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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…

Dr. Nima Sharifi, MD gives his expert opinion on a collaborative Cleveland Clinic-Mayo Clinic team of researchers that has shown for the first time that patients with advanced prostate cancer are more likely to die earlier from their disease if they carry a specific testosterone-related genetic abnormality. The findings, published in the September 2016 edition of The Lancet Oncology, suggest that a specific, inherited polymorphism, or inherited genetic change, in the HSD3B1 gene renders standard therapy for metastatic prostate cancer less effective. The researchers anticipate that the findings will lead to a simple blood test to detect the presence of…

Dr. Nima Sharifi, MD reviews the data from a collaborative Cleveland Clinic-Mayo Clinic team of researchers has shown for the first time that patients with advanced prostate cancer are more likely to die earlier from their disease if they carry a specific testosterone-related genetic abnormality. The findings, published in the September 2016 edition of The Lancet Oncology, suggest that a specific, inherited polymorphism, or inherited genetic change, in the HSD3B1 gene renders standard therapy for metastatic prostate cancer less effective. The researchers anticipate that the findings will lead to a simple blood test to detect the presence of the polymorphism,…

The results of a collaborative Cleveland Clinic-Mayo Clinic team of researchers has shown for the first time that patients with advanced prostate cancer are more likely to die earlier from their disease if they carry a specific testosterone-related genetic abnormality. Dr. Nima Sharifi, MD of the Cleveland Clinic presents the findings of the study in this brief video. The findings were also published in the September 2016 edition of The Lancet Oncology, suggest that a specific, inherited polymorphism, or inherited genetic change, in the HSD3B1 gene renders standard therapy for metastatic prostate cancer less effective. The researchers anticipate that the…

Dr. Nima Sharifi, MD of the Cleveland Clinic gives a brief background to a collaborative Cleveland Clinic-Mayo Clinic study. A team of researchers has shown for the first time that patients with advanced prostate cancer are more likely to die earlier from their disease if they carry a specific testosterone-related genetic abnormality. The findings, published in the September 2016 edition of The Lancet Oncology, suggest that a specific, inherited polymorphism, or inherited genetic change, in the HSD3B1 gene renders standard therapy for metastatic prostate cancer less effective. The researchers anticipate that the findings will lead to a simple blood test…

Beate Lichtenberger, PhD of the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, discusses her highlights from 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 Lichtenberger expresses her surprise at the positive response to immunotherapy in skin cancer, with almost 60% of patients having a beneficial response. She believes that we still have to continue looking for more and different therapies to treat the remaining 40%, and perhaps the fibroblasts are the right cells to target as Dr Lichtenberger suggests.

Nikolas Haass, MD, PhD of the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia discusses the work of his lab on dynamic heterogeneity in the context of melanoma and his talk given at the World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. According to Prof. Haass, dynamic heterogeneity is important for designing drugs as different sub-populations of tumor cells within a tumor may respond differently to certain drugs. In his lab, the aim is to understand the biology of the different sub-populations of tumor cells. He further elaborates on the…

Axel Hauschild, MD, PhD of University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany, discusses the evaluation of long-term survival and prognostic subgroups of overall survival (OS) for the BRIM-3 trial of vemurafenib in BRAF-muated metastatic melanoma patients (NCT01006980) 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 long-term survival data will be released soon but there are no big surprises according to Prof. Hauschild. As seen in the pooled analysis of prognostic subgroups of overall survival, which included the BRIM-3 study, this showed that patients with low…

Marius Erik Mayerhöfer, MD, PhD of the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria gives an overview of his talk on treatment response assessment 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. According to Dr Mayerhöfer, treatment response assessment is one of the main challenges for imaging; the traditional approach is to use lesion size as the main criterion but new methods can not only assess the size of the lesion but also the metabolism. He talks about FDG-PET as an example, which…

Petr Arenberger, MD, PhD, DSc, MBA of Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic discusses the Anti-Melanoma Tent initative, where experts travel to big cities in the Czech Rebuplic and examine patients, and the possibility of extending this initative to other countries. Accoridng to Prof. Arenberger, experts from Baltic countries are interested in extending the initative to their countries. Recorded at the 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 discusses cancer vaccines and in particular, the potential to develop a vaccine for uveal 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. According to Prof. Schuler, there are many tumors for which tumor vaccines have not been tested because they are not immunogenic. However, the tumors that are not immunogenic are probably very promising for vaccination as there are no T-cells; this means that you can induce the T-cells with the vaccination and give…

Eva Lehner-Baumgartner, PhD of Vienna General Hospital, Vienna, Austria, talks about the importance of doctors providing patients with information. Regardless if the patient is distressed or not, they need basic information about the disease, i.e. their diagnosis, stage, prognosis and treatment. Dr Lehner-Baumgartner mentions the huge evolution in the treatment of melanoma, which has been presented and discussed 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. On one hand this progress gives patients hope against the disease, on the other hand it also means…

Dirk Schadendorf, MD of University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany discusses the results of the efficacy and quality of life outcomes in patients with advanced melanoma who discontinued nivolumab plus ipilimumab treatment due to toxicity in the Phase III CheckMate 067 and 069 trials (NCT01844505 and NCT01927419). Prof. Schadendorf presented a pooled analysis of over 400 patients, analyzing patients who had to discontinue treatment because of toxicity 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. 50% of patients on the combination of nivolumab plus ipilimumab…

Clemens Krepler, MD of the Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA, discusses resistance mechanisms in BRAF-mutated melanoma in mouse models. The tumors develop a very strong growth signal through the BRAF mutation, as it activates one of the main proliferation pathways. When the drug is administered, the proliferative pathway becomes blocked and the tumor finds a way around it. One way around is via C-MET, which is the receptor for HGF, which is also an important receptor in the liver cells, and is hijacked by the melanoma cells. He explains that he has found that before the patient received the BRAF inhibitor,…

Axel Hauschild, MD, PhD of University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany, gives an overview of his talk on the future of tyrosine kinase inhibiton 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. There are several studies on the way on the question of how to treat patients. One idea is to treat patients intermittently in order to delay the development of resistance or even completely avoid it. Another question is how the treatment schedules can be optimized and if another tyrosine kinase inhibitor…

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…

Axel Hauschild, MD, PhD of University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany, gives an overview of his talk on vemurafenib and cobimetinib for BRAF-mutated metastatic melanoma held 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 Prof. Hauschild, this trial (called coBRIM, NCT01689519) was similar to the trial on dabrafenib and trametinib (NCT01584648). The question was if the dual inhibition of crucial molecules of the signal transduction pathway is better than just knocking one of the molecules out. The answer is yes; the response rate…

Petr Arenberger, MD, PhD, DSc, MBA of Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic discusses skin cancer in Central Europe 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. It is more common now for people to go on holiday in sunny countries and there is an eight-fold increase in malignant melanoma since 1970. Prof. Arenberger discusses how in the Czech Republic, there is registry for skin cancer driven by the state, which means the data is reliable. He further discusses preventive mesaures such as Euromelanoma Day…

Nikolas Haass, MD, PhD of the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia discusses cell cycle-dependent drug resistance or sensitivity in melanoma. Prof. Haass discusses a recent article published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology (JID), where they showed that there is indeed a cell cycle-dependent drug resistance or sensitivity, which melanoma cells can use as an escape mechanism. Using various drugs, they showed that cells respond less or more to a particular drug at certain phases of the cell cycle and this model may be used for patients to test for drug combinations and sequence of drug combinations. Further, they found…

Marius Erik Mayerhöfer, MD, PhD of the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria discusses changes in the imaging methods used to assess response for melanoma. The RECIST criteria is the most frequently used method, while the PERCIST criteria are new. Further, new techniques are being developed; Dr Mayerhöfer mentions PET, PET-CT and PET/MR, which offers new possibilities and enables the assessment of different properties of the tumor, such as perfusion and vascularization. Melanoma is a very specific tumor with a specific histological composition. Tracking of melanin is pre-clinical at the moment but a topic that is being investigated according to…

Herbert Hönigsmann, MD of the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria discusses issues in the use of sun protection by members of the public. According to Prof. Hönigsmann, a epidemiological study in a large human population is required and further, it is important to explain to the public that sun protection alone is not enough. For example, people need to shield themselves from the sun and it is also possible to wash protection factors into clothing and important to avoid the sun at midday. Prof. Hönigsmann also addresses the problem that people do not use sun screen properly, i.e. they…

Isaac Brownell, MD, PhD of the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD gives an overview of his talk on new treatment approaches for Merkel cell carinoma held 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 neuroendocrine cancer of the skin and it is more deadly than melanoma on a case by case basis. Patients with advanced disease had very few treatment options according to Dr Bownell; they would respond to conventional chemotherapy but progress rapidly. In order to find…

Herbert Hönigsmann, MD of the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria outlines his talk sun protection 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. Hönigsmann first talks about the compounds that reflect or absorb ultra violet (UV) radiation and the question of factors, which are based on determing the ericema reaction. He further talks about the importance of UVA protection and UVB protection. Then he discusses the question if sun screen really protects against skin carcinoma development. From animal studies, we know sun…

Gerold Schuler, MD of University Hospital Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany discusses his talk on vaccines for melanoma held 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. First, Prof. Schuler points out that cancer vaccines in general have not been very succesful clinically, except for certain subgroups of patients. This was called the cancer vaccine paradox as the vaccines induced tumor specific T-cells but did not show much clinical efficacy. Melanoma was the model tumor because it is an immunogenic tumor. In retrospect, this was a…

Eva Lehner-Baumgartner, PhD, of the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, gives an overview of her talk on strategies to support skin cancer patients beyond therapy. First, she discusses emotional distress. Dr Lehner-Baumgartner explains that emotional distress is a mixture of feelings, named by Jimmie Holland, a pioneer in psycho-oncology. This describes the emotions that patients experience when confronted with the diagnosis of cancer. She further explains that in the talk, they will focus on how to assess stress severity, looking for determinants of stress severity, and finally, look at the psycho-oncological care needs for patients with skin cancer. Concerning emotional…

Dirk Schadendorf, MD of University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany gives an overview of his talk on kinase inhibitors in rare mutation subgroups 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. According to Prof. Schadendorf, treatment possibilities for patients with a BRAF mutation are good; with BRAF inhibitors and the combination of BRAF and MEK inhibition patients have a prolonged overall survival (OS) benefit. Treatment with MEK inhibitor in NRAS mutated patients shows minimal benefit, as shown in the NEMO trial (NCT01763164). He…

Clemens Krepler, MD of the Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA, discusses his work on BRAF inhibition in melanoma. 50% of melanomas have mutations in BRAF, which is a great biomarker. He highlights that most of patients with BRAF-mutated melanoma initially do respond to therapy, where their tumors shrink. However, after a few months, patients relapse. This is due to several resistance mechanisms; if it was as a result of just one resistance mechanism, it would be relatively easy to design a drug for second-line therapy. However, this is not the case as there are a lot of mechanisms which are often…

Beate Lichtenberger, PhD of the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, discusses the role of fibroblasts in cutaneous carcionogenesis. Dr Lichtenberger explains the recent discovery that skin fibroblasts are not a homogenous population but that there are in fact two lineages that develop during embryogenesis, which have distinct functions during homeostasis and during regeneration. For example, the upper lineage, found in the upper dermis, is important for hair follicle development. The second lineage comprises mainly of reticular fibroblasts, producing the bulk of collagen and extracellular matrix; these are very important in the first phase of wound healing, and because the…

Axel Hauschild, MD, PhD of University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany, gives an overview of his talk on dabrafenib and trametinib for melanoma therapy held 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 Prof. Hauschild, it was great to see that a BRAF and a MEK inhibitor (dabrafenib and trametinib respectively) were better than the BRAF inhibitor (dabrafenib) alone (NCT01584648). This set a new standard of care for BRAF-mutated melanomas according to Prof. Hauschild; the response rate was a high as 70%, which…

In this presentation from the ESMO 18th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, Dr. Marcello Deraco discusses the treatment of surgically-resectable colorectal peritoneal metastases.

In this presentation from the ESMO 18th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, Dr. Harpreet Wasan argues that radio- or chemoembolization are the preferred treatments for liver-directed therapy in incurable metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

In this presentation from the ESMO 18th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, Dr. Phillipe Rouanet discusses whether or not robotic surgery is becoming a reality in the treatment of GI cancer.

In this presentation from the ESMO 18th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, Dr. Heinz-Josef Lenz discusses whether tumor location is relevant in the treatment decision in metastatic disease.

In this presentation from the ESMO 18th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, Dr. Aimery de Gramont discusses how to improve the adjuvant treatment of colon cancer.

In this presentation from the ESMO 18th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, Dr. Takayuki Yoshino presents Asian guidelines for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

In this presentation from the ESMO 18th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, Dr. Axel Grothey presents the NCCN guidelines for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

In this presentation from the ESMO 18th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, Dr. Eric Van Cutsem discusses the ESMO guidelines for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

In this Keynote Lecture, Dr. Paul Cornes discusses health economics and cost from both the physician’s and payer’s perspective, with a focus on the issue of the availability of drugs.

In this presentation from the ESMO 18th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, Dr. Roberto Labianca presents highlights of the poster and poster discusses presented during the meeting.

In this presentation from the ESMO 18th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, Dr. Ramon Salazar examines whether gene signatures are ready for use in the selection of patients for adjuvant treatment.

How to improve the diagnosis of stage III colon cancer?

This video is the study background of a collaborative Cleveland Clinic-Mayo Clinic team of researchers has shown for the first time that patients with advanced prostate cancer are more likely to die earlier from their disease if they carry a specific testosterone-related genetic abnormality.

What does MPN (myeloproliferative neoplasm) mean? How has the MPN field changed in recent years? Patient Power Host and MPN patient, Andrew Schorr, gathered a panel of experts and advocates virtually to raise awareness and understanding of MPNs. Dr. Srdan Verstovsek of MD Anderson Cancer Center defines MPNs, giving a short history of the disease. Lindsey Lyle, a Physician Assistant at the University of Colorado; Michelle Woehrle, Executive Director of the MPN Research Foundation; and David Wallace, Founder of PV Reporter and MPN Cancer Connection; all discuss the spectrum of MPNs, how to self-advocate, and the ongoing progress of MPN…

Are stem cell transplants an effective treatment for patients with multiple myeloma (MM)? Myeloma expert Dr. Gareth Morgan of UAMS Myeloma Institute shares his opinion, based on strong evidence, about the efficacy of stem cell transplant (SCT). Dr. Morgan gives specific information on why SCT should remain in the treatment toolbox, with potential exceptions for a select group of patients. And he urges all patients to have an open discussion with their specialists on this myeloma treatment option. 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…

According to a new study, African-American women who participate in vigorous exercise had a 12% lower risk of receiving a breast cancer diagnosis. Christine Ambrosone, PhD, shares the study’s findings and emphasizes the importance of exercise when it comes to overall cancer prevention. The study was conducted by Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Boston University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Read more: http://goo.gl/bpyIlT

Dr. Andrei Gudkov, Senior Vice President for Basic Science at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY shares findings from a study that may play a role in delaying age-related diseases. Dr. Gudkov’s study has identified macrophage cells as being an associated with cellular senescence. This subtype may hold potential for anti-aging treatment. Read more: http://goo.gl/jbn4MP These findings have been reported by a team from Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Everon Biosciences in the journal Aging.

New research, co-authored by James Mohler, MD, Chair of the Department of Urology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, reveals that genetic information — specifically regarding prostate tumors — can differ from person to person. Learn more about this study: http://goo.gl/0bJkjd

David Hui, MD, MSc of MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX discusses end-of-life decisions, which should be based on patients prognosis. As patients get weaker it is important to re-evaluate decisions. A good communication with the patient and their family is important in order to come up with a personalised decision. Guidelines recommend to minimise aggressive interventions at the end of life, with subcutaneous hydration being considered in some patients. In the last months of life many patients start to experience a decrease in appetite, some degree of weight loss, and a difficulty eating or swallowing food. Existing studies show…

David Hui, MD, MSc of MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX discusses hydration and nutrition in end-of-life patients. Hydration is associated with limited side effects, even though there is some potential for swelling and fluid build-up in the body. It should be considered as a part of the treatment to reassure patients family. However, artificial nutrition would not be advised in this population as the risks significantly outweigh the benefits. Moreover, Dr Hui mentions physical signs of death in end-of-life patients, which may include respiration with mandibular movement, and drooping of nasolabial fold. However, the absence of these signs cannot…

In this Keynote Lecture, Dr. Scott Kopetz discusses the BRAF pathway in colorectal cancer (CRC).

In this Keynote Lecture, Dr. Aurélien Marabelle discusses the relevant immune mechanisms in GI cancer.

In this presentation from the ESMO 18th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, Drs. Andrés Cervantes and Karin Haustermans examine two challenging rectal cancer cases.

In this presentation from the ESMO 18th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, Dr. Julio Garcia-Aguilar discusses the advances and challenges in the surgical treatment of locally-advanced rectal cancer.

In this presentation from the ESMO 18th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, Dr. Andre D’Hoore discusses how to best to preserve organs in the treatment of rectal cancer, and for whom organs should be preserved instead of resected.

In this presentation from the ESMO 18th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, Dr. Gina Brown argues that MRI is mandatory for the successful staging of rectal cancer.

In this presentation from the ESMO 18th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, Dr. Monique Van Leerdam discusses the image of population screening for colorectal cancer (CRC).

In this presentation from the ESMO 18th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, Dr. Nadir Arber discusses whether or not advanced imaging helps in the detection of colorectal cancer (CRC).

In this presentation from the ESMO 18th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, Dr. Judith Balmaña discusses hereditary colon and gastric cancers.

In this presentation from the ESMO 18th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, Dr. Eric Raymond discusses new targets and agents for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

In this presentation from the ESMO 18th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, Dr. Chris Verslype arguest for the locoregional treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Developing a therapeutic algorithm in small bowel NETs

Charles Loprinzi, MD of Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN discusses the use of olanzapine for nausea control in chemotherapy-treated patients. Data show that olanzapine, an antipsychotic medication, can reduce nausea and vomiting when combined with standard antiemetic chemotherapy, like 5-HT3 receptor antagonist, NK1 receptor antagonist, and dexamethasone. There are different guidelines for antiemetics, when used with chemotherapy. The NCCN guidelines recommend the use of olanzapine for the last couple of years. It is worth noting that olanzapine can cause drowsiness in patients, which should be considered when treatment decisions are made. Recorded at the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer…

How do you choose the best treatment options for YOUR multiple myeloma (MM)? With more multiple myeloma treatments being approved and personalized for myeloma patients, Drs. Gareth Morgan, Faith Davies and Frits van Rhee, from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Myeloma Institute, discuss the expanding armamentarium. Dr. Morgan reviews immunomodulatory therapies (IMIDs), checkpoint inhibitors and the continued role of chemotherapy. Dr. Davies focuses on proteasome inhibitors, while Dr. van Rhee explains monoclonal antibodies and antibody conjugates. 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…

Charles Loprinzi, MD of Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN discusses treatment options for patients with established neuropathy. If a chemotherapy treatment is completed it is possible to wait and see if the symptoms get better with time, as each treatment has potential side effects. A standard approach, duloxetine is a reasonable option, as recommended by the ASCO guidelines. Other options mentioned by ASCO include gabapentinoids, however efficacy data for chemotherapy-induced neuropathy are limited. Tricyclic antidepressants may be considered but they may cause additional side effects. Dr Loprinzi highlights a scrambler therapy as a way to treat established neuropathy. The scrambler therapy…

Merran Findlay, AdvAPD of The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, discusses her view on patient nutrition during early stages of radiation treatment. As a patient initially undergoes radiation treatment, often they feel the minimal side effects. Further into the treatment however, patients may experience side effects that impact their nutrition. Typically, once treatment finishes, the side effects may increase, increasing the need for patients to be in contact and seek advice from their dietitians, medical treating staff and speech pathologists. Recorded at the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC) and International Society of Ocular Oncology (ISOO) 2016 Annual…

Charles Loprinzi, MD of Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN gives an overview of neuropathy risk factors and discusses new data showing promise for neuropathy reduction. The risk factors include patients genetic makeup, chemotherapy drugs used, diabetes, or increased body mass index. Patient with diabetes get more trouble with neuropathy particularly when treated with paclitaxel, oxaliplatin showing mixed data. If a patient has significant neuropathy to start with, it has to be put into perspective. The treatment should be stopped and rethought, with an option to switch to another therapy. New data show that exercise may decrease neuropathy, but further research is…

Merran Findlay, AdvAPD of The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, explains that a diagnosis of head and neck cancer typically has a high risk of malnutrition, which may be experienced throughout treatment, even if not experienced in the earlier stages of the disease. This has a lot to do with the site of the disease and the types of treatment, such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, which can have a big impact on a patients ability to eat and drink as they would normally. Feeding tubes, often temporary, may be required; however, being well nourished enables patients to get through…

Gregory Crawford, MBBS, MPHC, MD, FRACGP, FAChPM of The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia discusses the importance of understanding patients needs. Curing disease is only one of the aspects of medicine. Healthcare professionals need to meet patients needs as well. The challenge for doctors is to have a good knowledge of medicine, but also good communication skills to understand patients issues. Patients facing end of life decisions may have different priorities regarding treatment and care than patients with a less advanced disease. The subject of death is difficult to talk about, for both patients and doctors. The default position is…

Merran Findlay, AdvAPD of The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, discusses patient care and access to specialist dietitians. Specialist dietitians work as part of a multidisciplinary team, working closely with the nurses, doctors and speech pathologists, forming a core part of patient care. There is high-quality evidence that patients require access to a specialist dietitian earlier on, both prior and during treatment, during radiation, and then fortnightly post-treatment, for as long as required until the nutrition status of the patient is maintained. There are a range of options available, ranging from oral nutrition support, to high protein/high energy strategies that…

Jervoise Andreyev, MA, PhD, FRCP of The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom discusses the need for a multidisciplinary team approach to cancer care. Specialists from various fields like neuropathy, pain management, or dietetics need to work together to give patients the best possible care. Dr Andreyev highlights the importance of building links with other experts, who could help with treatment decisions when necessary. Data show that between 5-40% of the multidisciplinary team (MTD) decisions are changed by having the right person in the group. Dr Andreyev recommends a similar approach to MTD decision making for side effects…

Merran Findlay, AdvAPD of The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, discusses clinical guidelines and available literature on patient care from stages of pre-treatment to follow-up oncological care. She provides an insight into the clinical practice guidelines published onto a platform, which provides a thorough overview into appropriate access to care, nutrition quality and care, evaluation and monitoring. This looks into what patients should have available to them, from pre-treatment and primary oncological treatment, to follow-up oncological care; whether it concerns palliative care or survivorship issues.Typically patients need early nutrition intervention, especially with head and neck cancer, so patients should be…

James Larkin, MD, PhD, of the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK, discusses the highlights in melanoma from the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Oncology (ASCO), held in Chicago, IL. First, Dr Larkin highlights that data for the treatment of uveal melanoma with immunotherapy and in particular the newer immune checkpoint inhibitors, is now available. The data has shown that the drugs do not work as well in cases of uveal melanoma as they do in skin melanoma and cases of mucosal melanoma. Results show that patients with uveal melanoma who are treated with these drug…