Allison Betof Warner, MD, PhD, on TIL Therapy for Advanced Melanoma: Innovative Clinical Advances in Treatment
Thematic Newsreels
Allison Betof Warner, MD, PhD, reviews important clinical research in the treatment of advanced melanoma, including tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy, the role of this innovative treatment in advanced melanoma, and relevant data, peer-reviewed literature, and FDA approvals in 2024. She also provides a look ahead at what is on the horizon in 2025 with regard to care for patients with advanced melanoma.
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.
Jennifer Gile, MD, of Willamette Valley Cancer Institute, reviews findings from the POLARIX study, a double-blind, placebo-controlled, international phase III trial that evaluated pola-R-CHP—a modified regimen of rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP), in which vincristine was replaced with polatuzumab vedotin—as compared with standard R-CHOP, in patients with previously untreated intermediate-risk or high-risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). With a 5-year update from the trial being published recently, Dr. Gile discusses long-term results, the regimen’s performance in key high-risk subgroups, and how the study altered the front-line management of this disease.
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.”
Jennifer Gile, MD, of Willamette Valley Cancer Institute, talks about the first positive phase III trials in the high-risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) space—POLARIX and frontMIND. POLARIX established the superiority of a modified regimen of rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) called pola-R-CHP, in which vincristine was replaced with polatuzumab vedotin, over standard R-CHOP; frontMIND showed that the addition of the CD19 monoclonal antibody tafasitamab plus the immunomodulatory drug lenalidomide to R-CHOP also improved outcomes over standard R-CHOP. Dr. Gile discusses current considerations when choosing between these regimens and how future research may lead to even more refined patient selection.
Benjamin P. Levy, MD, of Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, reviews currently available therapies for patients with KRAS G12C–mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), noting the importance of genomic testing to identify individuals eligible for treatment with these agents. He discusses the two FDA-approved second-line drugs in this space—sotorasib and adagrasib—touching on their efficacy and associated adverse events. He also mentions divarasib, an investigational next-generation KRAS G12C inhibitor, which showed superiority over both sotorasib and adagrasib in a recent head-to-head phase III trial.
