Author: Editor

Toni K. Choueiri, MD, Director and Disease Center Leader, The Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, President of Medical Staff, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute accepts the Schonfeld award at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Brian I. Rini, M.D., Department of Solid Tumor Oncology, Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center presents Axitinib is an Ideal Choice in Refractory Renal Cell Carcinoma.

Thomas E Hutson, DO, PharmD FACP Director, GU Oncology Program, Co-Director, Urologic Cancer Research and Treatment Center, Texas Oncology/ Baylor Sammons Cancer Center, Professor of Medicine, Texas AM College of Medicine presents LENVATINIB + EVEROLIMUS A powerful treatment for refractory RCC at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Nizar M. Tannir, MD, FACP, Professor and Deputy Chair, GU Medical Oncology, MD Anderson presents Cabozantinib is the best salvage therapy for RCC at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Saby George, MD, FACP, Associate Professor of Medicine and Oncology, Genitourinary Oncology Program , Roswell Park Cancer Institute presents Nivolumab as a second-line therapy for metastatic RCC at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

HIF-2 Inhibitor discussion at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

… 77 year WF presents with back painHistory of renal cell carcinoma, s/p right radical nephrectomy in 2000T1bN0M0 Clear cell renal cell carcinomaStopped surveillance after 5 yearsPMH: HyperlipidemiaPSH: nephrectomy, hysterectomyCT chest: NegativeLabs: eGFR 56, otherwise WNL 80 year old WM presents with chronic constipation and abdominal painPMH: DM II, HtnPSH: Left ankleLabs: Hb 10.6, Glucose 246, Cr 1.13Presents to our EC with worsening bilateral LE edema 79 year old WM presents with gross hematuriaPMH: HypertensionPSH: hernia repair and varicocele repairLabs: Hb 12.6, ESR 78, LDH 429Was enrolled in the randomized phase II presurgical immune checkpoint blockade trial (2013-0715).Randomized to nivolumab…

Bernard Escudier, Institut Gustave Roussy presents Developing the next generation of studies in RCC at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

James Brugarolas, M.D., Ph.D., Kidney Cancer Program Leader, Virginia Murchison Linthicum Endowed Scholar, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Axel Bex, MD, PhD, The Netherlands Cancer Institute presents Durable Responses: How Do We Get There? The role of metastasectomy at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Dylan Martini, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute presents Outcomes in PD-1/PD-L1 inh. responders who discontinued therapy for immune-related adverse events: Analysis of nine patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

James J. Hsieh, MD, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center presents Differential Overall Survival Results in RECORD-3 Study Based on Three Distinct Clear Cell Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Molecular Subgroups Classified by BAP1 and/or PBRM1 Mutations at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Lana Hamieh, MD, Research Fellow in Medicine (EXT) presents Characterization of Patients with Poor-Risk Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Jun Gong, Fellow, City of Hope presents Latency of potential treatment-related adverse events among patients treated with TKI/VEGF-directed therapy for metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Jill Rachel Mains, MD, Dept. of Radiology and Oncology, Aarhus University Hospital presents Baseline Low B-value Diffusion-weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging is Prognostic in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma and Correlates with Dynamic Contrast-enhanced Ultrasound and Dynamic Contrast-enhanced Computed Tomography: Results from the DARENCA-1 Study at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Rana McKay, MD, Dana-Farber, presents Impact of Aspirin and Non-Aspirin NSAIDs on Outcomes in Metastatic RCC at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Aly-Khan A. Lalani, Department of Medical Oncology, Cross Cancer Institute, University of Alberta presents Proton Pump Inhibitors and Survival Outcomes in Patients with Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma (mRCC) at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Chung-Han Lee, MD, PhD, Medical Oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering presents Medullary Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC): Genomics and Treatment Outcomes at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Maria Becerra, Research Fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center presents Characterization of genomic alterations associated with metastatic tropism in a cohort of patients with renal cell carcinoma at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Thomas Hutson, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY presents A randomized phase 2 trial of CRLX101 in combination with bevacizumab in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) vs standard of care at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Rana McKay, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, HMS/DFCI/BWH presents PD-1/PD-L1 Blockage in Non-Clear Cell RCC at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Toni K. Choueiri Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute presents Savolitinib (volitinib, AZD6094, HMPL-504): Future Directions at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Primo N. Lara, Jr., MD, Professor of Medicine, University of California Davis School of Medicine, Acting Director, UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center presents PAPMET trial (SWOG 1500) in Papillary Renal Cell Cancer: Rationale and Current Status at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Laurence Albiges, MD, Gustave Roussy presents Crizotinib In Papillary RCC at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Brian Shuch, MD, Assistant Professor of Urology/Radiology, Yale School of Medicine presents Developments in Biology of Non-Clear Cell RCC at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Debate: Kidney Cancer: Should we explore drug combination strategies in an adjuvant setting?

Priti S. Hegde, PhD, Director, CI Franchise Lead, Biomarkers Genentech Roche presents Blocking VEGF in addition to checkpoint inhibition in RCC at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Paula Ragan, CEO, X4 Pharmaceuticals presents Addressing Unmet Need in ccRCC Through Targeted CXCR4 Blockade at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Christopher Turner, MD, Vice President, Clinical Science presents Novel RCC Targets from Immuno-Oncology and Antibody-Drug Conjugates at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Ian M. Waxman, MD, Bristol-Myers Squibb presents New opportunities for immuno-oncology in renal cell carcinoma at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Moderator Michael B. Atkins , Georgetown-Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center participates in a debate: In 2020 Which Approach do you predict will lead to Optimal Outcomes and Why in Kidney Cancer?

Neeraj Agarwal, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine Director, GU Medical Oncology, Huntsman Cancer Institute presents Toxicities with PD-1 Inhibitors: The Price of the Cure at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Tian Zhang, MD, Duke Cancer Institute, Duke University Medical Center presents “Vaccines in Renal Cell Carcinoma: A Lost Cause or the Way Forward?” at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Guru Sonpavde, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine Director, Urologic Oncology, UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center presents Sequencing VEGF and PD-1 Inhibition for RCC at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Hans Hammers MD, PhD, Kidney Cancer Program, UT Southwestern presents PD1 and CTLA4 Inhibition in RCC at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

David McDermott, MD, Leader, Kidney Cancer Program Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center presents To Combine: VEGF + PD-1 at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Charles G. Drake MD / PhD, Director GU Medical Oncology, Co-Director Immunotherapy Program, Associate Director for Clinical Research, Herbert Irving Cancer Center at Columbia University presents To Combine or Sequence: Biological Rationale at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Robert G. Uzzo, M.D.Willing G. Pepper Chairman of Surgery Fox Chase Cancer Center, Temple University School of Medicine Chair, Department of Urology, Urological Institute at Einstein Healthcare Network presents Atezolizumab Adjuvant RCC Trial: A Surgical Perspective at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Mohamad E. Allaf, MD, Associate Professor of Urology, Oncology, & BME MEA Endowed Director, Minimally Invasive Surgery Johns Hopkins Medicine presents Phase 3 Perioperative Nivolumab in M0 RCC (PROSPER RCC, ECOG ACRIN 8143) A UROLOGISTS PERSPECTIVE at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Sumanta K. Pal, MD, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center presents Atezolizumab Adjuvant Study: Medical Oncologist Perspective at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Lauren C. Harshman MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber, presents a strong case for a neoadjuvant/adjvuant approach to priming the immune system before surgery at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Naomi B. Haas, MD, Director, Prostate and Kidney Cancer Program, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania presents “Have we learned any lessons from adjuvant VEGF-directed therapy?” at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Bradley C. Leibovich, MD, FACS, Chair, Department of Urology, David C. Utz Professor of Urology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN presents Preoperative 3-D Modeling & Intraoperative Imaging for Renal Surgery at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Jose A. Karam, MD, FACS, Assistant Professor, Department of Urology, MD Anderson asks “Cytoreductive Nephrectomy: Yes, No, Clinical Trial?” at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

R. Houston Thompson, MD, Professor of Urology, Mayo Clinic presents Cytoreductive Nephrectomy: Optimizing Surgical Outcomes and Minimizing Complications at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

E. Jason Abel, MD, FACS, Associate Professor, Department of Urology, University of Wisconsin presents Cytoreductive nephrectomy in locally advanced renal tumors at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Viraj Master MD PhD FACS, Professor Associate Chair for Clinical Affairs and Quality, Director of Clinical Research Unit Department of Urology, Emory University asks the question “Lymphadenectomy in RCC: Yes, No, Clinical Trial?” at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Ithaar H. Derweesh, M.D., University of California, San Diego asks the question “Neoadjuvant Therapy: Where are we in 2016?” at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Kamran Ahrar, MD, MBA, Professor, Interventional Radiology presents Renal Tumor Ablation: Current Technologies and Outcomes at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Phillip M. Pierorazio, MD, Assistant Professor of Urology and Oncology, Brady Urological Institute, Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland asks the question Active Surveillance For Renal Masses: Where Are We In 2016? at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Alexander Kutikov, MD, FACS, Associate Professor of Urologic Oncology Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA presents “Renal Biopsy: Always, Sometimes or Never?” at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Brandon Manley presents Characterizing Recurrent And Lethal Small Renal Masses In Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma Using Recurrent Somatic Mutations at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Dr. Nicholas G. Cost, M.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery, Division of Urology University of Colorado Cancer Center presents RCC in Adolescents and Young Adults (AYAs): Diagnosis and Management at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Dr. Karim Touijer, MD, MPH. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center presents Surgery for cT1b RCC: Partial Nephrectomy, Radical nephrectomy, Clinical Trial? at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Dr. Daniel Heng MD MPH FRCPC of Tom Baker Cancer Center, University of Calgary @DrDanielHeng presents Renal cell carcinoma prognostication in 2016 at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Dr. Sima Porten, MD MPH, Assistant Professor, Department of Urology UCSF presents Partial Nephrectomy 2016, Techniques, Outcomes, and Selection at the 2016 annual International Kidney Cancer Symposium

Dr. Jamil Syed BS Research Fellow of Yale Department of Urology presents The Incidence and Predictive Factors of Metachronous Bilateral Renal Cell Carcinoma: A SEER Analysis at the2016 annual Kidney Cancer Association meeting

Is stem cell transplant (SCT) a viable option for MPN patients? Noted MPN specialist and researcher, Dr. David Snyder from City of Hope, discusses new refinements to SCT, including the matching process as well as protocols for preparing for transplant. Dr. Snyder stresses that the conversation about SCT should happen early in treatment and should be an ongoing dialogue between patient and specialist. 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

Stephan Stilgenbauer, MD, PhD of Ulm University, Ulm, Germany, talks about individualized treatment and delivering the right treatment for the right patient in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Prof. Stilgenbauer explains that we are now on the road towards individualized treatment. There is data available from genome wide sequencing (GWS) studies that really help identify the landscape of CLL cancer driver mutations. Prof. Stilgenbauer mentions bringing this into clinical trials in the light of the novel agents, to identify the particular subgroups that benefit best from a particular given treatment. Prof. Stilgenbauer is optimistic that the coming months will bring new,…

Barbara Eichhorst, MD of the University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany, discusses how sharing data between groups on cancer can help a progression in the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Dr Eichhorst mentions focusing on the molecular basis of cancer and treating it more according to genetic lesions. There are many things that can be learnt from other diseases, for example, with checkpoint inhibitors in solid tumors. Further, we can learn from chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) where kinase inhibitors have been available for nearly 20 years now; experts have learnt that it is important to get fast and deep remissions.…

Arnon Kater, MD, PhD of the Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands talks about how to overcome mental health issues that may be seen within chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. Prof. Kater explains that when you deal with CLL, who you are never going to cure, considering their quality of life becomes very important. Although it is very challenging, clinicians must help patients understand that they shouldnt be the disease but instead have the disease. In this way it is easier for the patient to live…

Jennifer Woyach, MD of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus, OH talks developments in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. Dr Woyach explains that this an exciting time for CLL as we are moving away from chemotherapy towards targeted therapies alone or in combination with expectation of good efficacy, good tolerability and hopefully long durations of remission.

Jasmin Bahlo, PhD of University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany talks about the analysis of the projects that are underway at the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) at the 2016 International Workshop of the GCLLSG in Cologne, Germany. Dr Bahlo explains that there is a lot of analysis to do; for example there are Phase III trials that are being analysed, there is the data for the CLLM1 trial (NCT01556776), which is being prepared for publication and further, they have a publication on minimal residual disease (MRD) in combination with response to treatment.

Barbara Eichhorst, MD of the University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany, discusses how best to deal with Richters transformation. Dr Eichhorst begins by stating that the best treatment for Richters transformation is to control the chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), so that the transformation will not have a chance to develop. Dr. Eichhorst mentions a presentation given at this years GCLLSG congress, showing the different mutations observed in Richters transformation in comparison to de novo diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). It is already established that Richters is a completely different disease to DLBCL and CLL. As there are so many genetic aberrations…

Federico Caligris-Cappio, MD of Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy, talks about new treatment and traditional treatment options for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. Prof. Caligris-Cappio explains that whenever there are new drugs, there is a huge temptation to jump to these drugs and forget about the rest. He believes that doctors must think about the particular patient in these situations. All the aspects of the patient, their fears and expectations, must be taken into consideration and weighed up to decide which treatment is best for…

Arnon Kater, MD, PhD of the Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands talks about how he thinks clinicians should talk to chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients about their hopes and expectations at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. He explains that clinicians should not talk about cures to patients. Furthermore, patients should know that CLL is becoming more and more a chronic disease. Further, it is extremely important for quality of life assessments to be done for all the new clinical studies; even though the side effects are often small, having these side…

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…

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.         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…

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.

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.…

Brigitte Dréno, MD, PhD from the University Hospital of Nantes, Nantes, France discusses vaccination and T-cell adoptive therapies for 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. Dr Dréno begins by introducing the subject of adoptive T-cell therapy and the new approaches focusing on specific antigens and inducing more reactive T-cells, by sorting and using clones, which are being researched currently. Dr Dréno believes that that in the future, vaccination and adoptive T-cell therapy will be used in combination, providing…

Victoria Sherwood , PhD of the University of Dundee, Dundee, UK, talks about 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 explains that Wnt signalling in melanoma has been studied for a number of years and an interesting link between Wnt signalling and metabolic regulation in melanoma cells has been found. Wnt signalling can be broadly divided into two distinct signalling subgroups – pathways that signal in a ?-catenin dependent manner (canonical Wnt signaling pathway) and pathways that signal in…

Stephan Grabbe, MD of the University Medical Center, Johannnes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany discuses cutaneous immunology 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. Grabbe starts by explaining that clinical experience shows that, for example, metastatic disease in the skin and also primary skin cancer is sensitive to immunotherapy. Local immune response within the skin seems to be somewhat special compared to other sites such as the liver or the lung or other organs. When the composition of the skin immune system…

Robert Knobler, MD of the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria talks about extracorporeal photopheresis in the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (the particular varient being Sézary syndrome) 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. Extracorporeal photopheresis was invented in 1983 and became well known worldwide in 1987 when the first study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Prof. Knobler’s role was to review the literature and the progress that has been done in the past 30 years in the…

Robert Andtbacka, MD, CM of the Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, UT talks about the update on the randomized Phase III OPTiM study for melanoma in which patients with unresectable stage IIIb, IIIc and stage IV melanoma received intralesional talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) versus GM-CSF subcutaneously (NCT00769704), presented 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. The response pattern of earlier stage patients, patients with stage IIIb, stage IIIc and stage IV m1A disease were looked at. Prof. Andtbacka explains that it was found…

Paul Lorigan, MB, BCH, BAO, BA, FRCP of the University of Manchester, Manchester, UK, discusses key points from his talk on chemotherapy in melanoma, presented 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 first highlights that there has been very little progress in advancing melanoma chemotherapy treatment over the past twenty years. In his talk, Prof. Lorigan suggested that there were three pillars to treatment for advanced melanoma: targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and chemotherapy. However, he explains that for the vast majority of patients,…

Paolo Ascierto, MD of the National Tumor Institute Fondazione G. Pascale, Naples, Italy discusses biomarkers 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. Biomarkers are an important issue – if you want to optimize treatment with immunotherapy, you have to weigh patient selection and increase activity of immunotherapy. Prof. Ascierto explains that a biomarker is a marker that is able to predict, which patient can have…

Larisa Geskin, MD of Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY gives an overview of her talk on chemotherapy for melanoma, squamous cell carcinoma and 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. Dr Geskin explains that chemotherapy may play little role in the management of these diseases, particularly in the case of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. The multi-agent chemotherapy may only play role in the palliative setting, which is related to the fact that CTCL is a chronic and incurable…

Jürgen Becker, MD, PhD from the University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany discusses the symposium on Merkel cell carcinoma treatment 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. Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare and aggressive form of skin cancer, for which the standard treatment is chemotherapy following metastasis, however, positive treatment responses tend to be short-lived. The symposium also covered current immunotherapy options for Merkel cell carcinoma, which include PDL-1 and PD-1 blockade. Dr Becker goes on to recall recent clinical trial results that…

Martin Mihm, Jr., MD of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA gives an overview of the session on open quesions in dermatopahtology of cutaneous tumors 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. Mihm held the first talk [overview available in a separate video]. First, he discusses the talk by Dr Klaus Busam about the diagnosis of desmoplastic melanoma; this tumor presents as a firm hard nodule like a scar. Dr Busam further discussed the use of molecular techniques to look for mutations…

Jean-Jacques Grob, MD of Aix Marseille University and APHM Hospital CHU Timone, Marseille, France discusses the idea of focussing on treating melanoma patients during earlier stages of disease 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. Grob explains that while there are treatments specifically to treat advanced melanoma there is less focus on treating earlier stages of melanoma. He suggests treating patients with disease stages as early as primary melanoma or nodule disease would be advantageous. There is currently debate around this concept…

Isaac Brownell, MD, PhD of the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD provides insight into the possible mechanisms of Merkel cell carcinoma development 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. Clinical and pre-clinical evidence shows that Merkel cell carcinoma is highly regulated by the immune system and this may be one of the reasons why Merkel cell carcinoma tends to present late in life. The average age of a person diagnosed with Merkel cell carcinoma is 72 years old, which is 10 years older…

Grant McArthur, MBBS, BMedSci, PhD, FRACP, of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia, suggests next steps for poor prognosis BRAF-mutant melanoma patients with elevated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). He highlights that he personally wants to see greater focus in understanding the biology behind the tumors in order to develop rational approaches. There is already one Phase III trial planned where anti-PD-1 will be added to BRAF and MEK inhibition in the subset of patients with poor prognosis. He suggests, however, that we still lack understanding of the biological drivers of poor outcomes are in patients with an elevated lactate dehydrogenase.…

Giovanni Pellacani, MD of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy, explores the importance of building up a consistent workflow in cancer centers and university hospitals for imaging techniques for skin cancer. Imaging patients earlier on in their cancer (early detection), as well as correctly managing cancer patients, can significantly influence workflow. He believes that in order to systematically detect which patients are more at risk, use of new technologies such as total body photography and confocal microscopy, should be applied in order to get the highest benefit for the patient, as well as the general system. Such…

In this presentation from the JAK Inhibitors in Myeloproliferative Neoplasms symposium, held August 27, 2016 in Alexandria, VA, Dr. Ruben A. Mesa examines the use of JAK inhibitors as a treatment option for patients with cytopenic myelofibrosis (CF).

In this presentation from the JAK Inhibitors in Myeloproliferative Neoplasms symposium, held August 27, 2016 in Alexandria, VA, Dr. Srdan Verstovsek examines a case of inadequately-controlled polycythemia vera (PV).

In this presentation from the JAK Inhibitors in Myeloproliferative Neoplasms symposium, held August 27, 2016 in Alexandria, VA, Dr. Stephen T. Oh examines whether or not JAK inhibitors have a role to play in the treatment of essential thrombocythemia (ET).

In this presentation from the 2016 US Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes, held August 26-27 in Alexandria, VA, Dr. Richard T. Silver provides and update on long-acting interferons for the treatment of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN).

In this presentation from the 2016 US Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes, held August 26-27 in Alexandria, VA, Dr. Mark Heaney discusses the updated WHO diagnostic criteria for essential thrombocythemia (ET), polycythemia vera (PV), and myelofibrosis (MF).

In this presentation from the 2016 US Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes, held August 26-27 in Alexandria, VA, Dr. Jason R. Gotlib discusses the biology and therapy of eosinophilic myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN).

In this presentation from the 2016 US Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes, held August 26-27 in Alexandria, VA, Dr. Stephen T. Oh discusses the interplay of somatic and germline variants in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN).

In this presentation from the 2016 US Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes, held August 26-27 in Alexandria, VA, Dr. Jerry Spivak discusses cytokines, cells, and inflammation in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN).

In this presentation from the 2016 US Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes, held August 26-27 in Alexandria, VA, Dr. Simona Colla discusses new advances in mouse models of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).

In this presentation from the 2017 European Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes, Dr. Luca Malcovti discusses the genetic basis of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Earn CME Credit for a related activity: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Specialty-Search.aspx?specialty=Hematology © 2017 Imedex, LLC.

Watch as this breast cancer patient talks about on the side effects while on anti-estrogen therapy. She also gives advice about the how the benefits, risks and impacts of anti-estrogen therapy should be considered. Further knowledge and options available to you is very powerful.

Extend or End Endocrine Therapy After Year 5 for ER+ Breast Cancer Patients? Please visit http://www.breastcancerindex.com for more information. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/answersbeyond5 Twitter: http://www.facebook.com/answersbyond5

This breast cancer patient talks about her negative side effects while on anti-estrogen therapy. She also shares how she learned of the Breast Cancer Index test and its potential to help make a positive impact in her survivorship. Source: Spot_4_LA

This breast cancer patient gives her advice on the negative side effects while on anti-estrogen therapy. She also shares how she learned of the Breast Cancer Index test and its potential to help make a positive impact in her survivorship. Source: Spot 1_9-5 LA

What is Breast Cancer Index you may ask? Breast Cancer Index(SM) is a test that can help you and your doctor make a more personalized treatment decision about extending your anti-estrogen therapy. Learn more: https://www.answersbeyond5.com/what-is-bci Breast Cancer Index Intended Uses and Limitations: Learn more: https://www.answersbeyond5.com/intended-use-statement Source: BCA 2016 BioT Overview NoButton FINAL

What resources are available for cancer patients? When you are diagnosed with cancer, you feel like youve lost control of your world. Oncology social workers are available to help. Harold Dean, oncology social worker and the Director of Social Services at UAMS Myeloma Institute, joins us to offer his advice. Listen as Harold explains the role of a social worker and gives examples of the types of services to which social workers can connect you. 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

Michael Hallek, MD, PhD of the University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany discusses the iwCLL 2017 meeting to be held in New York in May 2017 (http://www.iwcll2017.org/). Prof. Hallek explains that the meeting will cover all aspects of biology and treatment in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). He believes that as more mature data will be available next year on novel drugs, they will be a main focus of discussion at the meeting. There will also be a young investigator meeting and Prof. Hallek is expecting many young investigators who will present their latest data. Another focus of the meeting will be…

Stephan Stilgenbauer, MD, PhD of Ulm University, Ulm, Germany discusses the upcoming CLL2-GIVe trial on chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) held in Cologne, Germany. Prof. Stilgenbauer first points out that we are living in exciting times for CLL at the moment. There are a number of new agents available such as novel antibodies (e.g. obinutuzumab), BTK inhibitors and BCL2 antagonists. The question therefore is if we still need chemotherapy. The CLL2-GIVe trial, which is about to start, will look at frontline treatment with ibrutinib plus venetoclax plus obinutuzumab (GA101)…

Nicholas Chiorazzi, MD from The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, NY discusses his research on the life cycle of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) held in Cologne, Germany. Prof. Chiorazzi explains that they are interested in identifiyng intraclonal populations with an focus on functional differences, which have to do with time since last replication. The population are divided based on surface membrane expression of markers that indicate time since last replication. He explains that what they find is that CLL cells go through a life cycle. Further,…

Michael Hallek, MD, PhD of the University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany discusses highlights from the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) held in Cologne, Germany. Prof. Hallek explains that world experts in the field of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) attend the workshop. In terms of the biology of CLL, we are now starting to understand the functional consequences of the deletion 13q, which is the most frequent aberration. He highlights the presentation by Prof. Carlo Croce on microRNAs and how their regulation is heavily disturbed in CLL, which leads to the upregulation of BCL2. BCL2 is…

John Gribben, MD, DSc, FRCPath, FMed Sci of Barts Cancer Institute, London, UK discusses the place of allogeneic stem cell transplantation in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. Prof. Gribben points out that allogeneic stem cell transplantation is the only curative treatment available in CLL. However, only a small population of patients can receive a transplant due to age and it is associated with morbidity (specifically from graft-versus-host-disease) and mortality. When the choice was between a transplant or having no effective salvage therapy, the decision was more…

Dan Landau, MD, PhD of Weill Cornell Medical College and the NYGC, New York, NY gives an overview of his talk on clonal evolution in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) held at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. Dr Landau explains that we understand that a malignant population such as a population of CLL cells in any patient, is actually not uniform but composed of multiple subpopulations, which continuously compete, evolve and create diversity. The therapeutic challenge is that in each patient, we are not dealing with one disease but with a collection…

Carsten Niemann, MD, PhD of Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark gives an overview of his talk on the treamtent of previously treated patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) held at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. Dr Niemann explains how the US and the developing European guidelines suggest, that all CLL patients who relapse, are in need of novel targeted agents. Dr Niemann challenges this view. It makes a difference if the first-line treatment was chemmoimmunotherapy or something else and also, not all patients are alike. For example, some patients may have long lasting…

Barbara Eichhorst, MD of the University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany gives an overview of the GCLLSG trials in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), which will be presented at the 2016 ASH Annual Meeting. First, Dr Eichhorst discusses the CLLM1 study evaluating lenalidomide maintenance in patients with residual disease and an unfavourable genetic profile after chemoimmunotherapy (NCT01556776). Further, the safety run-in phase data regarding the efficacy of venetoclax plus obinutuzumab in frontline therapy of less fit patients has been submitted to the 2016 ASH Annual Meeting. Finally, efficacy data of the CLL2-BIG study has been submitted to ASH 2016, which includes bendamustine…

Barbara Eichhorst, MD of the University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany gives an overview of her talk on therapy for previously treated patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) held at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. Dr Eichhorst points out that there are many treatment options available in frontline therapy now. For the fit patients, the FCR regiment is still the standard regiment. However, it has the disadvantage of late toxicities such as secondary acute myeloid leukemia (AML). There are maintenance treatment strategies as tested in the CLLM1 study (NCT01556776) where the question…

Arnon Kater, MD, PhD of the Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands gives an overview of his talk on resistance to new compounds in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) held at the 2016 International Workshop of the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) in Cologne, Germany. Prof. Kater starts by discussing the chemoimmunotherapy combination of fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, rituximab (FCR) and the emergence of new targeted drugs over the last few years. He explains that it is apparent that CLL is not one single genetic disease and that resistance develops to all current treatments eventually. However, it is not clear how to prepare for…

Christian Chabannon, MD, PhD of Institut Paoli Calmettes, Marseilles, France and President of the EBMT 2017 Annual Meeting talks about the topics under discussion at the 2016 EBMT International Transplant Course (EBMT-ITC) in Barcelona, Spain. Dr Chabannon explains that the novel forms of cellular therapy that are being developed will be a focus of the meeting. He further talks about how new drugs affect strategies for autologous and allogeneic transplantation. Another focus will be on how the different categories of donors also contribute to change the overall strategy of how autologous or allogeneic stem cell transplantation is incorporated in the…

Mohamad Mohty, MD, PhD of Saint-Antoine Hospital, Paris, France and EBMT President gives an overview of the program of the 2017 Annual Meeting of the EBMT, which will be held between 26-29 March, 2017 in Marseilles, France (http://www.ebmt2017.org/). Prof. Mohty is the president of the European Society for Blood and Bone Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) and outlines the program for meeting. The program will cover all the relevant diseases and the hot topics in the various field. For example, there will be updates about all the novel agents, recent data and results in the field of multiple myeloma, updates on the…

Jan Styczynski, MD, PhD of Collegium Medicum, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Bydgoszcz, Poland and provides an overview of the Infectious Diseases Working Party of which he is the chair, at the 2016 EBMT International Transplant Course (EBMT-ITC) in Barcelona, Spain. The working party works together with all other 11 working parties of the European Society for Blood and Bone Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) as infections are common for all kinds of transplants and malignancies. Its main task is to monitor the problem of infections in all transplant centers. The working party also works on recommendations and standards of management and diagnosis of…

Christian Chabannon, MD, PhD of Institut Paoli Calmettes, Marseilles, France and President of the EBMT 2017 Annual Meeting discusses the Cellular Therapy & Immunobiology Working Party at the 2016 EBMT International Transplant Course (EBMT-ITC) in Barcelona, Spain. According to Dr Chabannon, it was re-designed a few years ago and its goal is the development of novel cellular therapies and accelerating their adoption.

Mohamad Mohty, MD, PhD of Saint-Antoine Hospital, Paris, France and EBMT President provides an overview of the EBMT International Transplant Course (EBMT-ITC), which took place in Barcelona, Spain between 9-11 September 2016. The course is educational and mainly targeted at younger doctors. It is proving to be a huge success according to Prof. Mohty, and this is due to the way the program has been built. The course consists of state of the art lectures that highlight routine practice and the speakers are all aware of the future perspectives and developments in their fields. Over the two and a half…

Laurent Garderet, MD of Saint-Antoine Hospital, Paris, France gives an overview of his talk autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and drug combinations for multiple myeloma (MM) at the 2016 EBMT International Transplant Course (EBMT-ITC) in Barcelona, Spain. Dr Garderet points out that major improvements have been made in treatment of myeloma but autologous stem cell transplantation remains a gold standard to treat any myeloma patient as long as they are physically fit. Now, new drugs that have been developed in the last 15 years, are given before and right after the transplant (consolidation) and further, as a maintenance treatment…

Jan Styczynski, MD, PhD of Collegium Medicum, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Bydgoszcz, Poland and Chair of the EBMT Infectious Diseases Working Party, discusses his talk on how to manage infections after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) at the 2016 EBMT International Transplant Course (EBMT-ITC) in Barcelona, Spain. According to Dr Styczynski, infections present a serious risk to HSCT patients and contribute to up to 20% of deaths following HSCT. Fungal infections and cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in particular, are associated with high risk of mortality. He further discusses the role of prophylaxis, empiric therapy, pre-emptive therapy and targeted therapy. In case of…

Christian Chabannon, MD, PhD of Institut Paoli Calmettes, Marseilles, France and President of the EBMT 2017 Annual Meeting provides an overview of his talk on basic aspects of standard transplantation held at the 2016 EBMT International Transplant Course (EBMT-ITC) in Barcelona, Spain. The focus was on practical considerations for donor identification, selection and collection. Dr Chabannon explains that historically, the members of the transplant community have focused on clinical aspects of transplant practices, including indications and strategies. However, now it is important that junior doctors learn about graft collection and processing.

Anna Sureda, MD, PhD of Duran I Reynals Hospital, Barcelona, Spain gives an overview of her talk on how new drugs have changed the landscape for transplant in lymphoma held at the 2016 EBMT International Transplant Course (EBMT-ITC) in Barcelona, Spain. She discusses two drugs, specifically in Hodgkin lymphoma. Dr Sureda explains that Hodgkin lymphoma is curable but that some patients relapse and are candidates for stem cell transplantation. There are two groups of new drugs, which are an anti-CD30 monoclonal antibody (brentuximab vedotin) and checkpoint inhibitors, which are not available in Europe outside prospective clinical trials. In the setting…

In this presentation from the 2016 US Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes, held August 26-27 in Alexandria, VA, Dr. Srdan Verstovsek discusses the use of novel agents and combination therapy in the treatment of patients with myelofibrosis. Earn accreditation for a related activity at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7221 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 US Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes, held August 26-27 in Alexandria, VA, Dr. Uday R. Popat discusses the influence of mutational status on timing, outcomes and post-transplant management of patients with myelofibrosis. Earn accreditation for a related activity at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7221 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 US Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes, held August 26-27 in Alexandria, VA, Dr. Michael R. Grunwald discusses the various approaches utlizing stem cell transplant in the treatment of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Earn accreditation for a related activity at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7221 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 US Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes, held August 26-27 in Alexandria, VA, Dr. Guillermo Garcia-Manero discusses how to approach the failure of hypomethylating agents (HMAs) in the treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Earn accreditation for a related activity at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7221 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 US Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes, held August 26-27 in Alexandria, VA, Dr. Bart Scott discusses a unified approach to higher risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), with specific regard to standard and emerging therapies. Earn accreditation for a related activity at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7221 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 US Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes, held August 26-27 in Alexandria, VA, Dr. Guillermo Garcia-Manero discusses a unified approach to lower risk myelodysplastic syndromes, with specific regard to standard and emerging therapies. Earn accreditation for a related activity at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7221 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 US Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes, held August 26-27 in Alexandria, VA, Dr. Amy E. DeZern discusses an approach to the diagnosis and staging of myelodysplastic syndromes utilizing morphology and genetics.Earn accreditation for a related activity at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7221 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

Filmed on location in Alexandria, Virginia on August 27, 2016, this Expert Perspectives discussion features a panel of experts summarizing the key take-home points from their presentations during the JAK Inhibitors in Myeloproliferative Neoplasms symposium. Earn accreditation for this activity at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7235 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

This activity is an online webinar featuring the conference co-chairs, who highlight the key points presented during the US Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes meeting, held August 26-27, 2016, with the aim of sharing updates that will help you enhance your clinical practice. Earn accreditation for this activity at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7221 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

Brigitte Dréno, MD, PhD of the University Hospital of Nantes, Nantes, France discusses vaccinations for melanoma and the decrease in the number of clinical trials being carried out. She explains the decrease in trials and that there has been a move to adjuvant therapy. Unfortunately it was found that the last trial (called DERMA, NCT00796445) that was carried out with melanoma-associated antigen 3 (MAGE-A3), was also negative. Prof. Dréno thinks that the future might be virus oncolytic immunotherapy, involving a modified herpes virus. Further, we need to have a better knowledge of the different mechanisms to hope to progress in…

Beate Lichtenberger, PhD of the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, provides an insight into the new research that is taking place at her institution on fibroblasts in the context of skin cancer. She explains the research is being undertaken to find out where the cancer-associated fibroblasts originate from, and whether they arise from the result of transdifferentiation or come from the cells that reside in normal skin. Researchers would also quite like to dissect the crosstalk between the mutated epidermal cells and the fibroblasts. Cancer cells are usually mutated, and the cells usually acquire resistance even to therapies that…

Jeffrey Weber, MD, PhD of the NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, discusses his satellite symposium talk on updates in melanoma immunotherapy 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. Prof. Weber highlights the most recent updates in melanoma immunotherapy from the AACR (American Association for Cancer Research) and ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) meetings, alongside some of the most recent updates from WCCS/EADO 2016 also. Prof. Weber discusses some of the developments, which include evolutionary updates to existing trials, with the…

Jean-Jacques Grob, MD of the Aix-Marseille University and APHM Hospital CHU Timone, Marseille, France, discusses treatments for melanoma patients with NRAS mutation 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. Grob explains that NRAS-mutated patients represent 15-20% of melanoma patients and this subgroup of patients tends to have a poorer prognosis. Further, current treatments for melanoma, such as BRAF inhibitors, are not as effective for these patients. Prof. Grob gives the example of the MEK inhibitor (binimetinib); however the results are somewhat disappointing…

Isaac Brownell, MD, PhD of the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD discusses current studies into Merkel cell carcinoma while attending 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 Brownwell, with rare cancers like Merkel cell carcinoma, studies are typically small as it is difficult to recruit a large number of patients. Over time, as more patients are treated a better understanding can be achieved. In each trial, the drug was either given before or after conventional chemotherapy was tried, it is necessary…

Ichiro Okamoto, MD of the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria discusses the importance of genetic testing for skin cancer. Prof. Okamoto explains, that genetic testing will become more important as individualized therapies become available and further, that it is important to explain the benefits of genetic testing to patients and their relatives. Recorded 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

Grant McArthur, MBBS, BMedSci, PhD, FRACP, of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia, discusses the two currently approved combination therapies used for treating BRAF-mutant melanoma. First we have dabrafenib with trametinib and second, cobimetinib with vemurafenib, a BRAF and MEK inhibitor, which are currently the standard of care for melanoma. Prof. McArthur describes the recent understanding of subsets of patients that may do better or worse with the approach of dual approaches in treating tumors. He explains that researchers are now learning that patients with an elevated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level, have poor progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival…

Giovanni Pellacani, MD of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy, discusses the challenges surrounding the idea of getting multiphoton microscopy techniques to the clinical in skin cancer. First, Prof. Pellacani explains that a larger surface of the tumor should be explored using this technique, as this will enable for a more definitive diagnosis for patients. Secondly, the affordability and costs associated with the running of the machine should be explored, allowing it to be more readily used to help to diagnose patients. Recorded at the 2016 World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress…

Gerold Schuler, MD of University Hospital Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany discusses the importance of collaboration in cancer research 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. Schuler describes how there use to be reluctance between companies and academia to collaborate on combination therapies. However as the use of combination therapies to treat cancer is becoming a more popular strategy, cooperation has increased. Collaboration is necessary to support progress in the field of cancer therapy.

What is Lorem Ipsum? Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum. Why do we use it? It…

Paolo Ascierto, MD of the National Tumor Institute Fondazione G. Pascale, Naples, Italy provides an overview of his talk on the mechanisms of resistance against checkpoint inhibitors in melanoma at the World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. The mechanisms of resistance are a hot topic because checkpoint inhbitors can cure a good percentage of advanced melanoma patients. The types of resistance are primary, intrinisic or acquired resistance. Resistance is primary resistance when patients do not respond to treatment. Resistance is acquired when patients respond and…

Martin Mihm, Jr., MD of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA gives an overview of his talk on open questions in the histopathology of cutaneous tumors in 2016, which was part of the session on open quesions in dermatopahtology of cutaneous tumors 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. Mihm discusses new studies from the last 10 years on 1300 patients of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer. They found a difference in survival for patients who have tumor…

Maria Concetta Fargnoli, MD of University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy, discusses genetic testing for skin cancer in clinical practice. First, Dr Fargnoli highlights the review of all the important melanoma susceptibility genes identified to date, focusing on the main gene that can be screened in daily practice. She highlights that some genes are very rarely mutated, and their real utility in clinical practice is limited. Therefore, Dr Fargnoli has so far reviewed the most important genes; two genes that have been identified 20 years ago, and additional genes that have been identified as a result of next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques…

Jeffrey Weber, MD, PhD of the NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, discusses his introductory plenary lecture on the revolution and evolution of immunotherapy in melanoma given 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. Prof. Weber highlights that first, he discussed how immunotherapy for melanoma has changed and developed over the years. He believes that it is clear that the revolution is the fact that we can now see what is described as the tail on the curve of survival. For the…

Jean-Jacques Grob, MD of the Aix-Marseille University and APHM Hospital CHU Timone, Marseille, France, gives an overview of his talk on actinic keratosis (AK) 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 so far, there is insufficient data available which would allow for physicians to select the right treatment for such patients. He believes that scientists in the field collectively have the aim of treating skin cancer, i.e. the field of mutations occurring as a result of UV exposure. In order…

Ichiro Okamoto, MD of the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria discusses future challenges for genetic testing for skin cancer. According to Prof. Okamoto, the challenge is the proper transfer of information from the expert to the patient. He highlights that it is important to explain the results in a calm way and to convince the patients of the advantages of knowing one’s own risk. Recorded 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.

Gerold Schuler, MD of University Hospital Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany discussed the field of biomarkers 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. At present there is no biomarker that can discriminate between patients who will respond to checkpoint blockade therapy or who will have side effects to checkpoint blockade treatment, which is currently a big problem in the field. Prof. Shuler believes biomarkers are an excellent tool and are useful when examining the tumour microenvironment and the blood. A new area of…

Clemens Krepler, MD of the Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA, provides an insight into the research on brain metastases in melanoma. Prof. Krepler believes that there is a need for biomarkers here. He states that a lot of patients do respond very well to therapy, both targeted therapy and immunotherapy, but still tend to develop brain metastases, which is fatal since the brain is very sensitive. Therefore, there is a need to find ways of preventing tumor cells from going to the brain. Using mouse model that are also used in his lab for other projects, patient tumors are taken from…

Jean-Jacques Grob, MD of the Aix-Marseille University and APHM Hospital CHU Timone, Marseille, France, discusses the latest updates from ASCO 2016 for melanoma. First, he highlights on the news that studies have shown very promising results in the combination of BRAF and MEK inhibitors at three years. However, it still remains unclear as to whether or not results will show a plateau, and the studies now seem to be at the same range as immunotherapy. He believes that we can now ask the question of whether we should start treating BRAF mutated patients with combination of BRAF and MEK, or…

Grant McArthur, MBBS, BMedSci, PhD, FRACP, of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia, discusses the ways genetic testing is being carried out to date. First of all, there are some very specific tests on individual genes, which is used to select therapies for patients. A good example of this test is the test for BRAF in melanoma. Prof. McArthur highlights that there are other important targets as well, such as NRAS mutations, MEK inhibitors, and KIT gene mutations, which do also form a part of the planning for treatments for such specific mutations. The next area of greatest innovation…

Giovanni Pellacani, MD of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy, discusses his talk on imaging techniques in melanoma presented 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. His talk focused on new imaging techniques that enable the use of in vivo, non-invasive methods to conduct an examination of the tissue in depth, at a histological level resolution. This means that using this method, we can see the cells and the structures, similarly as when using histopathology. The tool he describes is…

Gerold Schuler, MD of University Hospital Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany explains how attitudes have changed towards the use of cancer vaccines in melanoma. Whilst attending 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. Shuler comments on how cancer vaccines were overshadowed in recent years by the success of immune checkpoint blockade therapies. However recently it has become a clinical reality that though some tumor types may be responsive to checkpoint blockade, not all patients will respond. In addition, some tumor types will not respond to…

Eva Lehner-Baumgartner, PhD of Vienna General Hospital, Vienna, Austria, speaks about the role of clinical psychologists and therapists in patient care 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 Lehner-Baumgartner provides the example of how it can be difficult for a patient to believe that a treatment is making them better when it is actually making them feel worse than they did before the treatment. This is when clinical psychologists and therapists can help by explaining such issues to patients and teaching them…

Clemens Krepler, MD of the Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA, discusses the developments of the research on mouse models for melanoma. Prof. Kepler explains that the standard of care is increasingly BRAF plus MEK inhibition, which is a dual combination that is stronger despite using the same pathway, thus delaying the time taken until the tumor can develop resistance, with a survival rate of around 16 months. Material has been collected from these patients, in attempt to find out what the resistance mechanisms are, and building on this. The next direction is immuno-oncology, where a lot of patients are now treated…

Is there a role for immunotherapy for multiple myeloma (MM) patients? Using an analogy of waking the blood hounds, Patient Power host, Andrew Schorr, discusses various immunotherapies with myeloma expert Dr. Frits van Rhee of UAMS Myeloma Institute. Dr. van Rhee covers several treatmentsboth current and in developmentthat are showing much promise both individually and in combination. 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

Axel Hauschild, MD, PhD of the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany, discusses the exciting new data on Merkel cell carcinoma presented 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. Hauschild speaks about interesting data recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine and Lancet Oncology on two drugs, a PDL-1 antibody called avelumab and a PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab, which have shown to be effective in the treatment of Merkel cell carcinoma. Prof. Hauschild believes that a new standard of care can be…