Andrés Cervantes, MD, PhD of University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain introduces the press conference and the presidential symposia at ESMO 2016. He explains how the 1600 papers that have been accepted, are organized and highlights how there are three presidential symposia due to the wealth of papers. The breakthrough papers are on the Monaleesa 2 study (advanced breast cancer), ENGOT NOVA (ovarian cancer), EORTC 18071 (melanoma), on lung cancer and sarcoma. Recorded at the 2016 annual meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), held in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Author: Editor
Ulrik Lassen, MD, PhD of Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark talks about cancer in Denmark and the role of ESMO in this press briefing. Dr Lassen gives an overview of the Danish model of cancer and the partners involved. He highlights the establishment of cancer pathways and the idea of looking at cancer as an acute disease, which involves being referred immediately without delay after a cancer diagnosis. Further, he talks about the unique identification number of each citizen in Denmark and its role in quality control of the care. Finally, he addresses the cancer statistics in Denmark and how…
Solange Peters, MD, PhD of Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland kicks-off the first press conference at ESMO 2016. This year’s congresses focuses not only on disease treatment, but also on patient care, as demonstrated by the variety of talks on supportive care and patient-focused sessions. Solange Peters, the current ESMO Press Officer provides an overview of the themes covered this year in this short clip.
Federico Caligris-Cappio, MD of Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy, talks about the key questions to be discussed at International Workshop on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (iwCLL), which will be held in New York in 2017 (http://www.iwcll2017.org/). Prof. Caligris-Cappio explains that in cancer genetics, there is a wealth of data at the moment and it is important to find a common theme, which he believes, may happen at the meeting. In terms of immunology, he believes that the relationships between CLL and the immune system will be clarified more, which in turn, will lead to treatments to revert the immune deficiency…
Federico Caligris-Cappio, MD of Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy, talks about the International Workshop on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (iwCLL), which will hold a meeting in New York in 2017 (http://www.iwcll2017.org/). Prof. Caligris-Cappio explains that the iwCLL has an interesting composition with scientists, translational scientists and clinicians attending. The iwCLL, as every other scientific community or group, is caught between two aspects. One aspect is what we would like to know, the other is what we need to apply to patients. Therefore, the iwCLL is trying to bridge these two aspects and is trying to put forward as much science…
Carlo Croce, MD of The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH provides an overview of microRNA and ROR1 as part of an overview of his research on the epigenetics and genetic of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) while at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. Prof. Croce explains that microRNA have a number of targets and that there could be other genes besides BCL2 that are dysregulated because of the loss of the microRNA. This led to the discovery of MCL1. He explains that his talk at GCLLSG was about another target, ROR1, which…
“Stephan Stilgenbauer, MD, PhD of Ulm University, Ulm, Germany talks about the International Workshop on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (iwCLL), which will be held in New York in 2017 (http://www.iwcll2017.org/). Prof. Stilgenbauer explains that the program for the iwCLL meeting has just been developed and is very exciting program focusing on the understanding of the disease biology, focusing on the new mutations, the new cancer driver pathways but also on functional interaction with the microenvironment. The meeting will discuss topics that are very relevant not only for disease biology but also as a basis for therapeutic approaches. Further, there will be…
Nicholas Chiorazzi, MD from The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, NY provides an overview of the program of the iwCLL 2017 meeting to be held in New York in May 2017 (http://www.iwcll2017.org/). According to Prof. Chiorazzi, the first part of the program is built on questions concerning the biology and biologic timeframe of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and will cover questions such as what are the factors that go into the development of CLL, what are the genetic abnormalities, and are there inherited genetic factors? Studies investigating these questions are ongoing and looking at large populations of patients and…
Federico Caligaris-Cappio, MD of Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy, disucsses how to removal of macrophages can stop progression of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. Prof. Caligaris-Cappio explains that CLL cells grow within specific tissues. These tissues are made up of a high number of different normal cells which are utilized by the leukemic cells. He explains that for the last 20 years, research has has been dissecting this microenvironment to identify the most important cells (the cells that help mostly the CLL cells). All different…
Carsten Niemann, MD, PhD of Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark dicusses the development of new advanced methods to identify chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients in need of specific treatment while at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. Dr Niemann explains that at the moment, TP53 mutation or deletion of 17p are the the only biological markers that indicate that a patient will need specific targeted treatment in first-line. However, we are in a field that is rapidly developing with, for example, IGHV mutational status indicating sensitivity to chemmoimmunotherapy. Some of the new recurrent mutations…
Carlo Croce, MD of The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH provides an overview of his research on the epigenetics and genetic of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) while at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. Prof. Croce explains that in 1984, his lab cloned a gene, which they called BCL2. BCL2 turned out to be important because it inhibits the process called programmed cell death or apoptosis. He explains that activation of this gene led to follicular lymphoma. He then was interested in CLL and focused on a specific deletion on chromosome 13…
Arnon Kater, MD, PhD of the Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands talks about the problem of resistance to new drugs for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), held at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. Prof. Kater explains that there is a very strong push to give patients new effective drugs such as ibrutinib and idelalisib. The first-line of treatment is monotherapy and indeed patients are gaining from that because their quality of life gets better. However, he explains that as a clinician it is scary because problems may arise in…
How the Cleveland Clinic uses Tomosynthesis Mammogram with Dr. Leah Sieck, MD Diagnostic Radiologist
Dr. Chirag Shah, MD Radiation Oncologist at Cleveland Clinic discusses several new radiation methods he uses for breast cancer patients.
Dr. Charis Eng, MD Chair and Founding Director of Cleveland Clinic Genomic Medicine Institute outlines the guidelines that the Cleveland Clinic uses for genomic testing in breast cancer patients.
Leah Sieck, MD Diagnostic Radiologist and Jame Abraham, MD of Cleveland Clinic discuss the guidelines that they use in breast cancer screening.
Topics: How do you get all team members to work together? How does this collaboration improve patient care and value of care? Steps we can take to encourage more patients to participate in clinical trials. What is a tumor board, how does it work, and what are its benefits and challenges? The role of genetics in the future of breast cancer care. Faculty: Dr. Jame Abraham, MD Co-Director of the Comprehensive Breast Cancer Program Dr. Chirag Shah, MD Radiation Oncologist Dr. Charis Eng, MD Chair and Founding Director of Cleveland Clinic Genomic Medicine Institute Dr. Leah Sieck, MD Diagnostic Radiologist…
In this Ask the Expert segment, Dr. Larry Anderson, Jr. of University of Texas Southwest Medical Center answers a question regarding pembrolizumab (Keytruda), anti-PD1 drugs and CAR-T cell therapies as potential treatments for advanced multiple myeloma. Dr. Anderson explains how these treatments work and shares his excitement for future combination therapies. 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 Google+ | http://www.google.com/+patientpowerinfo
Clemens Schmitt, MD of the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany discusses the clinical implications of targed therapies for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). According to Prof. Schmitt, the implications are complex but in general, it means deciding strategies based on molecular investigations, i.e. genomic mutational screening to identify lesions. In his opinion, there is too much focus on the actual lesion in the lymphoma cell population as targeted agents show activity outside the target population. For example, if BTK is inhibited in the lymphoma population, a similar kinase ITK in T-cells is inhibited. In other words, the…
“Laurie Sehn, MD of British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, Canada discusses the standard of care for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). For patients with advanced stage DLBCL, the standard is R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone). According to Dr Sehn, for a large proportion of patients this is adequate with cure rates of around 60-65%. The challenging group are those patients who aren’t cured as their chances of being cured with salavage therapy are very low. Therefore, improving frontline therapy is very important. Dr Sehn explains that in her clinic, they don’t treat patients who have so-called…
“Clemens Schmitt, MD of the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany discusses the ongoing debate about the two biologies of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), i.e. cell of origin discussion about germinal center B-cell (GCB) vs activated B-cell (ABC) subtype. They differ biologically and therefore this may be of significance to finding targets. For example, in the ABC subtype there is an enrichment of NF-?B hyper activating mutations. However, the clinical reality is that, for example, targeting the B-cell receptor NF-?B signaling cascade with a BTK inhibitor such as ibrutinib, may give some advantage but there are many…
Andrew Davies, MRCP, PhD of University Hospital of Southampton, Southampton, UK talks about upcoming trials in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). First, he discusses an upcoming trial of R-CHOP in combination with a second generation BTK inhibitor (acalabrutinib). Dr Davies explains that this building on the platform developed for the REMoDL-B study where they determined cell of origin in real-time in order to stratify patients (NCT01324596). Further, there is a relapsed DLBCL trial of obinutuzumab combined with a checkpoint inhibitor (PD-L1 inhibitor) bulked on a chemotherapy backbone of gemcitabine and oxaliplatin. The aim is to understand biomarkers for response, i.e.…
“Laurie Sehn, MD of British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, Canada discusses the use of PET scan to identify diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who will do poorly on frontline therapy. Dr Sehn points out that DLBCL is a challening diseae to treat; many patients are cured with R-CHOP therapy (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone) but those patients who aren’t cured with frontline therapy, do very poorly. Therefore, it is important to identify the patients who will do poorly earlier in order to consider alternative therapies. She discusses a Phase II trial looking at the use of interim PET scan…
Clemens Schmitt, MD of the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany discusses the potential to use targeted therapy for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) at the 2016 International Workshop on Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (iwNHL) meeting held in San Diego, CA. According to Prof. Schmitt, the outcome for DLBCL patients is good but there is room for improvement. He explains that some collegues intensify conventional chemotherapy or immunochemotherapy. However, there is room for targeted therapies and the questions is what to select as actionable target and whether or not to preselect patients for early clinical testing or to apply in…
“Bjoern Chapuy, MD, PhD of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA gives an overview of his talk on targeted molecular signatures of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Dr Chapuy points out that DLBCL is thought to be very heterogenous with multiple copy number alterations, mutations and structural variants and it is important to understand all of these in order to make informed decisions and stratify patients. He goes on to explain that they performed a comprehensive genomic study of two rare patient groups, central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma and primary testicular lymphoma (PTL), with the aim of understanding their dominant genetic…
Andrew Davies, MRCP, PhD of University Hospital of Southampton, Southampton, UK discusses his highlights from the 2016 International Workshop on Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (iwNHL) meeting held in San Diego, CA. First, Dr Davies explains that the meeting is a great place for discussion. He highlights a session on novel immunotherapies and the discussion around CAR T-cell therapy and how to apply this technology. Further, he mentions bispecific antibodies (BiTEs) and novel monoclonal antibodies. He then highlights the talks on diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and the application of the cell of origin as well as new technologies and their application in…
Jeffrey Weber, MD, PhD from the NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY discusses his talk on novel combination therapies for melanoma and future Phase II and III trials at the 2016 World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. Prof. Weber predicts that interesting data on Phase II and Phase III trials will be released in the next 2 to 3 years in which nivolumab or pembrolizumab have been combined with antagonistic antibodies like 4-1BB, OX40, LAG-3 or TIM3. Existing data is only available from Phase…
Larisa Geskin, MD of Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY summarizes her views on the developments and upcoming meetings in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) at the 2016 World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. According to Dr Geskin, we are living in exciting times as many new drugs and approaches are coming to CTCL therapy. Further, there are meetings coming up, including the World Congress in Cutaneous Lymphomas in October at Columbia University where these new development will be highlighted.
Victoria Sherwood , PhD of the University of Dundee, Dundee, UK, talks about the next steps for the research into Wnt signalling at the 2016 World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. Dr Sherwood begins by saying that the understanding now of why Wnt signalling has different effects in melanoma tumors could be potentially dependent on p10 expression. Therefore, more clinical studies must be done to try and understand whether or not, p10 expression if it is high and there are high levels of Wnt ?-catenin…
Robert Andtbacka, MD, CM of the Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, UT talks about neoadjuvant studies at the 2016 World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. Prof. Andtbacka explains that between 3-10% of patients with melanoma will develop in-transit disease or recurrent diease. If it is just one or two small lesions, surgery is still the main treatment and the in transit lesions will be resected out. However, as the risk of recurrent disease is very high, mechanisms have been looked at to try and…
“Peter Petzelbauer, MD, of the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, discusses the differences in number of clinical trials for melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma at the 2016 World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. Prof. Petzelbauer explains that an interesting aspect is that it was formally thought that melanoma is the tumor cell type with the largest amount of mutations. However, it is now known that squamous cell carcinoma has the same amount of mutations in the cell and interestingly, the number of patients who…
Robert Knobler, MD of the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria talks about the future of extracorporeal photopheresis for the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma at the 2016 World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. He begins by expressing that he believes extracorporeal photopheresis is an attractive therapy due to its low side effect profile, something which is not very common in the field of medicine. The optimal timetable on how often this treatment is perfromed must be explored. There are a lot of new drugs…
Robert Andtbacka, MD, CM of the Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, UT discusses the use of oncolytic viruses at the 2016 World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. He begins by explaining that traditionally, vaccines for melanoma have not worked well and that is partly because we do not know which antigens are important to try and activate the immune system. This is, however, changing with oncolytic viruses, which are injected directly into the tumor. These viruses are often engineered to only replicate in tumour…
Jürgen Becker, MD, PhD from the University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany speaks to us on the importance of stratified treatments for cancer patients at the 2016 World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. Dr Becker explains that identifying predictive biomarkers will help to provide insight into how patients will respond to different treatments. The development on biomarkers is a challenging field and many under investigation are not robust enough to make into the clinic. Dr Becker voices his concern that the validation of biomarkers is not…
Jeffrey Weber, MD, PhD from the NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY discusses what he hopes to achieve with an upcoming Phase I, triple combination therapy trial in metastatic melanoma while at the 2016 World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. Prof. Weber begins by explaining how at the beginning of a treatment regimen with high response rate and outstanding survival, tolerability and toxicity are assessed in order to determine if a third drug, like a histone deacetylator (HDAC) inhibitor can be added to the…
Maria Concetta Fargnoli, MD, form the University of LAquila, LAquila, Italy discusses the developments made in melanoma genetics owing to next-generation sequencing (NGS) at the 2016 World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. According to Dr Fargnoli, due to extensive research into NGS, some families can now be completely sequenced by exome sequencing which has led to the identification of private and rare mutations which were previously unknown. Many melanoma mutations are involved in cell cycle regulation and pigmentation which are known factors that influence the…
“Peter Petzelbauer, MD, of the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, discusses the next steps for his research and clinical implications in lymphangiogenesis and the treatment of melanoma at the 2016 World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. He starts by explaining that epithelial mesenchymal transition is when a cell which is hooked up between neighboring cells is able to lose the cellular compound and move to distant sites. He believes that if we can drive cells away from this epithelial mesenchymal transition to a poor…
Paul Lorigan, MB, BCH, BAO, BA, FRCP of the University of Manchester, Manchester, UK, discusses the problem of chemotherapy for treating melanoma at the 2016 World Congress of the Skin (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. Melanoma is very resistant and has a number of drug resistant mechanisms. There has been various appproaches to target the resistant mechanisms, for example to block DNA repair. However, these drugs have not been very effective. Although there have been a number of promising early studies, they have not followed through on larger studies. He goes on to explain that he beleives it is very unlikely…
“Peter Petzelbauer, MD, of the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, discusses the role of lymphangiogenesis in melanoma at the 2016 World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. He explains that normally, a tumor has to reach a certain size of several centimeters in order to home to other tissues to make metastasis. However, a melanoma tumor of a thickness of just 1mm is able to go to the central lymph node and cause systemic disease. It is very important to understand why these cells are…
Paolo Ascierto, MD of the National Tumor Institute Fondazione G. Pascale, Naples, Italy discusses drug combinations in melanoma as part of his overview of his talk on the best use of immunotherapy in melanoma held at the World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. Prof. Ascierto talks about combining immunotherapy with all the other tools that are available for the treatment of advanced melanoma, including chemotherapy and targeted therapy. In the future, some other combinations of therapy will be seen. Further, how to sequence or combine…
Maria Concetta Fargnoli, MD, form the University of LAquila, LAquila, Italy discusses genetic screening in melanoma at the 2016 World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. Dr Fargnoli begins by explaining that genetic testing and screening in melanoma primarily focuses on melanoma patients who have a hereditary predisposition, such as familial melanoma and multiple primary melanoma patients. In the past only the high penetrance susceptibility genes were screened for such as CDKN2A and CDK4 both of which encode for two negative cell cycle regulators. Now however,…
Martin Mihm, Jr., MD of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, discusses the importance of therapeutic checkpoint blockers at the 2016 World Congress of Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. He believes that the discovery of this therapy has extended the capacity to treat various tumors. He highlights that since checkpoint blockades are present in all people, ideally more tumors will be responsive. Next, he discusses the excitement around the subject. Pembrolizumab acts in the periphery where the tumor is located, whereas the ipilimumab acts centrally at the…
Larisa Geskin, MD of Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY discusses the future of the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) at the 2016 World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. According to Dr Geskin, traditional chemotherapy will give way to targeted therapies and here is a focus on genetic abnormalities and pathway abnormalities in order to find targets. In the future, CTCL will be treated with a personalized approach using antibodies or small molecules.
Jürgen Becker, MD, PhD from the University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany discusses new innovative treatment options for Merkel cell carcinoma at the 2016 World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. These drugs can be classified as orphan drugs, specific for Merkel cell carcinoma, which act to interfere with viral proteins that drive the disease. PDL-1 and PD-1 blockade treatments are also used in Merkel cell carcinoma but are widely used in other diseases as well. Dr Becker describes cellular therapy as a treatment option for Merkel…
Jeffrey Weber, MD, PhD of the NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY discusses combination therapy options for melanoma at the 2016 World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. Prof. Weber begins by describing an ongoing debate on the development of new therapies, the question is should the basis for comparison be the combination of ipilimumab and nivolumab or ipilimumab and pembrolizumab or a single therapy PD-1 blockade. He adds that based on recent data in lung cancer using nivolumab and ipilimumab at a lower dose…
Isaac Brownell, MD, PhD of the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD discusses the virus associated with Merkel cell carcinoma and ongoing research into a potential vaccine for the disease during his attendance at the 2016 World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. Unlike in other skin cancers, Dr Brownell explains that Merkel cell carcinoma is associated with a virus, which may explain why the immune system is able to target so many of the tumors. Viruses express proteins which are not usually expressed in the body,…
Brigitte Dréno, MD, PhD from the University Hospital of Nantes, Nantes, France discusses current and future clinical trials in melanoma at the 2016 World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. Dr Dréno talks about ongoing melanoma trials using, for example, anti-PD-l treatments, as well as oncolytic viruses combined with ipilimumab or anti-PD-1. Dr Dréno also comments on future trials using adoptive T-cell therapy and chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) but notes on their many adverse effects.
Marc Peeters, MD, PhD, of Antwerp University Hospital, Edegem, Belgium, gives a summary of some of the data presented on panitumumab for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) during the ESMO 2016 meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark. He describes the importance of depth of response, the symptomatic scoring of the patients and evidence presented on the group of patients who should be treated with panitumumab. Treatment strategy is based, not only on the biomarker profile, but also other surrogate markers. According to Dr Peeters, anti-EGFR treatment in wild-type patients who need a rapid response is an excellent option. The sub-analysis performed will allow…
Dr Mansoor Mirza, chief oncologist at Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark and medical director of the Nordic Society of Gynaecological Oncology (NSGO) describes the results of the NOVA trial, evaluating the efficacy and safety of the PARP inhibitor, niraparib, as maintenance therapy in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer, who respond to platinum-based chemotherapy. Patients were assigned to cohorts by BRCA mutation status and randomised 2:1 to receive niraparib 300 mg or placebo once daily. The trial included 553 patients, of whom 203 had the germline BRCA mutation and 350 did not. Niraparib significantly improved the primary endpoint of progression-free survival compared…
Grant McArthur, MBBS, BMedSci, PhD, FRACP, of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia, provides an insight into BRAF and MEK combined inhibition in melanoma. He explains that although the combined inhibition gives a very good response rate, it is troubled by the development of acquired resistance in a vast majority of patients. He believes that this is therefore a problem that needs to be resolved. Further, he explains that many of the the acquired genomic events that occur in the tumors once they become resistant, re-activate signalling downstream of BRAF and MEK of the Mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase/ERK-signaling pathway.…