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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
