WIN 2015

Prof Razelle Kurzrock - University of California, San Diego, USA Dr Kurzrock talks to ecancertv at WIN 2015 about the SPRING trial, one of the next set of trials being planned by the WIN Consortium following on from the seminal WINTHER study. In this SPRING trial, advanced genomic profiling will be used to help guide second-line therapy for patients with metastatic nonsmall-cell lung cancer which will consist of a combination of three of the most appropriately targeted drugs.

Dr Andrea Califano, Columbia University Department of Systems Biology, New York, USA Dr Califano talks to ecancer at the WIN Symposium 2015 about his keynote lecture on using a systems biology approach to precision cancer medicine. In the interview, Dr Califano discusses current research being performed at Columbia University and highlights how there is a need to use a more integrated approach to obtain a compendium of information to give a full perspective on the vulnerabilities of tumours.

Dr Stanley Hamilton - MD Anderson Cancer Centre, Houston, USA Dr Hamilton talks to ecancertv at WIN 2015 about his presentation on the need for methodology certification and accreditations to perform assays in the US. In the interview he talks about some of the issues of conducting clinical trials in different countries, the varying laboratory standards around the world and the regulatory environment in the US.

Dr Harvey Pass - New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, USA Dr Pass talks to ecancertv at WIN 2015 about the WIN Consortium’s BOOSTER initiative. BOOSTER is a research programme being designed to help with the discovery and validation of new blood biomarkers for the diagnosis of early (stage I) nonsmall-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Prof Richard Schilsky - Chief Medical Officer of the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) Dr Richard Schilsky, Chief Medical Officer of the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) and chairman of the WIN Consortium Scientific Advisory Board, provides ecancertv with an overview of a roundtable session held at WIN Symposium 2015 on the next generation of clinical trials with targeted agents.

Prof Richard Schilsky - Chief Medical Officer of the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) Prof Schilsky, Chief Medical Officer of the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) and chairman of the WIN Consortium Scientific Advisory Board, talks to ecancertv about the highlights of the WIN Symposium 2015, including the lectures given by Dr Andrea Califano on systems biology approach to precision cancer medicine and by Dr James Allison on targeting immune mechanisms.

Dr Angel Porgador - Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel Dr Porgador talks at the WIN Symposium 2015 about natural killer immunity and the cancer immunome.

Dr Paolo Nuciforo - Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology, Barcelona, Spain Dr Nuciforo talks to ecancertv at WIN 2015 about the unique approach of taking dual biopsies of tumour and normal tissue from patients in the WINTHER trial.

Dr Jacques Raynaud - Association pour la recherche sur le cancer (ARC), Villejuif, France Dr Raynaud talks to ecancertv at WIN 2015 about the role of foundations and cancer research organisations in supporting research in the era of personalised cancer medicine.

Dr Paolo Nuciforo - Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology, Barcelona, Spain Dr Nuciforo talks to ecancertv at WIN 2015 about Vall d'Hebron's work looking for biomarkers, and the importance of looking at genetic expression, as well as alterations, to give better insight into what may lie downstream.

Dr Marie Dutreix – Institut Curie, Orsay, France Dr Dutreix talks to ecancertv about the results of the first-in-human trial of the DNA repair inhibitor DT01 in combination with radiotherapy show promising results in patients with skin metastases from melanoma. In this interview at the WIN Symposium 2015, Dr Dutreix discusses the rationale for, and results of, the phase 1 study and highlights avenues for future research with this novel approach.

Prof Ton Schumacher – The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Dr Schumacher talks at the WIN Symposium 2015 about data providing a strong incentive for the development of a new generation of personalised immunotherapies that exploit cancer genome information to target patient specific mutant antigens.

Dr Ralph Weichselbaum - University of Chicago, Chicago, USA Dr Weichselbaum talks to ecancertv at WIN 2015 about the therapeutic partnership being forged between radiotherapy and immunology. In the interview he comments how radiation can be used to elicit a systemic immune response that, when combined with immunotherapies such as checkpoint inhibitors, may be harnessed to not only improve the control of local tumour growth, but also potentially address the problem of metastatic disease.

Dr Don Gibbons - The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, USA Dr Gibbons talks to ecancertv at WIN 2015 about the SUMMER trial [(Elimination of relapse through innovative adjuvant targeted therapies in Stage II and III NSCLC) The trial’s design, which is currently being finalised by the WIN Consortium, is novel in that it will look at precision medicine and targeted therapies in the adjuvant rather than metastatic setting and it has one study arm that will specifically look at the benefit of using combinations of immunotherapy targeted agents in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Prof Brian Leyland-Jones - Avera McKennan Cancer Institute, Sioux-Falls, USA Dr Leyland-Jones talks to ecancertv at WIN 2015 discussing his presentation ‘Personalised combatorial approaches to closing down all the key oncogenic drivers’ given. The strategy involves multi-platform technology and the use of specific algorithms to decide which combinations of drugs would best suit a particular patient, he explains in the interview. The aim is to hopefully show regulatory agencies, health authorities and medical insurance companies that the addition of genomic-guided therapy to standard therapy in early stage disease can transform the outcome of therapy.

Prof Jean-Charles Soria – Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France Dr Soria talks to ecancertv and provides an update on the WINther (A Study to Select Rational Therapeutics Based on the Analysis of Matched Tumor and Normal Biopsies in Subjects With Advanced Malignancies) study including interim findings at the WIN Symposium 2015.

Dr Jessica Menis and Dr Benjamin Besse Dr Menis (EORTC, Brussels, Belgium) and Dr Besse (Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France) talk to ecancertv at WIN 2015 about SPECTAlung, a new initiative of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer in collaboration with the European Thoracic Oncology Platform that aims to improve clinical trial access for patients with thoracic tumours.

Prof Bin Tean Teh - National Singapore Cancer Center, Singapore Prof Teh talks to ecancertv at WIN 2015 about the cancer genomics of urothelial cancer and fibroepithelial tumours of the breast. He discusses the discovery of the molecular fingerprint of a known carcinogen aristocholic acid (AA) found in certain herbal medicines that is linked to the development of urothelial cancer. He also talks about the discovery of recurrent mutations in exon 2 in the MED12 gene in breast fibroadenomas, a common benign breast tumour in women.

Prof Nico van Zandwijk - University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia Prof van Zandwijk talks to ecancertv at WIN 2015 about TargomiRs and the first-in-man study of MesomiR 1 in patients with recurrent malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Prof Razelle Kurzrock - University of California, San Diego, USA Prof Kurzrock talks to ecancertv at WIN 2015 about a meta-analysis of more than 70,000 patients who participated in precision medicine cancer trials. The results showed that the use of targeted therapies in carefully selected patients is as if not more effective than standard therapeutic approaches in appropriately selected patients and is associated with no more safety concerns. It is a different case in unselected patients, however, where the use of targeted treatments may not only be worthless, but actually harmful for patients, she says.