Oncology Times - Ot Broadcasts From The Ipad Archives

A new blood test that uses artificial intelligence to analyze circulating molecular markers for the earliest signs of ovarian and other cancers has been reported by researchers. At the AACR 2024 Annual Meeting in San Diego, Victor Velculescu, MD, PhD, Co-Director of the Cancer Genetics & Epigenetics Program at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, reported his group’s validation of the test that assesses the pattern of circulating fragments of tumor DNA, known as fragmentomes. After discussing the findings at an AACR press briefing, Velculescu joined Peter Goodwin in the OncTimesTalk podcast studio to discuss the clinical implications.

An early study using selective inhibition of the Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) has provided evidence it could bring greater cancer control with less toxicity than the well-proven non-selective PARP 1 and PARP 2 inhibitors already in use for treating a number of tumor types. At the AACR Annual Meeting 2024, Timothy Yap, PhD, MD, MBBS, Vice President and Head of Clinical Development in the Therapeutics Discovery Division at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, reported early data from the PETRA study looking at the selective PARP 1 inhibitor saruparib under investigation as a potentially safer, yet more effective, alternative to the non-selective PARP 1/PARP 2 inhibitors currently licensed for prostate, ovarian, breast, and other cancers. After announcing the new research findings at a clinical session at AACR, he met up with Oncology Times reporter Peter Goodwin to discuss the new data and their clinical potential.

Findings from a new study support a body of evidence showing that physical exercise can bring benefits to patients with advanced prostate cancer. Data from an intervention study reported at the AACR Annual Meeting 2024 are consistent with mounting epidemiological evidence showing that regular physical exercise can help patients with advanced or metastatic prostate cancer “deter” death, slow disease progression, and improve quality of life. Stacey A. Kenfield, ScD, Professor of Urology and the Helen Diller Family Chair in Population Science for Urologic Cancer at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), reported early data from the INTERVAL-GAP4 trial. Together with her colleague, June Chan, ScD, Professor of Epidemiology & Biostatistics in Urology at UCSF, she called into the Oncology Times studio at the San Diego conference to tell OncTimesTalk anchor, Peter Goodwin, about the newest findings and recommendations for using physical exercise as a form of therapy for patients with prostate and

Double checkpoint blockade using a single bispecific agent could become the new standard for treating advanced gastric cancer regardless of PD-L1 status, according to research reported at the AACR Annual Meeting 2024. The investigational bispecific antibody drug cadonilimab (used with chemotherapy) significantly extended life and delayed disease progression among patients with HER2-negative advanced or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancers reported from Chinese investigators. The first author of the report, Jiafu Ji, MD, PhD, DrPH, FACS, FRCS, Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Medical Science, as well as Professor and Chief of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Center at Peking University Cancer Hospital and the Beijing Institute for Cancer Research in China, called into the Oncology Times office at AACR after his talk to discuss his team’s findings with Peter Goodwin, an OncTimesTalk correspondent.

Linvoseltamab, a B-cell maturation antigen-targeted T-cell-engaging bispecific antibody, brought robust clinical benefit to patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, including those in difficult-to-treat subgroups, in a multi-center, international study reported to the 2024 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting. After giving his talk in San Diego, lead author Sundar Jagannath MBBS, Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology and Director of the Center of Excellence for Multiple Myeloma at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, met up with OncTimesTalk correspondent Peter Goodwin to discuss the therapeutic progress the drug offers.

An opportunity to detect pancreatic cancer at stages where early intervention can greatly extend life and even make cure possible seems to be on offer, according to findings from a study of a new liquid biopsy method based on so-called exosomes: subcellular molecules shed into the circulation by cancer cells. At the AACR Annual Meeting 2024 in San Diego, Peter Goodwin talked with Ajay Goel, PhD, AGAF, senior author of the study and Chair of the Molecular Diagnostics and Experimental Therapeutics in the Beckman Research Institute at City of Hope in Los Angeles.

Designed with the help of artificial intelligence to recognize multiple genetic features of each patient’s tumor, a small clinical trial of a personalized therapeutic vaccine has shown durable tumor-specific immune responses in patients with surgically resected HPV-negative head and neck squamous cell cancer. The vaccine also prevented relapse in some patients. At the AACR Annual Meeting 2024, Olivier Lantz, MD, PhD, Head of the Clinical Immunology Laboratory at the Institut Curie Hospital in Paris, reported data using a “neoantigen-based vaccine” specifically designed to recognize multiple genetic features unique to each patient’s tumor. During the conference, Lantz called into the OncTimesTalk studio to tell Peter Goodwin about the clinical options that could develop from such highly personalized vaccines.

Higher rates of satisfaction and psychosocial well-being and low complication rates were reported by patients who had a new mesh-supported prepectoral method of breast reconstruction using titanized mesh pockets after their surgery for breast cancer. At the 14th European Breast Cancer Conference in Milan, Stefan Paepke, MD, from the Interdisciplinary Breast Centre at the Technical University of Munich in Germany, said the technique prevents the unnatural breast mobility patients can experience after reconstruction, sometimes called jumping breasts. After reporting his group’s 24-month follow-up data from the prospective international mesh-supported, pre-pectoral breast reconstruction trial (PRO-Pocket Trial) at the conference, he discussed the findings with Peter Goodwin.

The value of adding a radiation boost to postoperative radiotherapy for patients younger than 50 with early breast cancer has been confirmed by 10 years of data from the Young Boost trial conducted in the Netherlands. However, by randomizing patients between the standard radiation boost and a lower dose boost, the study demonstrated comparable efficacy for the two boost regimens, with less toxicity among patients receiving the low boost. The trial findings were reported by Sophie Bosma, MD, PhD, Radiation Oncologist from The Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam at the 14th European Breast Cancer Conference held in Milan. After her talk, she discussed the findings with Peter Goodwin.

A 30-year-long population-based study, reported at the 14th European Breast Cancer conference held in Milan, Italy, showed that breast-conserving therapy for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) had become increasingly effective in preventing the emergence of breast cancer over the long term, but that there were still unanswered questions. The population-based Netherlands Cancer Registry retrospective cohort study of 25,719 women with DCIS diagnosed from 1989 up to 2021 (all of whom were treated with standard conservative therapy) found there were successes and limitations with the current standard of care for DCIS. Surprisingly, long-term risk appeared to have been unrelated to tumor grade. Also, despite a continuing improvement in outcomes during this period, the investigators concluded that specific molecular predictors of outcome still needed to be identified to distinguish intrinsically low-risk tumors (that did not require even conservative therapy) from those that carry higher risk and are highly likely

Most patients whose breast cancer has spread to more than three lymph nodes can nevertheless be spared extensive axillary dissection, according to the findings of a study presented at the 2024 European Breast Cancer Conference in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Annemiek van Hemert, a Medical Doctor and PhD candidate at the Surgical Oncology Department of the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek-Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, reported her findings from a study using the MARI protocol (marking axillary lymph nodes with radioactive iodine seeds) that predicts cancer outcomes. The protocol was developed at the AVL Hospital in 2014 and is now being used in several Dutch hospitals. After her session at the Milan conference, van Hemert talked with OncTimesTalk correspondent Peter Goodwin about the clinical implications of her group’s findings.

Artificial intelligence is being harnessed by a team of researchers at Leicester University in the United Kingdom to predict the risk of lymphedema (and potentially other toxicities) from the use of postoperative radiation therapy for breast cancer. The 2024 European Breast Cancer Conference heard the latest news on an artificial intelligence tool that promises to help cancer clinicians individualize radiotherapy regimens after surgery to minimize toxicity. Tim Rattay, MBChB, PhD, Associate Professor in Breast Surgery in the Leicester Cancer Research Centre at the University of Leicester and Consultant Breast Surgeon at the University Hospitals of Leicester in the UK, told the conference about his group’s machine-learning algorithm, PRE-ACT (Prediction of Radiotherapy side Effects using explainable AI for patient Communication and Treatment modification), that predicts post-operative lymphedema. After reporting his research in Milan, Rattay called into the OncTimesTalk studio to give Peter Goodwin the det

New data from the Phase III KEYNOTE-756 clinical trial show that adding pembrolizumab immunotherapy to chemotherapy before and after surgery for high-risk breast cancer (which was estrogen receptor (ER)-positive and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative) resulted in better outcomes for patients regardless of their age or menopausal status. The findings were presented at the 14th European Breast Cancer Conference by KEYNOTE-756 study co-author Heather McArthur, MD, MPH, Clinical Director of the Breast Cancer Program and Komen Distinguished Chair in Clinical Breast Research at the UT Southwestern Medical Center. She reported the findings at the Milan conference on behalf of her co-author Javier Cortés MD, Head of the International Breast Cancer Centre in Barcelona, Spain. After her talk in Milan, McArthur called into the OncTimesTalk Studio to talk about the findings with Peter Goodwin.

Offering MRI-guided partial breast irradiation before surgery to patients with low-risk breast cancer could become the norm, according to Yasmin Civil, MD, in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Amsterdam UMC in the Netherlands, who reported 5-year results from the ABLATIVE trial to the 14th European Breast Cancer Conference. The researchers found that single-dose, MRI-guided, partial breast irradiation given before breast-conserving surgery achieved durable pathologic complete remissions in low-risk breast cancer, as well as held out the prospect of surgery-free treatment for some patients.  After giving her talk in Milan, Civil discussed the details of the ABLATIVE study findings with Peter Goodwin.

Adding checkpoint inhibition immunotherapy to adjuvant chemotherapy did not improve survival among patients with triple-negative breast cancers.   These findings from a study reported at the 14th European Breast Cancer Conference were presented by Heather McArthur, MD, MPH, Clinical Director of Breast Cancer and Komen Distinguished Chair in Clinical Breast Research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.   After McArthur’s talk in Italy, she shared the details with Peter Goodwin, OncTimesTalk correspondent.

About a quarter of all patients with newly diagnosed triple-negative breast cancer will not benefit from neoadjuvant checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy with an agent such as pembrolizumab—even though it improves outcomes among the remaining majority.   At the 14th European Breast Cancer Conference, held in Milan, Italy, Laura van ’t Veer, PhD, Program Leader of the Breast Oncology Program at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, reported findings from the I-SPY2 TRIAL showing that analysis of “response predictive subtypes” identified a subset of patients with triple-negative early-stage breast cancers with a very low likelihood of response to neoadjuvant immunotherapy and can be spared potential toxicities.   After her talk in Milan, van ’t Veer called in to the OncTimesTalk studio to talk about the I-SPY findings with Peter Goodwin. 

An early study of patients (Phase I/II) with acute myeloid leukemia found that a new three-drug combination therapy greatly improved outcomes—both in patients with relapsed or refractory disease and as initial therapy.  The new research involved adding quizartinib that targets fms-related tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) oncogene. Mutations of FLT3 are present in nearly a third of all AML tumors. The internal tandem duplication mutation of FLT3, in particular, is associated with poor prognosis in AML. So, it was hypothesized that targeting FLT3 could help in treating FLT3-mutated AML. First author Musa Yilmaz MD, Associate Professor in the Department of Leukemia at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, has been talking with OncTimesTalk correspondent Peter Goodwin. 

How best to treat patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma has been made clearer by a report from the multinational Phase III Sympatico Study, presented at the 65th ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition held in San Diego. Lead author Michael Wang, MD, Professor in the Department of Lymphoma & Myeloma at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, told the conference how a combination of two targeted drugs—ibrutinib and venetoclax—improved outcomes.

2024 is the 20th year of clinical studies conducted as part of the STAMPEDE (Systemic Therapy in Advancing or Metastatic Prostate Cancer: Evaluation of Drug Efficacy) trial, a series of investigational approaches to initial therapy for patients with high-risk prostate cancer. Patient accrual has now ended, but practice-changing data continue to emerge from STAMPEDE. New agents, regimens, and optimized treatment combinations have been assessed in patients whose tumors already metastasized or were localized but judged highly likely to progress.   Noel Clarke, MBBS, FRCS, ChM, FRCS (Urol), Consultant Urological Surgeon and Professor of Urological Oncology at the Christie at Salford Royal Hospitals in Manchester, said the study is a multi-arm, multi-stage trial in which the current standard of care has continually been compared during the past 20 years with various candidate interventions tested against it.    “Multiple thousands of patients have taken part in the trial,” Clarke said. &

The multicenter RAMOSE randomized clinical trial has found that doublet growth factor tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy, when compared with standard osimertinib monotherapy, achieved a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival in patients whose advanced non-small cell lung cancers were driven by mutated epidermal growth factor receptor. First author Xiuning Le, MD, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, has been discussing her group’s findings with Peter Goodwin, an OncTimesTalk correspondent.