ESMO 2014

Dr Symonds (University Hospital of Leicester, Leicester, UK) talks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 about his work looking at the use of experimental, drug cediranib, in the treatment of cervical cancer.

ecancer's Gordon McVie talks to Anastassia Negrouk, of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), at ESMO 2014 on managing data in clinical trials and encouraging more personalised medicine to take place for the progression of cancer care.

Prof Lefebvre (Northern France Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Lille, France) talks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 about the Make Sense campaign, and the ways in which they are raising the public's awareness of head and neck cancer.

Dr Swain (Washington Cancer Institute, Washington, USA) talks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 about the results of the CLEOPATRA trial, which demonstrated significant survival benefits for patients with HER2 breast cancer when treated with a combination of pertuzumab, trastuzumab and chemotherapy.

Prof Meunier, Director General of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer, Belgium (EORTC) talks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 about the financial impacts of cancer and the quality of life issues associated with them.

Dr Tahara (National Cancer Center Hospital East, Kashiwa, Japan) talks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 about the development of a new targeted therapy for the treatment of iodine-refractory thyroid cancer.

Dr Minig (Valencia Institute of Oncology, Valencia, Spain) talks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 about the need to establish a more standardised world-wide protocol for the treatment of advanced stage ovarian cancer with a focus on a multidisciplinary and specialised approach to surgery which would improve quality of life.

Dr Jean-Pascal Machiels of Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium talks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 in Madrid Spain. He presents results from a phase III trial on the tyrosine kinase inhibitor, afatinib and the significant improvements it has shown in progression-free survival for patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck after failure of platinum-based chemotherapy. Afatinib is a compound that irreversibly blocks the ErbB family of cell surface receptors, which includes epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), HER3 and HER4.

Dr Weber (Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, USA) talks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 about the results of a phase III trial which indicated that monoclonal antibody, nivolumab, achieves superior response rates and a longer duration of response than standard chemotherapy in patients whose melanoma has progressed after treatment with ipilimumab.

Dr Gligorov (Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France) talks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 about his open-label randomised phase III IMELDA trial on metastatic breast cancer. He studied whether the addition of capecitabine to maintenance bevacizumab - continued until disease progression after initial bevacizumab/docetaxel - improves progression-free survival, and found positive results. The combination of capecitabine and bevacizumab resulted in "a more controlled disease," he notes.

Prof Vansteenkiste (University Hospital Leuven, Leuven, Belgium) talks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 about the results of a phase III trial which raised questions about the future of lung cancer vaccination. Read the news story or watch the press conference for more.

Prof Magrath (International Network for Cancer Treatment and Research, Brussels, Belgium) talks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 about the activities of the International Network of Cancer Treatment and Research (INCTR), from prevention to diagnosis and palliative care, in countries where resources are limited.

Prof Joan Seoane (Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology, Barcelona, Spain) speaks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 about his own work on the molecular mechanisms behind brain tumours, touching on "the most exciting biomarkers" in this rapidly evolving field. He also touches on the highlights of other similar works presented at this ESMO.

Prof Swanton (Cancer Research UK's London Research Institute, London, UK) talks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 about the evolution of primary lung cancers. He found that many of the drivers of lung cancer occur very early on in the cancer's evolutionary tree.

Prof Curigliano (European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy) talks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 about the most exciting data coming from the congress with regards to breast cancer.

At ESMO 2014 in Madrid, Spain, Prof McVie (ecancer) interviews Prof Ryan (University of California, San Francisco, USA) on the emerging frontiers of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Prof Ryan describes the final results of the COU-302 study, his phase III clinical trial on the effectiveness of abiraterone acetate plus prednisone on overall survival in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. "This demonstrates the therapy definitively improves survival, but it also demonstrates the power of completing a trial," Prof Ryan says.

"Health is a human right," Prof Cazap of SLACOM, Argentina tells ecancertv at ESMO 2014. "The right of health and cancer care should not be related to the country in which one is living." He discusses the importance of a global perspective on cancer research, particularly in developing countries, the necessity of cancer prevention, and the intersection of global economics and health. Prof Cazap also summarises other relevant abstracts at ESMO relating to economics and cancer care.

Prof Dittrich (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Applied Cancer Research, Vienna, Austria) talks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 about molecular profiling and cancer.

Prof Veronesi (European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy) talks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 on her research on developing prognostic biomarkers to simplify less invasive treatments for early-stage lung cancer. "The future of early-stage lung cancer research is the detection with screening procedures, non-invasive treatment and the improvement of survival over the next twenty years," Veronesi says.

Dr Grande (Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal, Madrid, Spain) talks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 about his work looking the use of vandetanib to treat thyroid cancer patients.

Prof David Currow of Flinders University Adelaide, Australia discusses research from a phase III trial at ESMO 2014 surrounding a new drug called Anamorelin for patients with advanced lung cancer. The new drug has been seen to improve appetite and body mass by mimicking the effects of the so-called “hunger hormone” ghrelin, which is secreted by the stomach.

Prof Eggermont (Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France) speaks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 about the EORTC 18071 trial, an efficacy study of ipilimumab vs placebo to prevent recurrence after resectable melanoma. The study demonstrates that ipilimumab has a significant impact on relapse-free survival over time, providing a significant survival benefit.

Prof Eggermont (Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France) talks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 about the Cancer Core Europe initiative, which looks to collate data and research from six key European cancer centres to create a fully integrated and collaborative 'e-hospital'.

Dr Bernardo Rapoport (The Medical Oncology Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa) speaks to ecancertv at ESMO2014 about the results of his phase III trial, examining the use of rolapitant for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting.

Dr Robert (Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France) talks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 about the results of a phase III trial which showed that targeting BRAF V600E/K mutation-positive melanoma with a combination of dabrafenib plus trametinib achieves longer overall survival and progression-free survival as well as better response rates, compared to treatment with vemurafenib alone.

Prof Frederic Amant (University Hospital Leuven, Leuven, Belgium) speaks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 about his case-control analysis of mental development and cardiac function of children exposed to chemotherapy and radiotherapy in utero. The children in the study demonstrated normal mental and cardiac development.

Prof Lefebvre (Northern France Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Lille, France) talks to ecancertv at ESMO 2014 about the Make Sense campaign, and the ways in which they are raising the public's awareness of head and neck cancer.

Prof Rocio Garcia-Retamero (University of Granada, Granada, Spain) speaks to ecancertv at ESMO2014 about her research on communicating risk to cancer patients. She explains how an understanding of statistics and risk analysis will empower cancer patients.