Barbara Eichhorst, MD of the University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany, discusses potential concerns with venetoclax. The advantage of venetoclax is that the drug is administered for a certain time period (up to 12 months). What is seen so far in frontline therapy, is that all patients respond to this therapy. There is concern, however, regarding the incidence rate of Richters transformation, as it still holds a very poor prognosis. Furthermore, with late toxicities, more Richters transformation could occur. However, these observations are based heavily on pre-treated patients with 17p deletion where it is known that they have a significant risk…
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Carsten Niemann, MD, PhD of Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark, provides brief guidance on preventing infections in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients. During neutropenia due to treatment, patients can suffer from infections from their own microbiome; when patients are not neutropenic, most infections come through the hands. Therefore good hand hygiene and continuous use of disinfectants is important. Dr Niemanns second piece of advice is to have the flu shot, as those with CLL will have a greater risk of developing a bacterial infection as a superinfection on top of having the flu. He notes the pneumococcal vaccine used against common pneumonia…
Jennifer Woyach, MD of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus, OH talks about selinexor for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. Selinexor is an inhibitor of XPO1, which has been shown to be overactive in a number of cancers, including CLL. Dr Woyach explains that an inhibitor for XPO1 appears to reduce BTK protein expression and downstream B-cell receptor (BCR) signalling. They are interested in combining it with ibrutinib or other BTK inhibitors; there is a trial assessing this combination (NCT02303392).
Nicholas Chiorazzi, MD from The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, NY discusses how cell surface markers change over time and how they can be utilized to understand more about the tissue. Researchers cannot very often get samples from solid they can get bone marrow samples on occasion and rarely, lymph node samples. Therefore, it is required to figure out markers on the surface of cells in the blood that represent cells that have recently left the solid tissue, for instance the bone marrow, lymph node, or the spleen. Dr Chiorazzi mentions how experts have been able to define several…
Stephan Stilgenbauer, MD, PhD of Ulm University, Ulm, Germany, discusses the cost of treatment and collaborations in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Novel drugs are of great benefit but they come at a price. There are several developments, trying to combine these agents into regimens that then have to be given only for a finite treatment duration, which is beneficial for the patient. There is also competition now as there are other agents, for example BTK inhibitors, challenging the paradigm of the lead compound. Prof. Stilgenbauer believes this is very good competition as groups combine their forces and companies support the…
Carsten Niemann, MD, PhD of Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark, provides an overview of what we are learning about chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) treatments and the microenvironment. During treatment, for instance with idelalisib, clinicians need to be very cautious about infections; there is a rapid transfer of research data into clinical practice. Dr Niemann notes that from his perspective, this is just the first steps of understanding how the interaction with the microenvironment actually impairs the immune function in some patients. Understanding both of the impacts of different treatments on the microenvironment, but also the disease itself will make it possible to…
Federico Caligaris-Cappio, MD of Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy, talks about the collaboration of the solid tumor and liquid tumor research communities at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. He explains that the real problem is that the two communities do not talk to each other. But what is becoming clear, is that the issue of the microenvironment can in a sense bridge the two communities, so they can learn one from the other. It looks like in the near future not only will the two communities talk to each other,…
Michael Hallek, MD, PhD of the University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany talks about new International Workshop on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (iwCLL) guidelines at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) held in Cologne, Germany. Prof. Hallek explains that it is important to think about whether or not the iwCLL guidelines need to be changed as there has been so much innovation in the subject. Although most of the guidelines can remain as they were, there are some exceptions. Firstly, the relevant prognostic factors (IgVH mutational status, deletion of 17p, P53 mutation, and Beta-2-microglobulin) will be carved…
Jasmin Bahlo, PhD of University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany gives an overview CLL-IPI and its use in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. The paper on CLL-IPI was published this year and Dr Bahlo explains that they are working on guidelines for CLL in Germany, in which they have integrated a recommendation on the use of the IPI. Dr Bahlo believes it will take some time for the tool to be adopted. They are generating data on its applicability but more data is needed to confirm its…
Michael Keating, MD, BS of MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX discusses challenges in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) held in Cologne, Germany. Prof. Keating explains that one of the problems in CLL is that it tends to occur in older people and there is always the risk of having some genetic abnormality occur which turns a relatively slow growing disease into a rapidly growing disease. Our treatment of this Richters transformation is not very good. Treatment can reduce amount of disease to get patients ready for a stem…
Michael Hallek, MD, PhD of the University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany discusses new chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) treatments and FCR (fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, and rituximab) at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) held in Cologne, Germany. Prof. Hallek begins by explaining that the current standard of care for some patients that we can genetically characterize, is FCR chemoimmunotherapy. The physically fit patients that have a certain number of genetic alterations, are doing extremely well with FCR; so for these patients it remains a standard. For other patients, FCR chemoimmunotherapy is also applied very often. There are…
Stephan Stilgenbauer, MD, PhD of Ulm University, Ulm, Germany, provides an overview of the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. They are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the study group with this meeting. Prof. Stilgenbauer further explains that there is a general tradition of collaboration in hematology research areas in Germany to run large trials, set new standards of care, and develop new drugs. The German CLL Study Group has been at the forefront of this development and we are living in very exciting times with a range of novel agents. The question…
Jasmin Bahlo, PhD of University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany gives an overview of her talk on CLL-IPI held at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. Dr Bahlo first talks about the current standard of prognostication in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). She explains that now there are more markers available and many new discoveries have been made in genetics that need to be considered in prognostication. The IPI analysis was a comprehensive analysis that covered a broad range of variables with the aim of developing a prognostic index, which considers all factors and…
Michael Brown, MBBS, FRACP, FRCPA from the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Adelaide, Australia discusses the history of cancer immunotherapy. Historically speaking, Dr Brown mentions there being a theory that the immune system may have some involvement in controlling cancer. Attempts have been made to stimulate the immune system against cancer, mainly to activate the innate immune system, using agents like interferon alpha or BCG. However, cancer has mechanisms to switch off the immune system. Interventions using anti-CTLA-4 antibodies, like ipilimumab, recognised that new specificities for cancer-related antigens were being generated by the use of ipilimumab to block the switch off mechanism…
Lisa Beatty, PhD, of Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia discusses optimism towards online interventions for supportive care. There is now a plethora of studies that have been published on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), ten of them about distress, and a range that has addressed other psycho-social problems. There has been an increased reach with internet use over time – 86% of households in Australia have internet access. However, some still lack access, for instance very senior Australians and those in rural communities. Along with this, Dr Beatty mentions how some people prefer not to deal with their problems online and would…
Charles Loprinzi, MD of Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN discusses neuropathy treatment options. ASCO guidelines recommend duloxetine, an antidepressant medication, which helps but does not completely eliminate the neuropathic pain. A scrambler therapy, developed for patients with chronic pain, is another option. This therapy may reduce the neuropathic pain by up to 50%, as suggested by a study conducted by dr Thomas Smith. Scrambler therapy is an electrocutaneous treatment used daily for ten days, with a potential to eliminate neuropathic pain in patients for weeks, months, or even years. Dr Loprinzi mentions, however, that the treatment does not work in all…
Nicole Kiss, PhD, Adv APD of Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia discusses the significance of nutrition to lung cancer patients. In particular, patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) stage III or more, or patients who have in-concurrent chemotherapy with their radiotherapy treatment are more likely to need nutritional intervention during their treatment. Typically, patients develop acute radiation esophagitis, therefore weight loss and malnutrition start becoming apparent. Dr Kiss mentions results from a pilot study looking to see whether more intensive dietary counselling, tailored specifically to the patient would be more effective. Results showed beneficial outcomes. Dr Kiss discusses…
Lisa Beatty, PhD, of Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia, discusses online interventions as a new, innovative approach to supportive care treatment. Although traditional face to face therapies are effective, only twenty five percent of patients who are clinically, significantly distressed elect to attend these. This has paved the way for innovative methods to address their needs. There are patients who may live remotely or in regional areas, which creates some access barriers for them to attend face-to-face treatments. Dr Beatty discusses an online six module programme, developed based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), the gold-standard treatment. The same traditional CBT principles…
Jervoise Andreyev, MA, PhD, FRCP of The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom gives an overview of Helsinn-sponsored symposium focused on a single case of a patient receiving chemotherapy for lung cancer. Dr Andreyev mentions that the patient had experienced irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) for years before the cancer diagnosis, which had an impact on the chemotherapy side effects. By bringing together experts from various fields it is possible to better understand patients situation and focus on the patient rather than a lung cancer that requires treatment. Evidence shows that people with IBS experience much higher level of…
Arnon Kater, MD, PhD of the Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands talks about current research to overcome T-cell dysfunction in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. He begins by explaining that in CLL research, there is an interest in T-cell function. With kinase inhibitors you can postpone the disease and treat patients for a long time. However, there are two problems. Firstly, patients will not be cured. Secondly, it is unaffordable to treat patients indefinitely. Therefore, it is important to come up with a better approach. The…
Federico Caligris-Cappio, MD of Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy, talks about how he thinks doctors should interact with their chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. Prof. Caligris-Cappio explains that he thinks it is essential for doctors to listen to the patients. It is important to talk to them and tell them about the problems and solutions but listening to them and trying to understand their fears and expectations is even more important. In that way, the strategy of treatment can be tailored for the particular…
Carlo Croce, MD of The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH discusses drug combination for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. Prof. Croce explains that he worked with AbbVie to develop venetoclax, which targets BCL2. Ibrutinib targets the Bruton kinase, which can extend the life of CLL patients. As Prof. Croce points out, we therefore already have two very good drugs against CLL. There are some results now on the combination of venetoclax and ibrutinib, which target the leukemic cells through two different genes. He believes that soon…
Barbara Eichhorst, MD of the University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany, provides a brief overview of previous and current trial results of combination drugs for high-risk groups with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). At last years American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting, first data on frontline therapy with the BCL2 inhibitor venetoclax, had been presented showing high complete responses (CR). At this years ASH, data has been submitted on the safety run-in phase of the CLL14 study (NCT02242942), evaluating obinutuzumab and venetoclax with reports on the response rates, including minimal residual disease (MRD) rates. Recorded at the 2016 International Workshop of the…
Arnon Kater, MD, PhD of the Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands talks about the combination of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) drugs to overcome the problem of resistance at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. Prof. Kater starts by explaining that so far, it seems that for example p53, which is a good predictor for non-responsiveness to chemotherapy, is there from the beginning. However, for BTK inhibitors, like ibrutinib, it seems that the mutation in the BTK gene is not there from the beginning. It is a novel mutation that arises by giving…
I recently changed from crizotinib (Xalkori) to alectinib (Alecensa). Should I assume new therapies will bring on new side effects? What do we know about the side effects of newer therapies? Sandi asked this question of Dr. Ross Camidge in our Ask the Expert series. Dr. Camidge, of the University of Colorado, Denver, responds to Sandis question with information about class-specific therapies, as well as explaining the knowledge-base differences between FDA-approved therapies versus those still in clinical trial. Get email alerts | http://www.patientpower.info/alerts Subscribe on YouTube | http://www.youtube.com/patientpower Like on Facebook | http://www.fb.com/patientpower.info Follow on Twitter | http://www.twitter.com/patientpower Follow on…
John Byrd, M.D., The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses how LLSs Beat AML Master Trial aligns with the Cancer Moonshot.
Ross Levine, M.D., Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center describes The Leukemia & Lymphoma Societys Beat AML Master Trial.
Brian Druker, M.D., OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, discusses how the Beat AML initiative addresses the urgent need for a new approach to treat acute myeloid leukemia. Â Â Â Â beat aml initiative, new approach to treat acute myeloid leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia, clinical trial
Louis DeGennaro, Ph.D., President and CEO of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) explains LLSs leadership role in going on the offensive against acute myeloid leukemia, the deadliest blood cancer.
Bettina Ryll, MD, PhD of Melanoma Patient Network Europe talks about the role of drug development and clinical trials for oncology. Dr Ryll believes that the Medicines Adaptive Pathways to Patients (MAPPs) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is an important tool in oncology to combine early access to innovation with systematic learning. Recorded at the 2016 annual meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), held in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Matthew Ellis, MB, BChir, PhD, FRCP of Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX discusses take-home messages from the Phase III FALCON randomized trial of fulvestran versus anastrozole for hormone receptor-positive advanced breast cancer (NCT01602380). Prof. Ellis explains that one of the take-home messages comes from a subgroup analysis. Patients with hormone receptor-positive advanced breast cancer form a very heterogenous group; a typical patient on the FALCON trial had non-visceral disease. In this group, the advantage for fulvestran seems more dramatic as Prof. Ellis explains. Further, the overall survival (OS) data for using fulvestran upfront is not known yet; there is…
Bettina Ryll, MD, PhD of Melanoma Patient Network Europe gives an overview of the sessions by the Melanoma Patient Network Europe held at the 2016 annual meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), held in Copenhagen, Denmark. The sessions covered healthcare system issues and how to ensure best care for patients. Further, Dr Ryll talks about risk sharing agreements or managed entry agreements, i.e. agreements between drug developers and health care providers to grant access to innovative medicines. Dr Ryll believes that by exchanging information and experience between different countries we can better and ensure better access to…
Martin Reck, MD, PhD of LungenClinic Grosshansdorf, Grosshansdorf, Germany discusses the implication of the KETNOTE-024 trial results for advanced lung cancer. According to Dr Reck, this data will completely change the management of patients. At diagnosis, we have to look at oncogenic alterations but now it is also important to screen patients for PD-L1 expression. Patients with high PD-L1 can be treated with pembrolizumab, which is now an option for first-line therapy for this group of patients. Recorded at the 2016 annual meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), held in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Mansoor Mirza, MD of Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark gives an overview of the results of the ENGOT-OV16/NOVA Phase III trial of maintenance with PARP-inhibitor niraparib versus placebo in patients with platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer (NCT01847274). According to Dr Mirza, the key take home message is that niraparib was effective as maintenance therapy for all patients in the trial. The biomarker for this treatment would be platinum-sensitvity. The treatment was effective regardless of BRCA status and regardless of HRD status. The hazard ratios for gBRCA mutated cohort was .27 and they saw an increase in median progression-free survival (PFS) from…
Alessandro Gronchi, MD of the National Cancer Institute, Milan, Italy gives a press brief about the results of an interim analysis of a prospective clinical trial on full-dose neoadjuvant anthracycline plus ifosfamide chemotherapy in localized high-risk soft tissue sarcomas (STS) (NCT01710176). Dr Gronchi explains that sarcoma is a rare disease and affects young adults more than elderly people. Adjuvant chemotherapy is debated in STS and its benefit not uniformly accepted. He explains the rationale of the trial comparing conventional chemotherapy versus histology-tailored chemotherapy. Then he presents the results. This is a negative trial; results shows the presence a difference in…
Toni Choueiri, MD of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA gives a press brief about the results of the CABOSUN trial of cabozantinib compared to sunitinib in treatment naive poor and intermediate risk renal-cell carcinoma (RCC) patients (NCT01835158) at the 2016 annual meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr Choueiri explains that cabozantinib is an oral inhibitor of tyrosine kinases. The primary endpoint of the trial was progression-free survival (PFS) and secondary endpoint was overall survival (OS), objective response rate (ORR) and safety. He explains that treatment with cabozantinib resulted in median PFS of…
Alexander Eggermont, MD, PhD, of the Gustave Roussy Institute, Villejuif, France, gives a press brief about the EORTC 18071 randomized double-blind Phase III trial which investigates the question of whether ipilimumab in the adjuvant setting compared to placebo after complete resection of stage III melanoma brings a benefit to patients (NCT00636168). In this press brief, final overall survival (OS) results from this trial are reported. In this trial, 951 patients with lymph node positive high risk of relapse stage III melanoma patients were randomized. They received either an induction of 4 doses of ipilimumab, 3 months apart over the first…
Gabriel Hortobagyi, MD, FACP, of the The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, gives a summary of the findings of the MONALEESA-2 clinical trial (NCT01958021). The MONALEESA-2 study recruited 668 patients who were post-menopausal, had hormone receptor positive, HER2 negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer who had received no prior therapy for advanced disease. These patients were randomly assigned to either letrozole (a commonly used endocrine therapy) plus placebo, or letrozole plus ribociclib (a CDK46 inhibitor). Adverse events were commonly seen but were mostly uncomplicated changes and very few patients discontinued treatment on the basis of adverse…
Jonathan Ledermann, MD, FRCP from University College Hospital, London, UK discusses the advancement of poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor treatment in prostate, gastric and pancreatic cancer at the 2016 annual meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Prof. Ledermann begins by describing a subset of prostate cancer patients who have a common defect in PARP inhibitor activity, homologous recombination, in which there is an inability to repair double stranded DNA breaks correctly. PARP inhibitor treatment has shown promise in small studies and larger studies in the future will provide more insight into this…
Toni Choueiri, MD of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA gives an overivew of the CABOSUN trial of cabozantinib compared to sunitinib in treatment naive poor and intermediate risk renal-cell carcinoma (RCC) patients (NCT01835158) presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr Choueiri first talks about the METEOR trial of cabozantinib in second-line (NCT01865747), which was presented at ESMO last year and published. It showed that cabozantinib provided an improved progression-free survival (PFS) and response rate over everolimus in the second-line setting. Later on they reported at ASCO that…
Martin Reck, MD, PhD of LungenClinic Grosshansdorf, Grosshansdorf, Germany gives an overview of the KEYNOTE-024 trial results for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), held in Copenhagen, Denmark. They KEYNOTE-024 trial is a Phase III trial of pembrolizumab compared to standard of care (SOC) platinum-based chemotherapies in patients with previously untreated stage IV, programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) strong expressing NSCLC (NCT02142738). The assumption was that pembrolizumab will be superior to platinum-based chemotherapies in efficacy and this was observed in the trial. The primary endpoint was…
Mansoor Mirza, MD of Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark gives an overview of the ENGOT-OV16/NOVA Phase III trial of maintenance with PARP-inhibitor niraparib versus placebo in patients with platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer (NCT01847274). Dr Mirza explains that the hypothesis of the trial was that all patients with platinum-sensitive disease will benefit from niraparib. Patients with platinum-sensitive disease, who progressed and then received six courses of combination chemotherapy, were invited to take part in the trial at the end of that chemotherapy when they were responding. The did a centrally performed germline BRCA (gBRCA) status and separated the patients into two…
Jonathan Ledermann, MD, FRCP from University College Hospital, London, UK speaks to us about the development of poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors in the treatment of ovarian cancer at the 2016 annual meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Prof. Ledermann outlines the success of PARP inhibitor olaparib, which has been licenced in Europe as a maintenance therapy in patients with BRCA mutated ovarian cancer who have responded to platinum-based therapy. During ESMO, results from the Phase III, randomized ENGOT-OV16/NOVA trial were presented (NCT01847274), Prof. Ledermann summarizes the promising results of niraparib in…
Ursula Matulonis, MD of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA talks about the ENGOT-OV16/NOVA trial, a trial of women with relapsed platinum-sensitive high-grade ovarian cancer (NCT01847274). Dr Matulonis explains that this was randomized, double-blinded placebo study; the women were platinum-sensitive and responding to platinum and went on to niraparib versus placebo. They also underewent germline BRCA testing and were grouped into gBRCA and non-gBRCA cohort; in the latter cohort, they were further tested for homologous recombination deficiency (HRD). In all the groups, there was a benefit to receiving niraparib and this is not a suprising result as Dr Matulonis explains.
Sven Mahner, MD, PhD of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf Hamburg, Germany talks about next steps for the ENGOT-OV16/NOVA Phase III trial of maintenance therapy with niraparib vs placebo in patients with platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer (NCT01847274). Dr Mahner explains that usually the next step would be publication but in this case, the results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine while the results were presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), held in Copenhagen, Denmark. The next big step is to give patients access to the drug as soon as…
Toni Choueiri, MD of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA provides an overview of his talk on biomarkers of response and resistance with a focus on kidney cancer and nivolomab, held as part of a session on immunotherapy in genitourinary cancer (GU) at the 2016 annual meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), held in Copenhagen, Denmark. He discusses the challenges of PD-L1 immunohistochemistry as a biomarker of response; currently it is a prognostic marker only. Dr Choueiri then discusses genomics and the activity CTLA-4, PD-L1 and PD-1 blockers in other non-GU malignacies. Further, he talks about biomarkes…
In this press brief Q&A from ESMO 2016, Solange Peters, MD, PhD of Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland, Lidija Kandolf-Sekulovic, MD, PhD of the Military Medical Academy, Belgrade, Serbia, Josep Tabernero, MD, PhD of Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain, Andrés Cervantes, MD, PhD of University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain, Ulrik Lassen, MD, PhD of Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark and Fortunato Ciardiello, MD, PhD of Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy answer questions from the audience on the press briefs from Friday.
Fortunato Ciardiello, MD, PhD of Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy gives a press brief about the key messages of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) in the context of helping patients and doctors. He explains that collaboration is key and a true integrative approach is needed; he names the Danish cancer plan as an example of an integrative model. Prof. Ciardiello explains what an integrated and sustainable approach is and the role of the ESMO congress. Further, he presents the ESMO 2020 vision. Recorded at the 2016 annual meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), held…
Josep Tabernero, MD, PhD of Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain follows on from the press brief by Prof. Lidija Kandolf-Sekulovic on availability and affordability of melanoma medicines. Dr Tabernero explains that the results of this survey are close to the results they found in a recently published survey in terms of affordability and availability of cancer medicines in Europe. He also highlights that in some countries, access varies by region. The aims of the survey he discusses was to provide clear data on affordability and availability of these drugs and provide information for policymakers. Dr Tabernero summarizes the findings:…
Lidija Kandolf-Sekulovic, MD, PhD of the Military Medical Academy, Belgrade, Serbia gives a press brief on the results of the survey of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology conducted to assess access to innovative medicine for metastatic melanoma in Europe. Prof. Kandolf-Sekulovic explains that the rationale for this study came from the recent ESMO study on the availability of drugs, which revealed that the greatest disparity in terms of access occurs for cancers for which the treatment outcomes are dependent on innovative medicines (such as metastatic melanoma). The goal of the survey was to estimate the number of patients affected by…