AACR 2015

Dr Maura Dickler - Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA Dr Dickler talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about a new investigational oestrogen receptor (ER) degrader GDC-0810 that is safe and tolerable in postmenopausal women with advanced ER-positive breast cancer. A subset of the women, all of whom were previously treated with standard endocrine therapy, gained clinical benefit from the drug, according to data from a first-in-human phase I/IIa clinical trial.

Dr Nilsson talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about the development of a blood test which regularly monitors for the presence of the rearrangement of the EML4-ALK gene fusion in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), helping clinicians predict the outcome of treatment with crizotinib.

Dr Garon talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about the results of a trial looking at the use of pembrolizumab in the treatment of advanced, non-small cell lung cancer.

Dr Chantrill talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about how even though advances in whole genome sequencing have made it possible to identify unique druggable alterations in individual tumours, real-world application of this technology in diseases such as pancreatic cancer remains a challenge.

Dr Prockop talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about how patients with Epstein-Barr virus–associated lymphoproliferative disorder (EBV-LPD) that was not responding to standard rituximab (Rituxan) treatment responded to a new type of immunotherapy called Epstein-Barr virus– specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (EBV-CTL) therapy.

Prof Ribas talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about the findings of a phase III trial, which showed pembrolizumab to be preferable to ipilimumab in advanced melanoma.

Prof Andrew Chan talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 Philadelphia, USA about long-term aspirin use being associated with a reduced risk in colorectal cancer. Dr Chan also cautions that despite these results, it is premature to recommend general use of aspirin for cancer prevention due to the potential risks associated with it, such as gastrointestinal bleeding.

Dr Hodi talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about how giving the two immunotherapies ipilimumab and nivolumab simultaneously yielded better treatment responses than ipilimumab alone in patients with advanced melanoma who received no prior treatment.

Dr David Ahlquist - Mayo Clinic, Rochester, USA Dr David Ahlquist talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about the use of DNA stool tests as a non-intrusive screening tool, which provides a screening alternative for patients with an average risk for colon cancer. Unlike conventional tests, the stool test kit does not require dietary restrictions or bowel preparations and is simply designed so that patients can collect their own samples at home and mail them for laboratory analysis.

Prof Emens talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about how an investigational immunotherapy, MPDL3280A, was safe, tolerable, and showed early signs of durable clinical activity in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.

Dr Mark Middleton - University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Dr Middleton talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about how a first-in-class immunotherapy called IMCgp100 yielded durable responses in patients with advanced cutaneous melanoma and those with advanced ocular melanoma.

Dr Yap talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about how a combination of two molecularly targeted drugs, olaparib and the investigational agent AZD5363, was safe and yielded responses in patients with a variety of cancer types.

Dr Rosenberg talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about how the total number of breast cancer cases in the United States is forecast to be 50 percent greater in 2030 than it was in 2011, when invasive and in-situ or screening-detected cancers are counted together. This increase is driven mostly by a marked increase in cases of oestrogen receptor (ER)–positive tumours and in women older than 70.

Prof Razelle Kurzrock - University of California, San Diego, USA Prof Razelle Kurzrock talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about new data showing genetic drivers in benign disease and conditions, and how this is affecting targeted treatments.

Dr Louis Weiner comments on Dr Stephen Hodi's research for ecancertv at AACR 2015. Dr Weiner discusses results from the study by Hodi which could alter the current first-line treatment for advanced melanoma that has spread within the body. The clinical trial found that combining ipilimumab with another immunotherapy drug nivolumab provided much more effective treatment than ipilimumab alone.

Dr Erica Golemis - Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, USA Dr Golemis talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about the work she is doing towards identifying factors that regulate the response of tumour cells to ganetespib, a drug combination that is currently in clinical trials.

Dr Louis Weiner comments on Prof Leisha Emen's research for ecancertv at AACR 2015. He covers how patients with triple-negative breast cancer have a worse prognosis than patients with other breast cancer subtypes, and in the United States, there is currently no targeted treatment available. He also discusses high hopes for future treatments with an investigational targeted immunotherapy under development directed at metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.

Dr Catherine Marinac - University of California, San Diego, USA Dr Marinac talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about how decreasing the number of hours spent eating each day and an increased number of hours spent fasting overnight may reduce a woman’s risk for breast cancer by improving glycemic control.

Dr Anna Mae Diehl - Duke University Medical Center, Durham, USA Dr Diehl talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about how incidences of liver cancer are rising in the USA and what steps are being taken with targeted therapies to be used as a treatments.

Dr Golemis talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about a hypothesis-driven collaborative project between classic clinical geneticists and genetic councillors that are detecting risks within certain classes of genes in patients that could lead to prostate cancer.

Dr Janos Tanyi - University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA Dr Tanyi talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about how he has used mesothelin as a conjugate with the CART-cell and what the clinical objectives are for this treatment.

Dr Anne Marie McCarthy - Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA Dr McCarthy talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about breast density, which is associated with breast cancer risk. Breast density was found to be higher in black/African-American women than white women when measured using novel quantitative methods.

Dr Richard O'Reilly - Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA Dr O'Reilly talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about how new T cell–based immunotherapy shows promise for lethal stem cell transplant complication.

Dr Jeffrey Infante - Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Nashville, USA Dr Infante talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about the results of a broad phase I study which looked at checkpoint kinase inhibition in combination with chemotherapy drug gemcitabine in the treatment of a range of cancers including triple-negative breast cancer and melanoma. Though there were some toxicities associated with the treatment, there were also signs of efficacy.

Dr Jean Claude Zenklusen - Director, The Cancer Genome Atlas Dr Zenklusen talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about how genomics can be applied to therapies and what difference this will make to patient treatments. He also explains what the issues are with targeted therapies, in relation to his knowledge of genomes.

Dr Evan Alley - University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA Dr Alley talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about the results of a phase I multi-centre trial looking at the use of pembrolizumab in the treatment of a variety of cancers. The drug showed signs of clinical benefit in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Dr David Bajor - University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA Dr Bajor talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about combining the immunostimulatory anti-CD40 monoclonal antibody CP- 870,893 with the immune checkpoint inhibitor tremelimumab in advanced melanoma. This approach was found to be safe, with clinical evidence of response. Read the news story for more.

Dr Andrew Beck - Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, USA Dr Beck talks to ecancertv at AACR 2015 about how breast cancer is conventionally screened for and the associated risks. He explains how new computational methods can make the process less invasive and more accurate.