agents still being tested in clinical trials, such as imlunestrant and camizestrant; and highlights the role of oral SERDs as both monotherapies and in novel combinations. As Dr. Hamilton explains, “there haven’t been novel endocrine backbones [for these patients] since fulvestrant.”
