2016 ASCO Annual Meeting

Dr Pal talks to ecancertv at ASCO 2016 about a study that looked at the uptake of BRCA genetic tests among young cancer survivors aged 50 or under. In particular, they compared black, hispanic, and non-hispanic white women. The study found that there were large disparities, with significantly fewer black people undergoing BRCA tests. Dr Pal suspects that lack of information is the main reason for these differences, but says that further research is needed to fully explain them.

Dr Choueiri speaks with ecancertv at ASCO 2016 about results from METEOR, a randomised phase III trial of cabozantinib for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC), compared to everolimus. Cabozantinib displayed a significant impact on previously treated patients, improving median overall survival from 16.5 months in the everolimus arm to 21.4 months for cabozantinib, and a 33% reduction in the rate of death He also highlights the scale of the trial, from the international team gathering data to the impact on standard of care in RCC.

Dr Van Den Bent presents at ASCO 2016 about the phase III trial, which showed that patients with anaplastic glioma without 1p/19q co-deletion benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy, according to early results from a European phase III trial.

Professor Menon speaks with ecancertv at ASCO 2016 about screening strategies to detect early stage ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer was responsible for over 14,000 deaths in the US last year, but is often not diagnosed in stage I-III. With regular screening, such as annual ultrasound and multimodal sample collection, Dr Menon reports early diagnoses and intervention from a patient pool of over 200,000 respondents. Further analysis is ongoing to determine overall survival benefit.

Prof Schilsky talks to ecancertv at ASCO 2016 about the latest in precision medicine.

Dr Seto (National Kyushu Cancer Center, Kyushu, Japan) and Dr Yoh (National Cancer Center Hospital East, Kashiwa, Japan) talk to ecancertv at ASCO 2016 about RET fusions, known oncogenes from a small subset of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Out of 196 institutions in Japan (LC-SCRUM-Japan), 17 RET-rearranged patients who had previously failed to respond to chemotherapy were given vandetanib, a TKI with RET kinase activity. Dr Seto and Dr Yoh report that vandetanib increased anti-tumour activity, progression free survival and and partial response rates, especially among those from the CCDC6-RET subtype.

Dr Liao talks to ecancertv at ASCO 2016 about the results of a Bayesian randomised trial comparing intensity modulated radiation therapy versus passively scattered proton therapy for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Of the 255 patients selected, Dr Liao reports that the occurence of treatment failure (TF), defined as either local recurrence or grade ≥ 3 radiation pneumonitis (RP), was no different between those receiving intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) or 3D proton therapy, (3DPT) but hightlights that 3DPT offers more targeted dosing, and could spare damage to surrounding tissues.

Dr Nimer speaks with ecancertv at ASCO 2016 about tumour heterogeneity. Personalised and targeted therapies have offered new insights into oncogenic pathways and limiting cell growth growth, and Dr Nimer discusses the use of neoantigens and immunotherapy to modulate the tumour microenvironment. Categories: Medicines · Organisation of cancer · Biology · Biomarkers · Causes of cancer ·

Dr Nimer meets with ecancertv at ASCO 2016 to discuss haematological malignancies.

Prof Al-Batran talks to ecancertv at ASCO 2016 about findings from a European phase II study which showed that the novel, first-in-class antibody IMAB362 can significantly extend median survival when added to standard chemotherapy (13.2 months vs. 8.4 months) for patients with advanced gastric cancer.

Dr Tolaney speaks with ecancertv at ASCO 2016, presenting her research on combined sapacitibine/seciciclib therapy in BRCA tumours. Though termed a combination therapy, the schedule by which the two drugs are administered has significant impact on their overall efficacy. She explains the mechanisms through which DNA damage is introduced to tumour cells, and their cell cycle progression slowed, resulting in apoptosis. These results indicate the potential role of BRCA as a biomarker for therapy selection, and Dr Tolaney identifies further trials of 'sap-sec' in different patient cohorts.

Prof Al-Batran presents at ASCO 2016, findings from a European phase II study which showed that the novel, first-in- class antibody IMAB362 can significantly extend median survival when added to standard chemotherapy (13.2 months vs. 8.4 months) for patients with advanced gastric cancer.

Prof Mack presents at ASCO 2016, a large-scale genomic analysis that has found patterns of genetic changes detected in blood samples (liquid biopsy) closely mirror those identified in traditional tumour biopsy.

Dr Park presents at ASCO 2016, the results of a National Cancer Institute (NCI) funded phase III trial performed by the Children’s Oncology Group which found that adding a second autologous stem-cell transplant (ASCT, a transplant that uses the patient’s own stem cells) to standard therapy improves outcomes for these patients.

Dr Mack speaks with ecancertv at ASCO 2016 about the use of liquid biopsy samples to guide treatment of solid tumours. With blood samples from more than 15,000 patients and 50 tumour types, making this the largest study of its type, Dr Mack describes circulating DNA (ctDNA) as a way of monitoring patient response and tumour resistance over time, in a minimally invasive fashion. While he acknowledges the importance of solid tumour biopsy as a key part of diagnosis and clinical practice, Dr Mack advocates integration of ctDNA assays for more reflexive practice.

Prof Neoptolemos presents at ASCO 2016, a European phase III trial, one of the largest ever conducted in pancreatic cancer, which showed that adding the oral drug capecitabine chemotherapy to gemcitabine prolongs survival without increased toxicity.

Dr Hainsworth presents at ASCO 2016, encouraging early results from a phase II trial that matches patients with molecular abnormalities in the tumour to corresponding targeted treatments.

Dr Lemieux presents at ASCO 2016, a randomised phase III clinical trial, MA.17R found that postmenopausal women with early breast cancer benefit from extending aromatase inhibitor (AI) therapy with letrozole from 5 to 10 years.

Dr Wagle presents at ASCO 2016, an innovative project which was launched in October 2015 and may help expedite metastatic breast cancer genomics research and provide leads for the development of new treatments.

Dr Goss presents at ASCO 2016, a Randomised​ Phase III Open Label Trial which looked at extending adjuvant letrozole for 5 years after completing an initial 5 years of aromatase inhibitor therapy alone or preceded by tamoxifen in postmenopausal women with early-stage breast cancer.

Prof Palumbo presents at ASCO 2016, initial findings from a pivotal phase III trial that showed that daratumumab added to a standard two-drug regimen (bortezomib and dexamethasone) markedly improved outcomes for patients with recurrent or refractory multiple myeloma.

Dr Rudin presents at ASCO 2016, early findings from a first-in-human clinical trial which showed that antibody drug conjugate (ADC) rovalpituzumab tesirine (Rova-T) demonstrated promising efficacy against recurrent small cell lung cancer (SCLC).

Dr Rugo talks to ecancertv at ASCO​ 2016 about a randomised double blind phase III safety and efficacy trial of the proposed trastuzumab biosimilar, MYL-1401O vs. herceptin. MYL-1401O is comparable in efficacy and safety to the FDA-approved targeted breast cancer drug trastuzumab in women with HER2-positive advanced breast cancer, according to the randomised phase III study.

Dr Wagle speaks with ecancertv at ASCO 2016 about The Metastatic Breast Cancer Project, an online outreach project connecting advocacy groups, social media and more than 2000 patients. About 10% of breast cancer patients have metastatic breast cancer when first diagnosed, and as many as one third of all patients will develop metastatic breast cancer at some point, but only a small fraction are treated at centres which carry out research on tumour samples. In signing up through the website, patients are asked questions about their cancer and treatments, and can give consent to have researchers obtain their medical records and collect specimens, of stored tumour samples and using a mailed collection kit to provide DNA samples. With over 2,000 patients engaging with the site, Dr Wagle describes the value of upstream public dialogue in fostering stronger relations between researchers, primary care providers and patients. Watch the press conference or read the news story for more.

Dr van den Bent talks to ecancertv at ASCO 2016 about the early results from a European phase III trial which looked at the use of adjuvant temozolomide in anaplastic glioma. It was found that anaplastic glioma patients without 1p/19q co-deletion benefited from this. The addition of adjuvant temozolomide also delayed disease progression by more than two years.

Dr Rummel talks to ecancertv at ASCO 2016, about the first results of a prospective, randomised, multicenter phase II study (a subgroup study of the StiL NHL7-2008 MAINTAIN trial). The study compares two years rituximab maintenance vs. observation after first-line treatment with bendamustine plus rituximab in patients with mantle cell lymphoma.

Dr Balar presents at ASCO 2016, results from a non-randomised phase II trial which showed that anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy atezolizumab is effective in patients with previously untreated advanced bladder cancer and not eligible for the standard treatment with cisplatin.

Dr Zill speaks with ecancertv at ASCO 2016 about data from the clinical impact of sequencing circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) with liquid biopsy techniques. He reports on sampling somatic genomic profiles of over 15,000 patients with advanced-stage clinical cancer, and using liquid biopsy assays to determine cancer-type-specific frequencies and mutual exclusivity patterns among major driver alterations. The overall accuracy of ctDNA sequencing in comparison with matched tissue tests was 87% (336/386), and Dr Zill highlights that accuracy increased to 98% when blood and tumour were collected less than six months apart. He goes on to set out different classes of patient outcomes, and encourages the incorporation of liquid biopsy into patient surveillance on a wider scale.

Dr Cavo meets with ecancertv at ASCO 2016 to discuss the role of autologous stem cell transplantation (ACST) for multiple myeloma (MM). With the changing landscape of novel agents, the role of upfront transplantation has been questioned, and was put to the test in a randomized phase III trial comparing 4 cycles of bortezomib-melphalan-prednisone (VMP) against high-dose melphalan (HDM) and single or double ASCT as intensification therapy following induction with bortezomib-cyclophosphamide-dexamethasone and subsequent collection of peripheral blood stem cells. Progression free survival and partial response rates favour the inclusion of ACST as the preferred treatment for younger, newly diagnosed MM patients, with overall survival data yet to mature.

Dr Behera speaks with ecancertv at ASCO 2016 about a new modality in radiotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer; using proton beam therapy in place of photon. The increased targeting of proton therapy compared to current photon sources reduces damage to surrounding tissues, especially the heart, and increases tumour shrinkage, resulting in increased overall survival among patients. Dr Behera acknowledges barriers to access of proton therapy, and highlights ongoing research into proton therapy to treat other diseases.

Prof Ledermann talks to ecancertv at ASCO 2016 about the updated survival data associated with the PARP inhibitor olaparib in a certain subset of ovarian cancer patients. He also highlights the novel exploratory endpoints that were used for the first time within an oncology trial (TFST and TSST), and highlights that 15% of patients entered into the study possessing mutant strains of BRCA are still receiving maintenance therapy 5 years later. For future clinical use, it is important to establish precisely those patients who will benefit the most, due to the cost of the drug.

Dr Vose speaks with ecancertv at ASCO 2016, summarising presentations from the plenary session. A further interview with Dr Julie Lemieux about the MA.17R trial, extending aromatase inhibitor therapy, will be released soon, or you can hear more data in her press release here. Details on the presentation from Prof James Perry, in which chemoradiation with temozolomide extended elderly glioblastoma patient survival, can be found in his interview here, or the press announcement here. Dr Julie Park spoke further about the data presented in this press announcement on double stem cell transplant for children with high-risk neuroblastoma in an upcoming interview. Prof Antonio Palumbos’ research into daratumumab, and its slowing progression of multiple myeloma, can be seen in his press release here, with more detail from a personal interview coming soon.

Dr Bauml speaks with ecancertv at ASCO 2016 to discuss the first findings of KEYNOTE 055, a trial for PD-L1/2 blocking pembrolizumab for patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (R/M HNSCC). Pembrolizumab showed promising anti-tumour activity in earlier KEYSTONE 012 results, which are confirmed in this setting with an overall recovery rate of 18% and a stable disease rate of 18%. Dr Bauml discusses the impact of these findings for those whom platinum and cetuximab therapy had failed, the wider aspects of checkpoint inhibitory therapy, and next steps for the trial.

Prof Neoptolemos meets with ecancertv at ASCO 2016 to discuss ESPAC-4, an international phase III trial of gemcitabine and capecitabine in combination, or as mono therapy, for patients with resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. With 732 patients, the European Study Group for Pancreatic Cancer (ESPAC) 4 trial is the second-largest clinical trial ever conducted in patients with pancreatic cancer who had undergone surgery. The median overall survival was 28.0 months with the combination regimen vs. 25.5 months with gemcitabine alone, and the estimated 5-year survival rates were 28.8% vs. 16.3% in the two groups.

Dr Hainsworth speaks with ecancertv at ASCO 2016 about MyPathway, a phase IIa study evaluating agents targeting BRAF, HER2, Hh and EGFR pathways in irregular tumour sites. Many mutations are related with specific tumours in specific sites, such as BRCA in breast and ovarian cancer, however there are incidences of these mutations occurring in atypical primary lesions. Dr Hainsworth reports on the impact of molecular profiling in determining these occurrences, and moving forwards with their targeted treatment. Further enrolment across all tumour types assessed is ongoing.

Dr Lemieux speaks with ecancertv at ASCO 2016 with results from MA.17R, a randomised trial in which doubling the duration of letrozole treatment for postmenopausal women with early stage breast cancer resulted in significantly improved survival. She reports on the increased rate of progression-free survival, and patient outcomes beyond relapse rate.

Dr Park speaks with ecancertv at ASCO 2016 about the improved patient outcomes among children with high risk neuroblastoma following an additional autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). Historically, less than 50% of children with high-risk neuroblastoma live five or more years after diagnosis, but Dr Park reports that, at 3 years, 61.4% of patients who received a double transplant were alive and cancer-free, compared to 48.4% of those who received a single transplant, with similar side effects between groups.

Dr Kaufman speaks with ecancertv at ASCO 2016 to discuss the results of phase II JAVELIN Merkel 200 trial, in which patients with metastatic Merkl cell carcinoma received avelumab, a PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor. Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive skin cancer associated with Merkel cell polyomavirus, with limited therapeutic options after 1st-line chemotherapy. Dr Kaufman describes the results of the JAVELIN trial in which, of a cohort of 88, six patients (9.8%) achieved complete responses, 12 (19.7%) had partial responses, and 7 (11.5%) had stable disease (83.3% responses were ongoing). He also details the ongoing progression free survival data, and offers that additional clinical evaluation of avelumab for is warranted.

Dr Abou-alfa speaks with ecancertv at ASCO 2016 about novel treatments for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Summarising two studies being presented at this year's conference, he introduces PHOCUS, trialling an oncolytic immunotherapy based on reprogrammed smallpox virus, and a phase I trial of monoclonal antibodies against HCC. Both trials are currently recruiting participants.

Prof Perry talks to ecancertv at ASCO 2016 about a phase III randomised controlled trial of short-course radiotherapy with or without concomitant and adjuvant temozolomide in elderly patients with glioblastoma.

Dr Kleckner talks to ecancertv at ASCO 2016 about how exercise has been proven to alleviate some of chemotherapy's undesirable side effects. Kleckner's research in this area won him a Best of ASCO award. Going forward, he hopes to incorporate psychosocial considerations into this work.

Dr Lancet speaks with ecancertv at ASCO 2016 to discuss a new formulation of cytarabine and daunorubicin titled CPX-351. Compared to the current 7 3 schedule of cytrarabine and daunorubicin, Dr Lancet reports improved patient response, reduced mortality and no difference in toxicity. For elderly patients with refractory AML, Dr Lancet reports that CPX-351 should become the new standard of care.