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Featuring perspectives from Dr Anne Chiang, Ms Elizabeth Krueger, Ms Beth Sandy and Dr Erin Schenk, including the following topics: Introduction: Overview of Bispecific Antibodies (0:00) Biology of Small-Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) and Review of Its Initial Management (13:37) Case: 63-year-old man — Ms Krueger (23:36) Current Role of Tarlatamab in Therapy for SCLC (33:40) Case: 70-year-old woman — Ms Sandy (43:41) Future Directions in the Management of SCLC (50:45) Case: 81-year-old man — Ms Krueger (1:01:24) Unique Considerations in SCLC Management (1:09:29) Case: 67-year-old woman — Ms Sandy (1:22:53) NCPD information and select publications
Are you up-to-date on the novel, practice-changing combination strategies for first-line maintenance treatment? Credit available for this activity expires: 6/13/26 Earn Credit / Learning Objectives & Disclosures: https://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/1002626?ecd=bdc_podcast_libsyn_mscpedu
Dr. Vamsi Velcheti and Dr. Nate Pennell discuss novel treatment approaches in small cell and non-small cell lung cancer that were featured at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting. TRANSCRIPT Dr. Vamsi Velcheti: Hello, I'm Dr. Vamsi Velcheti, your guest host of the ASCO Daily News Podcast. I'm a professor of medicine and chief of hematology and oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. The 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting featured some exciting advancements in small cell lung cancer, targeted therapies for non-small cell lung cancer, and other novel [treatment] approaches. Today, I'm delighted to be joined by Dr. Nate Pennell to discuss some of the key abstracts that are advancing the lung cancer field. Dr. Pennell is the co-director of the Cleveland Clinic Lung Cancer Program and also the vice chair of clinical research at the Taussig Cancer Institute. Our full disclosures are available in the transcript of this episode. Nate, it's great to have you back on the podcast. Thanks so much for being here. Dr. Nate Pennell: Thanks, Vamsi. Always a pleasure. Dr. Vamsi Velcheti: Let's get started, and I think the first abstract that really caught my attention was Abstract 8516, “The Randomized Trial of Relevance of Time of Day of Immunotherapy for Progression-Free and Overall Survival in Patients With Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.” What are your thoughts about this, Nate? Dr. Nate Pennell: I agree. I thought this was one of the most discussed abstracts, certainly in the lung cancer session, but I think even outside of lung cancer, it got some discussion. So, just to put this in perspective, there have been a number of publications that have all been remarkably consistent, and not just in lung cancer but across multiple cancer types, that immunotherapy, immune checkpoint inhibitors, are commonly used. And all of them have suggested, when looking at retrospective cohorts, that patients who receive immune checkpoint inhibitors earlier in the day – so in the morning or before the early afternoon – for whatever reason, appear to have better outcomes than those who get it later in the day, and this has been repeated. And I think many people just sort of assumed that this was some sort of strange association and that there was something fundamentally different from a prognostic standpoint in people who came in in the morning to get their treatment versus those who came later in the afternoon, and that was probably the explanation. The authors of this randomized trial actually decided to test this concept. And so, about 210 patients with previously untreated advanced non-small cell lung cancer were randomly assigned to get chemo and immune checkpoint inhibitor – either pembrolizumab or sintilimab – and half of them were randomly assigned to get the treatment before 3 PM in the afternoon, and half of them were assigned to get it after 3 PM in the afternoon. And it almost completely recapitulated what was seen in the retrospective cohorts. So, the median progression-free survival in those who got earlier treatment was 13.2 months versus only 6.5 months in those who got it later in the day. So, really enormous difference with a hazard ratio of 0.43, which was statistically significant. And perhaps even more striking, the median overall survival was not reached in the early group versus 17.8 months in the late group with a hazard ratio of 0.43, also highly statistically significant. Even the response rate was 20% higher in the early patients; 75% response rate compared to 56% in the late-time-of-day patients. So very consistent across all measures of efficacy with pretty good matched characteristics across the different groups. And so, I have to tell you, I don't know what to make of this. I certainly was a skeptic about the retrospective series, but now we have a prospective randomized trial that shows essentially the same thing. So, maybe there is a difference between getting treated in the morning, although I have yet to hear someone give a very good mechanistic explanation as to why this would be. What were your thoughts on this? Dr. Vamsi Velcheti: It's indeed fascinating, Nate, and I actually think this was a very interesting abstract. Really, I was caught off guard looking at the data. I mean, if it were a drug, we would be so excited, right? I mean, with those kind of survival benefits. I don't know. I think circadian rhythm probably has something to do with it, like different cytokine profiles at the time of administration. I mean, who knows? But I think it's a randomized trial, and I think I would expect to see a mad rush for treatment appointments early in the morning given this, and at least I want my patients to come in first thing in the morning. It'll be interesting to see. Dr. Nate Pennell: It's important to point out that in this study, everyone got chemo and immunotherapy. And, at least in our cancer center, most patients who are getting platinum-doublet chemotherapy and immunotherapy actually do get treated earlier in the day already, just because of the length of the infusion appointment that's needed. So it really is oftentimes people getting single-agent immunotherapy who are often getting the later, shorter visits. But if you have a choice, I think it would be very reasonable to have people treated earlier in the day. And I do think most of the impressions that I got from people about this is that they would like to see it reproduced but certainly well worth further investigation. And I personally would like to see more investigation into what the rationale would be for this because I still can't quite figure out, yes, if you got it at, say, you know, 5 PM, that's later in the day and I can understand that maybe your immune system is somewhat less receptive at that point than it would be in the morning. But because these checkpoint inhibitors have such long half-lives, it's still in your system the next morning when your immune system is supposedly more receptive. So I don't quite understand why that would be the case. Well, let's move on to the next study. I would like to hear your thoughts on Abstract 8515, “Plasma-Guided, Adaptive First-Line Chemoimmunotherapy for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.” Dr. Vamsi Velcheti: Yeah, this was another abstract that seems to be really interesting in my opinion. I think there's kind of a lot of emphasis lately on ctDNA and MRD-based assays to monitor disease. In the lung cancer space, we haven't had a lot of clinical trials looking at this prospectively, and this was one of those pilot studies where they looked at circulating free DNA (cfDNA)-based response-adaptive strategy for frontline patients who are PD-L1 positive. So, patients started with pembrolizumab monotherapy, and based on plasma molecular response after 2 cycles, those patients without response received early treatment intensification with a platinum doublet. So the approach essentially was to reduce the chemotherapy exposure in patients who respond to immunotherapy. And only about 17.5% of the patients on the trial received chemotherapy based on lack of molecular response. So, in this trial, what they found was patients with the cfDNA response had a markedly improved PFS of 16.4 months versus 4.8 months. So essentially, like, this is a really nice study to set a foundation on which we have to do larger studies to incorporate molecular markers trying to look at cfDNA response to inform treatment strategy, either escalation or de-escalation strategies. So, I thought it was a very interesting study. Dr. Nate Pennell: Yeah. I mean, we always have this question for patients, “Should they get immunotherapy alone or combined with chemo?” and I think this certainly is intriguing, suggesting that there may be ways you can monitor people and perhaps rescue those that aren't going to respond to single agent. I'd like to see a randomized trial against, you know, this strategy, perhaps against everyone getting, say, chemoimmunotherapy or make sure that you're not potentially harming people by doing this strategy. But I agree, it's time to move beyond just observing that cell-free DNA is prognostic and important and start using it to actually guide treatment. Dr. Vamsi Velcheti: Yeah, and I would just caution though, like, you know, I think we need more data, but, however, it's certainly a very interesting piece of data to kind of help inform future trials. So, there was another abstract that caught my attention, and I think this would be a very interesting abstract in the EGFR space. Abstract 8506, "Patritumab Deruxtecan (HER3-DXd) in Resistant EGFR-Mutant Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients After Third-Generation EGFR TKI," it's the HERTHENA-Lung02 study. What do you think about the results of this study? Dr. Nate Pennell: Yeah, this was, I would say, very widely anticipated and ultimately a little disappointing, despite being a positive trial. So, these are patients with EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer who have progressed after a third-generation EGFR TKI like osimertinib. This is really an area of major unmet need. We do have drugs like amivantamab in this space, but still definitely an area where essentially patients move from having a highly effective oral therapy to being in the realm of chemotherapy as their best option. So, this HER3 antibody-drug conjugate, patritumab deruxtecan, had some good single-arm data for this. And we're sort of hoping this would become an available option for patients. This trial was designed against platinum-doublet chemotherapy in this setting and with a primary endpoint of progression-free survival. And it actually was positive for improved progression-free survival compared to chemo with a hazard ratio of 0.77. But when you look at the medians, you can see that the median PFS was only 5.8 versus 5.4 months. It was really a modest difference between the two arms. And on the interim analysis, it appeared that there will not be a difference in overall survival between the two arms. In fact, the hazard ratio at the interim analysis was 0.98 for the two arms. So based on this, unfortunately, the company that developed the HER3-DXd has withdrawn their application to the FDA for approval of the drug, anticipating that they probably wouldn't get past approval without that overall survival endpoint. So, unfortunately, probably not, at least for the near future, going to be a new option for these patients. Dr. Vamsi Velcheti: Yeah, I think this is a space that's clearly an unmet need, and this was a big disappointment, I should say. I think all of us were going into the meeting anticipating some change in the standard of care here. Dr. Nate Pennell: Yeah, I agree. It was something that I was telling patients, honestly, that I was expecting this to be coming, and so now, definitely a bit of a disappointment. But it happens and, hopefully, it will still find perhaps a role or other drugs with a similar target. Certainly an active area. Well, let's leave the EGFR-mutant space and move into small cell. There were a couple of very impactful studies. And one of them was Abstract 8006, “Lurbinectedin Plus Atezolizumab as First-Line Maintenance Treatment in Patients With Extensive-Stage Small Cell Lung Cancer, Primary Results from the Phase III IMforte Trial.” So, what was your impression of this? Dr. Vamsi Velcheti: Yeah, I think this is definitely an interesting study, and small cell, I remember those days when we had barely any studies of small cell at ASCO, and now we have a lot of exciting developments in the small cell space. It's really good to see. The IMforte trial is essentially like a maintenance lurbinectedin trial with atezolizumab maintenance. And the study was a positive trial. The primary endpoint was a PFS, and the study showed improvement in both PFS and OS with the addition of lurbinectedin to atezolizumab maintenance. And definitely, it's a positive trial, met its primary endpoint, but I always am a little skeptical of adding maintenance cytotoxic therapies here in this setting. In my practice, and I'd like to hear your opinion, Nate, most patients with small cell after 4 cycles of a platinum doublet, they're kind of really beaten up. Adding more cytotoxic therapy in the maintenance space is going to be tough, I think, for a lot of patients. But also, most importantly, I think this rapidly evolving landscape for patients with small cell lung cancer with multiple new, exciting agents, actually like some FDA-approved like tarlatamab, also like a lot of these emerging therapeutics like I-DXd and other ADCs in this space. You kind of wonder, is it really optimal strategy to bring on like another cytotoxic agent right after induction chemotherapy, or do you kind of delay that? Or maybe have like a different strategy in terms of maintenance. I know that the tarlatamab maintenance trial is probably going to read out at some point too. I think it's a little challenging. The hazard ratio is also 0.73. As I said, it's a positive trial, but it's just incremental benefit of adding lurbi. And also on the trial, we need to also pay attention to the post-progression second-line treatments, number of patients who received tarlatamab or any other investigational agents. So I think it's a lot of questions still. I'm not quite sure I'd be able to embrace this completely. I think a vast majority of my patients might not be eligible anyway for cytotoxic chemotherapy maintenance right away, but yeah, it's tough. Dr. Nate Pennell: Yeah. I would call this a single and not a home run. It definitely is real. It was a real overall survival benefit. Certainly not surprising that a maintenance therapy would improve progression-free survival. We've known that for a long time in small cell, but first to really show an overall survival benefit. But I completely agree with you. I mean, many people are not going to want to continue further cytotoxics after 4 cycles of platinum-doublet chemo. So I would say, for those that are young and healthy and fly through chemo without a lot of toxicity, I think certainly something worth mentioning. The problem with small cell, of course, is that so many people get sick so quickly while on that observation period after first-line chemo that they don't make it to second-line treatment. And so, giving everyone maintenance therapy essentially ensures everyone gets that second-line treatment. But they also lose that potentially precious few months where they feel good and normal and are able to be off of treatment. So, I would say this is something where we're really going to have to kind of sit and have that shared decision-making visit with patients and decide what's meaningful to them. Dr. Vamsi Velcheti: Yeah, I agree. The next abstract that was a Late-Breaking Abstract, 8000, “Overall Survival of Neoadjuvant Nivolumab Plus Chemotherapy in Patients With Resectable Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer in CheckMate-816.” This was a highly anticipated read-out of the OS data from 816. What did you make of this abstract? Dr. Nate Pennell: Yeah, I thought this was great. Of course, CheckMate-816 changed practice a number of years ago when it first reported out. So, this was the first of the neoadjuvant or perioperative chemoimmunotherapy studies in resectable non-small cell lung cancer. So, just to review, this was a phase 3 study for patients with what we would now consider stage II or stage IIIA resectable non-small cell lung cancer. And they received three cycles of either chemotherapy or chemotherapy plus nivolumab, and that was it. That was the whole treatment. No adjuvant treatment was given afterwards. They went to resection. And patients who received the chemoimmunotherapy had a much higher pathologic complete response rate and a much better event-free survival. And based on this, this regimen was approved and, I think, at least in the United States, widely adopted. Now, since the first presentation of CheckMate 816, there have been a number of perioperative studies that have included an adjuvant component of immunotherapy – KEYNOTE-671, the AEGEAN study – and these also have shown improved outcomes. The KEYNOTE study with pembrolizumab also with an overall survival benefit. And I think people forgot a little bit about CheckMate-816. So, this was the 5-year overall survival final analysis. And it did show a statistically and, I think, clinically meaningful difference in overall survival with the 3 cycles of neoadjuvant chemo-nivo compared to chemo with a hazard ratio of 0.72. The 5-year overall survival of 65% in the chemo-IO group versus 55% with the chemo alone. So a meaningful improvement. And interestingly, that hazard ratio of 0.72 is very similar to what was seen in the peri-operative pembro study that included the adjuvant component. So, very much still relevant for people who think that perhaps the value of those neoadjuvant treatments might be really where most of the impact comes from this type of approach. They also gave us an update on those with pathologic complete response, showing really astronomically good outcomes. If you have a pathologic complete response, which was more than a quarter of patients, the long-term survival was just phenomenal. I mean, 95% alive at 5 years if they were in that group and suggesting that in those patients at least, the adjuvant treatment may not be all that important. So, I think this was an exciting update and still leaves very much the open question about the importance of continuing immunotherapy after surgery after the neoadjuvant component. Dr. Vamsi Velcheti: Yeah, I completely agree, Nate. I think the million-dollar question is: “Is there like a population of patients who don't have complete response but like maybe close to complete response?” So, would you like still consider stopping adjuvant IO? I probably would not be comfortable, but I think sometimes, you know, we all have patients who are like very apprehensive of continuing treatments. So, I think that we really need more studies, especially for those patients who don't achieve a complete CR. I think trying to find strategies for like de-escalation based on MRD or other risk factors. But we need more trials in that space to inform not just de-escalation, but there are some patients who don't respond at all to a neoadjuvant IO. So, there may be an opportunity for escalating adjuvant therapies. So, it is an interesting space to watch out for. Dr. Nate Pennell: No, absolutely. Moving to KRAS-mutant space, so our very common situation in patients with non-small cell lung cancer, we had the results of Abstract 8500, “First-Line Adagrasib With Pembrolizumab in Patients With Advanced or Metastatic KRASG12C-Mutated Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer” from the phase 2 portion of the KRYSTAL-7 study. Why was this an interesting and important study? Dr. Vamsi Velcheti: First of all, there were attempts to kind of combine KRASG12C inhibitors in the past with immune checkpoint inhibitors, notably sotorasib with pembrolizumab. Unfortunately, those trials have led to like a lot of toxicity, with increased especially liver toxicity, which was a major issue. This is a phase 2 study of adagrasib in combination with pembrolizumab, and this is a study in the frontline setting in patients with the G12C-mutant metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. And across all the PD-L1 groups, the ORR was 44%, and the median PFS was 11 months, comparable to the previous data that we have seen with adagrasib in this setting. So it's not like a major improvement in clinical efficacy. However, I think the toxicity profile that we were seeing was slightly better than the previous trials in combination with sotorasib, but you still have a fair amount of transaminitis even in the study. At this point, this is not ready for clinical primetime. I don't think we should be using sotorasib or adagrasib in the frontline or even in the second line in combination with checkpoint inhibitors. Combining these drugs with checkpoint inhibitors in the clinical practice might lead to adverse outcomes. So, we need to wait for more data like newer-generation G12C inhibitors which are also being studied in combination, so we'll have to kind of wait for more data to emerge in this space. Dr. Nate Pennell: I agree, this is not immediately practice changing. This is really an attempt to try to combine targeted treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitor. And I agree with you that, you know, it does appear to be perhaps a little bit better tolerated than some of the prior combinations that have tried in this space. The outcomes overall were not that impressive, although in the PD-L1 greater than 50%, it did have a better response rate perhaps than you would expect with either drug alone. And I do think that the company is focusing on that population for a future randomized trial, which certainly would inform this question better. But in the meantime, I agree with you, there's a lot of newer drugs that are coming along that potentially may be more active and better tolerated. And so, I'd say for now, interesting but we'll wait and see. Dr. Vamsi Velcheti: Yeah, so now moving back again to small cell. So, there was a Late-Breaking Abstract, 8008. This is a study of tarlatamab versus chemotherapy as second-line treatment for small cell lung cancer. They presented the primary analysis of the phase III DeLLphi-304 study. What do you think about this? Dr. Nate Pennell: Yeah, I thought this was really exciting. This was, I would say, perhaps the most important lung study that was presented. Tarlatamab is, of course, the anti-DLL3 bispecific T-cell engager compound, which is already FDA approved based on a prior single-arm phase II study, which showed a very nice response rate as a single agent in previously treated small cell lung cancer and relatively manageable side effects, although somewhat unique to solid tumor docs in the use of these bispecific drugs in things like cytokine release syndrome and ICANS, the neurologic toxicities. So, this trial was important because tarlatamab was approved, but there were also other chemotherapy drugs approved in the previously treated space. And so, this was a head-to-head second-line competition comparison between tarlatamab and either topotecan, lurbinectedin, or amrubicin in previously treated small cell patients with a primary endpoint of overall survival. So, a very well-designed trial. And it did show, I think, a very impressive improvement in overall survival with a median overall survival in the tarlatamab group of 13.6 months compared to 8.3 months with chemotherapy, hazard ratio of 0.6. And progression-free survival was also longer at 4.2 months versus 3.2 months, hazard ratio of 0.72. In addition to showing improvements in cancer-related symptoms that were improved in tarlatamab compared to chemotherapy, there was actually also significantly lower rates of serious treatment-related adverse events with tarlatamab compared to chemotherapy. So, you do still see the cytokine release syndrome, which is seen in most people but is manageable because these patients are admitted to the hospital for the first two cycles, as well as a significant number of patients with neurologic side effects, the so-called ICANS, which also can be treated with steroids. And so, I think based upon the very significant improvement in outcomes, I would expect that this should become our kind of standard second-line treatment since it seems to be much better than chemo. However, tarlatamab is definitely a new drug that a lot of places are not used to using, and I think a lot of cancer centers, especially ones that aren't tied to a hospital, may have questions about how to deal with the CRS. So, I'm curious your thoughts on that. Dr. Vamsi Velcheti: Yeah, thank you, Nate. And I completely agree. I think the data looked really promising, and I've already been using tarlatamab in the second-line space. The durability of response and overall, having used tarlatamab quite a bit - like, I participated in some of the early trials and also used it as standard of care - tarlatamab has unique challenges in terms of like need for hospitalization for monitoring for the first few treatments and make sure, you know, we monitor those patients for CRS and ICANS. But once you get past that initial administration and monitoring of CRS, these patients have a much better quality of life, they're off chemotherapy, and I think it's really about the logistics of actually administering tarlatamab and coordination with the hospital and administration in the outpatient setting. It's definitely challenging, but I think it definitely can be done and should be done given what we are seeing in terms of clinical efficacy here. Dr. Nate Pennell: I agree. I think hospital systems now are just going to have to find a way to be able to get this on formulary and use it because it clearly seems to be more effective and generally better tolerated by patients. So, should move forward, I think. Finally, there's an abstract I wanted to ask you about, Abstract 8001, which is the “Neoadjuvant osimertinib with or without chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone in resectable epidermal growth factor receptor-mutated non-small cell lung cancer: The NeoADAURA Study”. And this is one that I think was also fairly highly anticipated. So, what are your thoughts? Dr. Vamsi Velcheti: You know, I wasn't probably surprised with the results, and I believe we were all expecting a positive trial, and we certainly were handed a positive trial here. It's a phase III trial of osimertinib and chemotherapy or osimertinib in the neoadjuvant space followed by surgery, followed by osimertinib. It's a global phase 3 trial and very well conducted, and patients with stage II to stage IIIB were enrolled in the study. And in the trial, patients who had a neoadjuvant osimertinib with or without chemotherapy showed a significant improvement in major pathologic response rates over chemotherapy alone. And the EFS was also positive for osimertinib and chemotherapy, osimertinib monotherapy as well compared to chemotherapy alone. So overall, the study met its primary endpoint, and I think it sheds light on how we manage our patients with early-stage lung cancer. I think osimertinib, we know that osimertinib is already FDA approved in the adjuvant space, but what we didn't really know is how was osimertinib going to work in the neoadjuvant space. And there are always situations, especially for stage III patients, where we are on the fence about, are these patients already close to being metastatic? They have, like, almost all these patients have micrometastatic disease, even if they have stage III. As we saw in the LAURA data, when you look at the control arm, it was like a very short PFS. Chemoradiation does nothing for those patients, and I think these patients have systemic mets, either gross or micrometastatic disease at onset. So, it's really important to incorporate osimertinib early in the treatment course. And I think, especially for the locally advanced patients, I think it's even more important to kind of incorporate osimertinib in the neoadjuvant space and get effective local control with surgery and treat them with adjuvant. I'm curious to hear your thoughts, Nate. Dr. Nate Pennell: I am a believer and have long been a believer in targeted adjuvant treatments, and, you know, it has always bothered me somewhat that we're using our far and away most effective systemic therapy; we wait until after they go through all their pre-op treatments, they go through surgery, then they go through chemotherapy, and then finally months later, they get their osimertinib, and it still clearly improves survival in the adjuvant setting. Why not just start the osimertinib as soon as you know that the patient has EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer, and then you can move on to surgery and adjuvant treatment afterwards? And I think what was remarkable about this study is that all of these patients almost - 90% in each arm - went to surgery. So, you weren't harming them with the neoadjuvant treatment. And clearly better major pathologic response, nodal downstaging, event-free survival was better. But I don't know that this trial is ever going to show an overall survival difference between neoadjuvant versus just surgery and adjuvant treatment, given how effective the drug is in the adjuvant setting. Nonetheless, I think the data is compelling enough to consider this, certainly for our N2-positive, stage IIIA patients or a IIIB who might be otherwise surgical candidates. I think based on this, I would certainly consider that. Dr. Vamsi Velcheti: Yeah, and especially for EGFR, like even for stage IIIB patients, in the light of the LAURA study, those patients who do not do too well with chemoradiation. So you're kind of delaying effective systemic therapy, as you said, waiting for the chemoradiation to finish. So I think probably time to revisit how we kind of manage these locally advanced EGFR patients. Dr. Nate Pennell: Yep, I agree. Dr. Vamsi Velcheti: Nate, thank you so much for sharing your fantastic insights today on the ASCO Daily News Podcast. It's been an exciting ASCO again. You know, we've seen a lot of positive trials impacting our care of non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer patients. Dr. Nate Pennell: Thanks for inviting me, Vamsi. Always a pleasure to discuss these with you. Dr. Vamsi Velcheti: And thanks to our listeners for your time today. You will find links to all of the abstracts discussed today in the transcript of the episode. Finally, if you value the insights that you hear from the ASCO Daily News Podcast, please take a moment to rate, review, subscribe wherever you get your podcast. Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. Guest statements on the podcast do not express the opinions of ASCO. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement. More on today's speakers: Dr. Vamsi Velcheti @VamsiVelcheti Dr. Nathan Pennell @n8pennell Follow ASCO on social media: @ASCO on Twitter ASCO on Facebook ASCO on LinkedIn ASCO on BlueSky Disclosures: Dr. Vamsi Velcheti: Honoraria: ITeos Therapeutics Consulting or Advisory Role: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Foundation Medicine, AstraZeneca/MedImmune, Novartis, Lilly, EMD Serono, GSK, Amgen, Elevation Oncology, Taiho Oncology, Merus Research Funding (Inst.): Genentech, Trovagene, Eisai, OncoPlex Diagnostics, Alkermes, NantOmics, Genoptix, Altor BioScience, Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Atreca, Heat Biologics, Leap Therapeutics, RSIP Vision, GlaxoSmithKline Dr. Nathan Pennell: Consulting or Advisory Role: AstraZeneca, Lilly, Cota Healthcare, Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Genentech, Amgen, G1 Therapeutics, Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Viosera, Xencor, Mirati Therapeutics, Janssen Oncology, Sanofi/Regeneron Research Funding (Inst): Genentech, AstraZeneca, Merck, Loxo, Altor BioScience, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Jounce Therapeutics, Mirati Therapeutics, Heat Biologics, WindMIL, Sanofi
In the wake of the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, CancerNetwork® put together an X Spaces discussion hosted by Stephen Liu, MD, and Joshua Sabari, MD, to highlight the most intriguing and practice-changing lung cancer abstracts. Discussed topics ranged from long-term follow-up with commonplace therapies to an analysis of what time of day is the best to administer immunochemotherapy. Liu, an associate professor of Medicine at Georgetown University, and the director of Thoracic Oncology and head of Developmental Therapeutics at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Sabari, an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and the director of High Reliability Organization Initiatives at the Perlmutter Cancer Center, shared expert insights on the latest non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC) breakthroughs. Trials of note that they discussed included: The phase 3 DeLLphi-304 trial (NCT05740566) - Tarlatamab (Imdelltra) versus chemotherapy (CTx) as second-line (2L) treatment for small cell lung cancer (SCLC): primary analysis of Ph3 DeLLphi-304.1 The phase 3 IMforte trial (NCT05091567) - Lurbinectedin (Zepzelca; lurbi) + atezolizumab (Tecentriq; atezo) as first-line (1L) maintenance treatment (tx) in patients (pts) with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC): primary results of the phase 3 IMforte trial.2 The phase 3 CheckMate 816 trial (NCT02998528) - Overall survival with neoadjuvant nivolumab (Opdivo; NIVO) + chemotherapy (chemo) in patients with resectable NSCLC in CheckMate 816.3 The phase 3 PACIFIC15 trial (NCT05549037) - Randomized trial of relevance of time-of-day of immunochemotherapy for progression-free and overall survival in patients with non–small cell lung cancer.4 The phase 3 Beamion LUNG-1 trial (NCT04886804) - Patient-reported outcomes (PRO) evaluating physical functioning and symptoms in patients with pretreated HER2-mutant advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): results from the Beamion LUNG-1 trial.5 The phase 3 ARTEMIA trial (NCT06472245) - Phase 3 trial of the therapeutic cancer vaccine OSE2101 versus docetaxel in patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer and secondary resistance to immunotherapy. References Rudin C, Mountzios G, Sun L, et al. Tarlatamab versus chemotherapy (CTx) as second-line (2L) treatment for small cell lung cancer (SCLC): primary analysis of Ph3 DeLLphi-304. J Clin Oncol. 2025;43(suppl 17):LBA8008. doi:10.1200/JCO.2025.43.17_suppl.LBA8008 Paz-Ares L, Borghaei H, Liu SV, et al. Lurbinectedin (lurbi) + atezolizumab (atezo) as first-line (1L) maintenance treatment (tx) in patients (pts) with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC): primary results of the phase 3 IMforte trial. J Clin Oncol. 2025;43(suppl 16):8006. doi:10.1200/JCO.2025.43.16_suppl.8006 Forde PM, Spicer JD, Provencio M, et al. Overall survival with neoadjuvant nivolumab + chemotherapy in patients with resectable NSCLC in CheckMate 816. J Clin Oncol. 2025;43(suppl 17):LBA8000. doi:10.1200/JCO.2025.43.17_suppl.LBA8000 Zhang Y, Huang Z, Zeng L, et al. Randomized trial of relevance of time-of-day of immunochemotherapy for progression-free and overall survival in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. J Clin Oncol. 2025;43(suppl 16):8516. doi:10.1200/JCO.2025.43.16_suppl.8516 Sabari JK, Nadal E, Hendriks L, et al. Patient-reported outcomes (PRO) evaluating physical functioning and symptoms in patients with pretreated HER2-mutant advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): results from the Beamion LUNG-1 trial. J Clin Oncol. 2025;43(suppl 16):8620. doi:10.1200/JCO.2025.43.16_suppl.8620 Liu SV, Guibert C, Tostivint EP, et al. Phase 3 trial of the therapeutic cancer vaccine OSE2101 versus docetaxel in patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer and secondary resistance to immunotherapy. J Clin Oncol. 2025;43(suppl 16):TPS8651. doi:10.1200/JCO.2025.43.16_suppl.TPS8651
Dr. Nathan Pennell and Dr. Cheryl Czerlanis discuss challenges in lung cancer screening and potential solutions to increase screening rates, including the use of AI to enhance risk prediction and screening processes. Transcript Dr. Nate Pennell: Hello, and welcome to By the Book, a monthly podcast series for ASCO Education that features engaging discussions between editors and authors from the ASCO Educational Book. I'm Dr. Nate Pennell, the co-director of the Cleveland Clinic Lung Cancer Program and vice chair of clinical research for the Taussig Cancer Center. I'm also the editor-in-chief for the ASCO Educational Book. Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide, and most cases are diagnosed at advanced stages where curative treatment options are limited. On the opposite end, early-stage lung cancers are very curable. If only we could find more patients at that early stage, an approach that has revolutionized survival for other cancer types such as colorectal and breast cancer. On today's episode, I'm delighted to be joined by Dr. Cheryl Czerlanis, a professor of medicine and thoracic medical oncologist at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center, to discuss her article titled, "Broadening the Net: Overcoming Challenges and Embracing Novel Technologies in Lung Cancer Screening." The article was recently published in the ASCO Educational Book and featured in an Education Session at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting. Our full disclosures are available in the transcript of this episode. Cheryl, it's great to have you on the podcast today. Thanks for being here. Dr. Cheryl Czerlanis: Thanks, Nate. It's great to be here with you. Dr. Nate Pennell: So, I'd like to just start by asking you a little bit about the importance of lung cancer screening and what evidence is there that lung cancer screening is beneficial. Dr. Cheryl Czerlanis: Thank you. Lung cancer screening is extremely important because we know that lung cancer survival is closely tied to stage at diagnosis. We have made significant progress in the treatment of lung cancer, especially over the past decade, with the introduction of immunotherapies and targeted therapies based on personalized evaluation of genomic alterations. But the reality is that outside of a lung screening program, most patients with lung cancer present with symptoms related to advanced cancer, where our ability to cure the disease is more limited. While lung cancer screening has been studied for years, the National Lung Screening Trial, or the NLST, first reported in 2011 a significant reduction in lung cancer deaths through screening. Annual low-dose CT scans were performed in a high-risk population for lung cancer in comparison to chest X-ray. The study population was comprised of asymptomatic persons aged 55 to 74 with a 30-pack-year history of smoking who were either active smokers or had quit within 15 years. The low-dose CT screening was associated with a 20% relative risk reduction in lung cancer-related mortality. A similar magnitude of benefit was also reported in the NELSON trial, which was a large European randomized trial comparing low-dose CT with a control group receiving no screening. Dr. Nate Pennell: So, this led, of course, to approval from CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) for lung cancer screening in the Medicare population, probably about 10 years ago now, I think. And there are now two major trials showing an unequivocal reduction in lung cancer-related mortality and even evidence that it reduces overall mortality with lung cancer screening. But despite this, lung cancer screening rates are very low in the United States. So, first of all, what's going on? Why are we not seeing the kinds of screening rates that we see with mammography and colonoscopy? And what are the barriers to that here? Dr. Cheryl Czerlanis: That's a great question. Thank you, Nate. In the United States, recruitment for lung cancer screening programs has faced numerous challenges, including those related to socioeconomic, cultural, logistical, and even racial disparities. Our current lung cancer screening guidelines are somewhat imprecise and often fail to address differences that we know exist in sex, smoking history, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity. We also see underrepresentation in certain groups, including African Americans and other minorities, and special populations, including individuals with HIV. And even where lung cancer screening is readily available and we have evidence of its efficacy, uptake can be low due to both provider and patient factors. On the provider side, barriers include having insufficient time in a clinic visit for shared decision-making, fear of missed test results, lack of awareness about current guidelines, concerns about cost, potential harms, and evaluating both true and false-positive test results. And then on the patient side, barriers include concerns about cost, fear of getting a cancer diagnosis, stigma associated with tobacco smoking, and misconceptions about the treatability of lung cancer. Dr. Nate Pennell: I think those last two are really what make lung cancer unique compared to, say, for example, breast cancer, where there really is a public acceptance of the value of mammography and that breast cancer is no one's fault and that it really is embraced as an active way you can take care of yourself by getting your breast cancer screening. Whereas in lung cancer, between the stigma of smoking and the concern that, you know, it's a death sentence, I think we really have some work to be made up, which we'll talk about in a minute about what we can do to help improve this. Now, that's in the U.S. I think things are probably, I would imagine, even worse when we leave the U.S. and look outside, especially at low- and middle-income countries. Dr. Cheryl Czerlanis: Yes, globally, this issue is even more complex than it is in the United States. Widespread implementation of low-dose CT imaging for lung cancer screening is limited by manpower, infrastructure, and economic constraints. Many low- and middle-income countries even lack sufficient CT machines, trained personnel, and specialized facilities for accurate and timely screenings. Even in urban centers with advanced diagnostic facilities, the high screening and follow-up care costs can limit access. Rural populations face additional barriers, such as geographic inaccessibility of urban centers, transportation costs, language barriers, and mistrust of healthcare systems. In addition, healthcare systems in these regions often prioritize infectious diseases and maternal health, leaving limited room for investments in noncommunicable disease prevention like lung cancer screening. Policymakers often struggle to justify allocating resources to lung cancer screening when immediate healthcare needs remain unmet. Urban-rural disparities exacerbate these challenges, with rural regions frequently lacking the infrastructure and resources to sustain screening programs. Dr. Nate Pennell: Well, it's certainly an intimidating problem to try to reduce these disparities, especially between the U.S. and low- and middle-income countries. So, what are some of the potential solutions, both here in the U.S. and internationally, that we can do to try to increase the rates of lung cancer screening? Dr. Cheryl Czerlanis: The good news is that we can take steps to address these challenges, but a multifaceted approach is needed. Public awareness campaigns focused on the benefits of early detection and dispelling myths about lung cancer screening are essential to improving participation rates. Using risk-prediction models to identify high-risk individuals can increase the efficiency of lung cancer screening programs. Automated follow-up reminders and screening navigators can also ensure timely referrals and reduce delays in diagnosis and treatment. Reducing or subsidizing the cost of low-dose CT scans, especially in low- or middle-income countries, can improve accessibility. Deploying mobile CT scanners can expand access to rural and underserved areas. On a global scale, integrating lung cancer screening with existing healthcare programs, such as TB or noncommunicable disease initiatives, can enhance resource utilization and program scalability. Implementing lung cancer screening in resource-limited settings requires strategic investment, capacity building, and policy interventions that prioritize equity. Addressing financial constraints, infrastructure gaps, and sociocultural barriers can help overcome existing challenges. By focusing on cost-effective strategies, public awareness, and risk-based eligibility criteria, global efforts can promote equitable access to lung cancer screening and improve outcomes. Lastly, as part of the medical community, we play an important role in a patient's decision to pursue lung cancer screening. Being up to date with current lung cancer screening recommendations, identifying eligible patients, and encouraging a patient to undergo screening often is the difference-maker. Electronic medical record (EMR) systems and reminders are helpful in this regard, but relationship building and a recommendation from a trusted provider are really essential here. Dr. Nate Pennell: I think that makes a lot of sense. I mean, there are technology improvements. For example, our lung cancer screening program at The Cleveland Clinic, a few years back, we finally started an automated best practice alert in our EMR for patients who met the age and smoking requirements, and it led to a six-fold increase in people referred for screening. But at the same time, there's a difference between just getting this alert and putting in an order for lung cancer screening and actually getting those patients to go and actually do the screening and then follow up on it. And that, of course, requires having that relationship and discussion with the patient so that they trust that you have their best interests. Dr. Cheryl Czerlanis: Exactly. I think that's important. You know, certainly, while technology can aid in bringing patients in, there really is no substitute for trust-building and a personal relationship with a provider. Dr. Nate Pennell: I know that there are probably multiple examples within the U.S. where health systems or programs have put together, I would say, quality improvement projects to try to increase lung cancer screening and working with their community. There's one in particular that you discuss in your paper called the "End Lung Cancer Now" initiative. I wonder if you could take us through that. Dr. Cheryl Czerlanis: Absolutely. "End Lung Cancer Now" is an initiative at the Indiana University Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center that has the vision to end suffering and death from lung cancer in Indiana through education and community empowerment. We discuss this as a paradigm for how community engagement is important in building and scaling a lung cancer screening program. In 2023, the "End Lung Cancer Now" team decided to focus its efforts on scaling and transforming lung cancer screening rates in Indiana. They developed a task force with 26 experts in various fields, including radiology, pulmonary medicine, thoracic surgery, public health, and advocacy groups. The result of this work is an 85-page blueprint with key recommendations that any system and community can use to scale lung cancer screening efforts. After building strong infrastructure for lung cancer screening at Indiana University, they sought to understand what the priorities, resources, and challenges in their communities were. To do this, they forged strong partnerships with both local and national organizations, including the American Lung Association, American Cancer Society, and others. In the first year, they actually tripled the number of screening low-dose CTs performed in their academic center and saw a 40% increase system-wide. One thing that I think is the most striking is that through their community outreach, they learned that most people prefer to get medical care close to home within their own communities. Establishing a way to support the local infrastructure to provide care became far more important than recruiting patients to their larger system. In exciting news, "End Lung Cancer Now" has partnered with the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center and IU Health to launch Indiana's first and only mobile lung screening program in March of 2025. This mobile program travels around the state to counties where the highest incidence of lung cancer exists and there is limited access to screening. The mobile unit parks at trusted sites within communities and works in partnership, not competition, with local health clinics and facilities to screen high-risk populations. Dr. Nate Pennell: I think that sounds like a great idea. Screening is such an important thing that it doesn't necessarily have to be owned by any one particular health system for their patients. I think. And I love the idea of bringing the screening to patients where they are. I can speak to working in a regional healthcare system with a main campus in the downtown that patients absolutely hate having to come here from even 30 or 40 minutes away, and they'd much rather get their care locally. So that makes perfect sense. So, under the current guidelines, there are certainly things that we can do to try to improve capturing the people that meet those. But are those guidelines actually capturing enough patients with lung cancer to make a difference? There certainly are proposals within patient advocacy communities and even other countries where there's a large percentage of non-smokers who perhaps get lung cancer. Can we expand beyond just older, current and heavy smokers to identify at-risk populations who could benefit from screening? Dr. Cheryl Czerlanis: Yes, I think we can, and it's certainly an active area of research interest. We know that tobacco is the leading cause of lung cancer worldwide. However, other risk factors include secondhand smoke, family history, exposure to environmental carcinogens, and pulmonary diseases like COPD and interstitial lung disease. Despite these known associations, the benefit of lung cancer screening is less well elucidated in never-smokers and those at risk of developing lung cancer because of family history or other risk factors. We know that the eligibility criteria associated with our current screening guidelines focus on age and smoking history and may miss more than 50% of lung cancers. Globally, 10% to 25% of lung cancer cases occur in never-smokers. And in certain parts of the world, like you mentioned, Nate, such as East Asia, many lung cancers are diagnosed in never-smokers, especially in women. Risk-prediction models use specific risk factors for lung cancer to enhance individual selection for screening, although they have historically focused on current or former smokers. We know that individuals with family members affected by lung cancer have an increased risk of developing the disease. To this end, several large-scale, single-arm prospective studies in Asia have evaluated broadening screening criteria to never-smokers, with or without additional risk factors. One such study, the Taiwan Lung Cancer Screening in Never-Smoker Trial, was a multicenter prospective cohort study at 17 medical centers in Taiwan. The primary outcome of the TALENT trial was lung cancer detection rate. Eligible patients aged 55 to 75 had either never smoked or had a light and remote smoking history. In addition, inclusion required one or more of the following risk factors: family history of lung cancer, passive smoke exposure, history of TB or COPD, a high cooking index, which is a metric that quantifies exposure to cooking fumes, or a history of cooking without ventilation. Participants underwent low-dose CT screening at baseline, then annually for 2 years, and then every 2 years for up to 6 years. The lung cancer detection rate was 2.6%, which was higher than that reported in the NLST and NELSON trials, and most were stage 0 or I cancers. Subsequently, this led to the Taiwan Early Detection Program for Lung Cancer, a national screening program that was launched in 2022, targeting 2 screening populations: individuals with a heavy history of smoking and individuals with a family history of lung cancer. We really need randomized controlled trials to determine the true rates of overdiagnosis or finding cancers that would not lead to morbidity or mortality in persons who are diagnosed, and to establish whether the high lung detection rates are associated with a decrease in lung cancer-related mortality in these populations. However, the implementation of randomized controlled low-dose CT screening trials in never-smokers has been limited by the need for large sample sizes, lengthy follow-up, and cost. In another group potentially at higher risk for developing lung cancer, the role of lung cancer screening in individuals who harbor germline pathogenic variants associated with lung cancer also needs to be explored further. Dr. Nate Pennell: We had this discussion when the first criteria came out because there have always been risk-based calculators for lung cancer that certainly incorporate smoking but other factors as well and have discussion about whether we should be screening people based on their risk and not just based on discrete criteria such as smoking. But of course, the insurance coverage for screening, you have to fit the actual criteria, which is very constrained by age and smoking history. Do you think in the U.S. there's hope for broadening our screening beyond NLST and NELSON criteria? Dr. Cheryl Czerlanis: I do think at some point there is hope for broadening the criteria beyond smoking history and age, beyond the criteria that we have typically used and that is covered by insurance. I do think it will take some work to perhaps make the prediction models more precise or to really understand who can benefit. We certainly know that there are many patients who develop lung cancer without a history of smoking or without family history, and it would be great if we could diagnose more patients with lung cancer at an earlier stage. I think this will really count on there being some work towards trying to figure out what would be the best population for screening, what risk factors to look for, perhaps using some new technologies that may help us to predict who is at risk for developing lung cancer, and trying to increase the group that we study to try and find these early-stage lung cancers that can be cured. Dr. Nate Pennell: Part of the reason we, of course, try to enrich our population is screening works better when you have a higher pretest probability of actually having cancer. And part of that also is that our technology is not that great. You know, even in high-risk patients who have CT scans that are positive for a screen, we know that the vast majority of those patients with lung nodules actually don't have lung cancer. And so you have to follow them, you have to use various models to see, you know, what the risk, even in the setting of a positive screen, is of having lung cancer. So, why don't we talk about some newer tools that we might use to help improve lung cancer screening? And one of the things that everyone is super excited about, of course, is artificial intelligence. Are there AI technologies that are helping out in early detection in lung cancer screening? Dr. Cheryl Czerlanis: Yes, that's a great question. We know that predicting who's at risk for lung cancer is challenging for the reasons that we talked about, knowing that there are many risk factors beyond smoking and age that are hard to quantify. Artificial intelligence is a tool that can help refine screening criteria and really expand screening access. Machine learning is a form of AI technology that is adept at recognizing patterns in large datasets and then applying the learning to new datasets. Several machine learning models have been developed for risk stratification and early detection of lung cancer on imaging, both with and without blood-based biomarkers. This type of technology is very promising and can serve as a tool that helps to select individuals for screening by predicting who is likely to develop lung cancer in the future. A group at Massachusetts General Hospital, represented in our group for this paper by my co-authors, Drs. Fintelmann and Chang, developed Sybil, which is an open-access 3D convolutional neural network that predicts an individual's future risk of lung cancer based on the analysis of a single low-dose CT without the need for human annotation or other clinical inputs. Sybil and other machine learning models have tremendous potential for precision lung cancer screening, even, and perhaps especially, in settings where expert image interpretation is unavailable. They could support risk-adapted screening schedules, such as varying the frequency and interval of low-dose CT scans according to individual risk and potentially expand lung cancer screening eligibility beyond age and smoking history. Their group predicts that AI tools like Sybil will play a major role in decoding the complex landscape of lung cancer risk factors, enabling us to extend life-saving lung cancer screening to all who are at risk. Dr. Nate Pennell: I think that that would certainly be welcome. And as AI is working its way into pretty much every aspect of life, including medical care, I think it's certainly promising that it can improve on our existing technology. We don't have to spend a lot of time on this because I know it's a little out of scope for what you covered in your paper, but I'm sure our listeners are curious about your thoughts on the use of other types of testing beyond CT screening for detecting lung cancer. I know that there are a number of investigational and even commercially available blood tests, for example, for detection of lung cancer, or even the so-called multi-cancer detection blood tests that are now being offered, although not necessarily being covered by insurance, for multiple types of cancer, but lung cancer being a common cancer is included in that. So, what do you think? Dr. Cheryl Czerlanis: Yes, like you mentioned, there are novel bioassays such as blood-based biomarker testing that evaluate for DNA, RNA, and circulating tumor cells that are both promising and under active investigation for lung cancer and multi-cancer detection. We know that such biomarker assays may be useful in both identifying lung cancers but also in identifying patients with a high-risk result who should undergo lung cancer screening by conventional methods. Dr. Nate Pennell: Anything that will improve on our rate of screening, I think, will be welcome. I think probably in the future, it will be some combination of better risk prediction and better interpretation of screening results, whether those be imaging or some combination of imaging and biomarkers, breath-based, blood-based. There's so much going on that it is pretty exciting, but we're still going to have to overcome the stigma and lack of public support for lung cancer screening if we're going to move the needle. Dr. Cheryl Czerlanis: Yes, I think moving the needle is so important because we know lung cancer is still a very morbid disease, and our ability to cure patients is not where we would like it to be. But I do believe there's hope. There are a lot of motivated individuals and groups who are passionate about lung cancer screening, like myself and my co-authors, and we're just happy to be able to share some ways that we can overcome the challenges and really try and make an impact in the lives of our patients. Dr. Nate Pennell: Well, thank you, Dr. Czerlanis, for joining me on the By the Book Podcast today and for all of your work to advance care for patients with lung cancer. Dr. Cheryl Czerlanis: Thank you, Dr. Pennell. It's such a pleasure to be with you today. Thank you. Dr. Nate Pennell: And thank you to our listeners for joining us today. You'll find a link to Dr. Czerlanis' article in the transcript of this episode. Please join us again next month for By the Book's next episode and more insightful views on topics you'll be hearing at the education sessions from ASCO meetings throughout the year, and our deep dives on approaches that are shaping modern oncology. Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. Guest statements on the podcast do not express the opinions of ASCO. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement. Follow today's speakers: Dr. Nathan Pennell @n8pennell @n8pennell.bsky.social Dr. Cheryl Czerlanis Follow ASCO on social media: @ASCO on X (formerly Twitter) ASCO on Bluesky ASCO on Facebook ASCO on LinkedIn Disclosures: Dr. Nate Pennell: Consulting or Advisory Role: AstraZeneca, Lilly, Cota Healthcare, Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Genentech, Amgen, G1 Therapeutics, Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Viosera, Xencor, Mirati Therapeutics, Janssen Oncology, Sanofi/Regeneron Research Funding (Institution): Genentech, AstraZeneca, Merck, Loxo, Altor BioScience, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Jounce Therapeutics, Mirati Therapeutics, Heat Biologics, WindMIL, Sanofi Dr. Cheryl Czerlanis: Research Funding (Institution): LungLife AI, AstraZeneca, Summit Therapeutics
Was war in Chicago klinisch und gesellschaftlich relevant? Im Fokus stehen in der letzten Kongress-Episode unter anderem die ctDNA-Testung, die MATTERHORN- und ATOMIC-Studie, kleine Fortschritte beim SCLC, die Rolle von Sport in der Adjuvanz sowie gesellschaftliche Impulse im Kongressumfeld.
Dr. John Sweetenham shares highlights from Day 4 of the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting, including new research on maintenance therapy in small cell lung cancer and a virtual reality psychosocial intervention for patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Transcript Hello, I'm Dr. John Sweetenham, the host of the ASCO Daily News Podcast, with my takeaways on selected abstracts from Day 4 of the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting. My disclosures are available in the transcript of this episode. Today's selection features reports of 3 randomized trials in very different clinical settings: maintenance therapy in extensive small cell lung cancer (SCLC), upfront surgery in advanced ovarian cancer, and a supportive care intervention for patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The first of these studies, Abstract 8006, was presented by Dr. Luis Paz-Ares from the University Hospital [October 12] in Madrid, Spain, and reports the primary results of the IMforte trial. This was a phase 3 trial evaluating the combination of lurbinectedin and atezolizumab as first-line maintenance therapy in patients with extensive small cell lung cancer. Despite some improvements in the first-line treatment of extensive small cell lung cancer with the use of checkpoint inhibitors in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy, most of the patients experience early disease progression and long-term survival remains very limited. This provides a rationale for considering a maintenance intervention. Lurbinectedin is an alkylating agent and transcription inhibitor [that is] already approved in the United States for patients with relapsed/refractory metastatic SCLC following platinum-based chemotherapy. It has been shown to synergize with immune checkpoint inhibitors in pre-clinical studies and has also been evaluated in early-phase clinical trials. The IMforte trial is a global, randomized trial in which patients are initially treated with atezolizumab, and those patients who do not progress on induction therapy are then randomized to maintenance therapy with atezolizumab alone or atezolizumab with lurbinectedin. The primary endpoints of the study were progression-free and overall survival. Four hundred and eighty-three patients were randomized and at a median follow-up of 15 months, the median progression-free survival for patients who received the combination was 5.4 months and the median overall survival was 13.2 months. This compares with 2.1 and 10.6 months, respectively, in patients who received atezolizumab only. The lurbinectedin and atezolizumab combination was generally well-tolerated, with no new or unexpected safety signals. The benefit was consistent in magnitude across all the relevant patient subgroups. This is the first phase 3 study to show a progression-free and overall survivial improvement with first-line maintenance in extensive stage SCLC and the result is likely to be practice-changing, establishing a new standard of care in this tough-to-treat disease. Next up is LBA5500, presented by Dr. Sven Mahner from LMU University in Munich, Germany. This describes the results of the TRUST study, a randomized trial of upfront surgical therapy in advanced ovarian cancer. As background, total macroscopic tumor resection with maximal effort cytoreductive surgery is the cornerstone of treatment in patients with advanced ovarian cancer. The optimal timing of such surgery remains controversial, whether it's more beneficial as a primary cytoreductive surgery before chemotherapy or in the form of interval cytoreductive surgery after 3 cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Previous studies have addressed this issue, but results have been confounded by issues of patient and center selection. The TRUST study is a randomized, international, multicenter phase 3 trial that compares the outcomes of the timing of surgery in surgically fit patients with seemingly resectable FIGO stage IIIB/IVB ovarian, tubal, and peritoneal carcinoma. To ensure consistent and adequate surgical quality, participating centers in the trial were required to obtain accreditation and undergo an onsite quality assurance review. This included assessment of infrastructure, surgical proficiency, complete resection rates, and surgical volume. Seven hundred and ninety-seven patients with advanced ovarian cancer were randomized to undergo surgery prior to therapy with 6 cycles of carboplatin and paclitaxel along with bevacizumab and a PARP inhibitor, or to have the surgery between the third and fourth cycle of the same systemic therapy. Of the initial 797 patients, 688 comprised the intent-to-treat population, of whom 345 received primary cytoreductive surgery and 343 received neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by interval cytoreductive surgery. The results show that patients undergoing primary surgery had significantly improved progression-free survival compared with those who had interval cytoreductive surgery (median progression-free survival was 22.1 months versus 19.7 months). No difference in overall survival was observed between the 2 arms of the study. This is the first study to show a benefit for primary cytoreductive surgery, although the progression-free survival improvement was not reflected in an overall survival difference. A subgroup analysis for patients who underwent complete cytoreduction suggests a progression-free survival and survival benefit, although it isn't clear to me that the study was powered for this endpoint. Nevertheless, these are very difficult studies to perform, and the investigators should be congratulated for this robustly conducted clinical trial. Today's final abstract is 1504, presented by Dr. Hermioni Amonoo from Harvard Medical School. The trial evaluated BMT-VR, a virtual reality psychosocial intervention for patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation. This randomized trial included adult patients undergoing autologous and allogeneic transplantation. The BMT-VR platform included, among others, modules addressing psychoeducation, coping, acceptance, and gratitude. BMT-VR patients were provided with VR headsets and completed all modules during their hospitalization. Patient-reported outcomes were then assessed at 2, 4, 12, and 24 weeks post-BMT. Use of the VR tool was tracked during hospitalization. Control patients received usual care during their hospital stay and were then assessed at the same intervals post-BMT. Eighty evaluable patients were randomized, 39 to BMT-VR and 41 to usual care. Completion rates for the BMT-VR modules were high [at] around 70-75%. Patients who received the BMT-VR intervention experienced significantly improved anxiety, quality of life, and coping at 4 weeks post-BMT. In the longer term, sustained benefits were seen at 24 weeks for some endpoints including quality of life, with some benefits, including for depression and PTSD symptoms, improving longitudinally over the study period. These data are preliminary and will need to be confirmed in larger multicenter studies, but this trial demonstrates the feasibility of using virtual interventions in our patients and also provides intriguing preliminary data that they may be effective. Thanks for listening to today's report and I hope you will join me again tomorrow to hear more top takeaways from the final day of ASCO25. If you value the insights that you hear on the ASCO Daily News Podcast, please remember to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. Guest statements on the podcast do not express the opinions of ASCO. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement. Find out more about today's speaker: Dr. John Sweetenham Follow ASCO on social media: @ASCO on Twitter @ASCO on Bluesky ASCO on Facebook ASCO on LinkedIn Disclosures: Dr. John Sweetenham: No relationships to disclose
Ahead of the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, CancerNetwork® spoke with a variety of oncology experts about the late-breaking abstracts, plenary sessions, and other key presentations that may shift the paradigm across different cancer care fields. They highlighted anticipated clinical trial results that may transform the standard of care for gynecologic malignancies, lung cancer, and other disease types. Rachel N. Grisham, MD, section head of Ovarian Cancer and director of Gynecologic Medical Oncology at MSK Westchester of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, shared her anticipation of findings from the phase 3 ROSELLA trial (NCT05257408) assessing relacorilant plus nab-paclitaxel in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. She stated she was excited to see if the data may represent a new opportunity for this patient population. Next, MinhTri Nguyen, MD, a medical oncologist and hematologist at Stanford Health Care, highlighted a few breast cancer presentations to look out for. These topics included a plenary session on data from the phase 3 SERENA-6 study (NCT04964934) evaluating camizestrant in combination with CDK4/6 inhibitors for those with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer harboring emergent ESR1 mutations. Additionally, Eric K. Singhi, MD, assistant professor in the Department of General Oncology in the Division of Cancer Medicine, and assistant professor in the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, spoke about a range of potentially practice-changing results in the lung cancer field. For example, he described a session focused on primary results of the phase 3 IMforte trial (NCT05091567) assessing lurbinectedin (Zepzelca) plus atezolizumab (Tecentriq) for those with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC). According to Singhi, data from IMforte may shift the paradigm of maintenance therapy for this SCLC population. In the world of head and neck cancer, Douglas R. Adkins, MD, associate professor of Internal Medicine, Division of Oncology, Section of Medical Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, highlighted the session on the phase 3 NIVOPOSTOP GORTEC 2018-01 trial (NCT03576417). Investigators of this study evaluated nivolumab (Opdivo) in combination with chemoradiotherapy for those with resected head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Adkins noted his excitement to see how these data may impact the standard of care, particularly for patients in Europe, where investigators conducted the study. As part of an Oncology Decoded discussion, Benjamin Garmezy, MD, the associate director of genitourinary research and executive cochair of the Genitourinary Cancer Research Executive Committee at Sarah Cannon Research Institute (SCRI) and medical oncologist at SCRI Oncology Partners specializing in genitourinary cancers, discussed key abstracts in bladder cancer. One specific presentation included additional findings from the phase 3 NIAGARA trial (NCT03732677), which may show how circulating tumor DNA can influence treatment decision-making regarding perioperative durvalumab (Imfinzi) for patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer.
This content has been developed for healthcare professionals only. Patients who seek health information should consult with their physician or relevant patient advocacy groups.For the full presentation, downloadable Practice Aids, slides, and complete CPE information, and to apply for credit, please visit us at PeerView.com/EJP865. CPE credit will be available until May 8, 2026.DLL3-Targeting BiTE Therapy in SCLC: A Pharmacist's Guide to Evidence and Integration In support of improving patient care, PVI, PeerView Institute for Medical Education, is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.SupportThis activity is supported by educational funding provided by Amgen.Disclosure information is available at the beginning of the video presentation.
This content has been developed for healthcare professionals only. Patients who seek health information should consult with their physician or relevant patient advocacy groups.For the full presentation, downloadable Practice Aids, slides, and complete CPE information, and to apply for credit, please visit us at PeerView.com/EJP865. CPE credit will be available until May 8, 2026.DLL3-Targeting BiTE Therapy in SCLC: A Pharmacist's Guide to Evidence and Integration In support of improving patient care, PVI, PeerView Institute for Medical Education, is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.SupportThis activity is supported by educational funding provided by Amgen.Disclosure information is available at the beginning of the video presentation.
This content has been developed for healthcare professionals only. Patients who seek health information should consult with their physician or relevant patient advocacy groups.For the full presentation, downloadable Practice Aids, slides, and complete CPE information, and to apply for credit, please visit us at PeerView.com/EJP865. CPE credit will be available until May 8, 2026.DLL3-Targeting BiTE Therapy in SCLC: A Pharmacist's Guide to Evidence and Integration In support of improving patient care, PVI, PeerView Institute for Medical Education, is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.SupportThis activity is supported by educational funding provided by Amgen.Disclosure information is available at the beginning of the video presentation.
This content has been developed for healthcare professionals only. Patients who seek health information should consult with their physician or relevant patient advocacy groups.For the full presentation, downloadable Practice Aids, slides, and complete CPE information, and to apply for credit, please visit us at PeerView.com/EJP865. CPE credit will be available until May 8, 2026.DLL3-Targeting BiTE Therapy in SCLC: A Pharmacist's Guide to Evidence and Integration In support of improving patient care, PVI, PeerView Institute for Medical Education, is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.SupportThis activity is supported by educational funding provided by Amgen.Disclosure information is available at the beginning of the video presentation.
This content has been developed for healthcare professionals only. Patients who seek health information should consult with their physician or relevant patient advocacy groups.For the full presentation, downloadable Practice Aids, slides, and complete CPE information, and to apply for credit, please visit us at PeerView.com/EJP865. CPE credit will be available until May 8, 2026.DLL3-Targeting BiTE Therapy in SCLC: A Pharmacist's Guide to Evidence and Integration In support of improving patient care, PVI, PeerView Institute for Medical Education, is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.SupportThis activity is supported by educational funding provided by Amgen.Disclosure information is available at the beginning of the video presentation.
This content has been developed for healthcare professionals only. Patients who seek health information should consult with their physician or relevant patient advocacy groups.For the full presentation, downloadable Practice Aids, slides, and complete CPE information, and to apply for credit, please visit us at PeerView.com/EJP865. CPE credit will be available until May 8, 2026.DLL3-Targeting BiTE Therapy in SCLC: A Pharmacist's Guide to Evidence and Integration In support of improving patient care, PVI, PeerView Institute for Medical Education, is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.SupportThis activity is supported by educational funding provided by Amgen.Disclosure information is available at the beginning of the video presentation.
Good morning from Pharma and Biotech daily: the podcast that gives you only what's important to hear in Pharma e Biotech world.Sanofi and Alnylam have received FDA approval for the first RNAi treatment for hemophilia, with the drug, Qfitlia, indicated for both hemophilia A and B. This approval is significant as it can be given regardless of the presence of neutralizing antibodies against clotting factors VIII or IX. However, the sudden departure of FDA director Peter Marks has caused uncertainty in the biopharma industry. In other news, Vertex has cut a diabetes asset but analysts remain optimistic about their phase III option. Lilly's RNA silencer has shown promising results in lowering a key cardiovascular biomarker. Trilink is offering custom guide RNAs for CRISPR workflow to accelerate therapy discoveries. Despite market challenges, the cell and gene therapy sector has seen a 30% investment surge. Companies like Amgen, Aldeyra, and Argenx are among those with upcoming FDA actions. Arbutus has announced layoffs, while big pharmas are pushing boundaries in radiopharmaceuticals. Michelle Werner of AltoRNA is focused on making better drugs. Safety questions are looming in Duchenne as Dyne and Wave plan FDA filings. There are job opportunities available in data management and program leadership within the biopharma industry.Moving on to other news, several big pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis, Bayer, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Eli Lilly are competing in the radiopharmaceuticals market, which is projected to be worth over $13 billion by 2033. The FDA is expected to announce decisions on therapies for dry eye disease soon. Michelle Werner, CEO of AllTrna, is focused on developing trna-based treatments for various diseases.Safety concerns are emerging in the Duchenne muscular dystrophy space as companies like Dyne and Wave plan FDA filings. The EU rejected Lilly's Alzheimer's drug Kisunla, Biontech's bispecific showed promise in treating SCLC patients, and Wave's duchenne exon-skipper reversed muscle damage in a mid-stage trial. Job opportunities within the biopharma industry were also highlighted for those interested.Thank you for tuning in to Pharma and Biotech daily - keeping you updated on all the latest news in the world of pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a smoking-related malignancy that presents at an advanced stage in 70% of patients. Author Anne C. Chiang, MD, PhD, of the Yale University School of Medicine joins JAMA Senior Editor Karen Lasser, MD, MPH, to discuss the epidemiology, treatment, and prognosis of SCLC. Related Content: Small Cell Lung Cancer
Dr. Misty Shields guides us through this great paper out on Cancer (ACS) on the TOP advances in Small Cell Lung Cancer. Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) remains a leading cause of cancer mortality, with its aggressive nature and frequent relapse leading to poor outcomes. In recent years, immunotherapy has provided some survival benefits, and in 2024, key breakthroughs have significantly improved patient outcomes. Notable advances include the use of consolidative durvalumab immunotherapy for limited-stage SCLC, new insights into timing immunotherapy with radiation, and promising treatments such as the bispecific T-cell engager tarlatamab and antibody-drug conjugates. Precision medicine approaches, like neuroendocrine subtyping, may guide future treatments, while advocacy efforts, such as the Small Cell SMASHERS group @SCLCSMASHERS , offer new support for patients with this historically stigmatized disease.Misty Dawn Shields MD PhD (Presenter and first author) Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indiana University Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
In the second edition of a special podcast series, CancerNetwork® spoke with Daniel Morgensztern, MD; Mary Ellen Flanagan, NP; and Janelle Mann, PharmD, BCOP, about the best practices for incorporating recently approved bispecific antibodies into cancer care. This discussion focused on clinical trial results, administration protocols, and adverse effect (AE) management strategies related to the use of tarlatamab-dlle (Imdelltra) for patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Morgensztern is a professor of Medicine and the clinical director of Thoracic Oncology in the Division of Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Flanagan is a nurse practitioner in the Division of Thoracic Oncology at Washington University. Mann is a clinical oncology pharmacist at Siteman Cancer Center of Washington University School of Medicine and manager of Clinical Pharmacy Services at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. The conversation opened with Morgensztern highlighting tarlatamab's mechanism of action as an agent that targets DLL3. He then reviewed prior efficacy data that the therapy demonstrated in the phase 1 DeLLphi-300 trial (NCT03319940) and the phase 2 DeLLphi-301 trial (NCT05060016). Of note, the FDA approved tarlatamab as the first available T-cell engager immunotherapy for patients with extensive-stage SCLC who have progressed on prior platinum-containing chemotherapy in May 2024 based on data from the DeLLphi-301 trial. Additionally, Flanagan detailed strategies for monitoring and mitigating the most common AEs associated with tarlatamab in this patient population, which include cytokine release syndrome and immune effector cell–associated neurotoxicity syndrome. Mann then outlined considerations for properly dosing and administering the agent, highlighting factors that clinicians should keep in mind when continuing treatment in an inpatient or outpatient setting. The group also spoke about clinical decision-making related to patients who have brain metastases, which included processes for adjusting the dose of tarlatamab and sequencing the bispecific agent with radiotherapy. Reference FDA grants accelerated approval to tarlatamab-dlle for extensive stage small cell lung cancer. News release. FDA. May 16, 2024. Accessed March 14, 2025. https://tinyurl.com/48k34rw5
Scholarship of the Black Power Movement in general and the Nation of Islam in particular has been harder to accumulate than that on the main Civil Rights Movement led by Dr Martin Luther King and the SCLC. This podcast explores reasons for this and the differing interpretations on the nation that were recorded by historians and sociologists in the 1950s and 1960s. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership hereOrYou can support the podcast via Patreon hereOr you can just say some nice things about it here Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chicago Tribune, Slate, NY TimesOn "Bloody Sunday," March 7, 1965, C.T. Vivian, a prominent figure in the Civil Rights Movement, was violently attacked by Sheriff Jim Clark while attempting to escort a group of African Americans to register to vote in Selma, Alabama. Steve Fiffer is a New York Times Bestselling Author. His Book is "It's in The Action": Memories of a Nonviolent Warrior, Rev C.T. Vivian's Memoir.Reverend Vivian was a Major Force in the Fight for Civil Rights & Voters Rights in the Twentieth Century till he Passed July 17th, 2020.Regardless of Social Status, Party Affiliation or Belief, Race: Libertarian, Democrat, Progressive or Republican or Other, All Americans Should Have the Right to Vote!Senator Barack Obama, speaking at Selma's Brown Chapel on the March 2007, anniversary of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches, recognized Vivian in his opening remarks in the words of Martin L. King Jr. as "the greatest preacher to ever live."Studying for the ministry at American Baptist Theological Seminary (now called American Baptist College) in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1959, Vivian met James Lawson, who was teaching Mohandas Gandhi's nonviolent direct action strategy to the Nashville Student Movement. Soon Lawson's students, including Diane Nash, Bernard Lafayette, James Bevel, John Lewis and others from American Baptist, Fisk University and Tennessee State University, organized a systematic nonviolent sit-in campaign at local lunch counters.Vivian helped found the Nashville Christian Leadership Conference, and helped organize the first sit-ins in Nashville in 1960 and the first civil rights march in 1961. In 1961, Vivian participated in Freedom Rides. He worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. as the national director of affiliates for the SCLC. During the summer following the Selma Voting Rights Movement, Vivian is perhaps best known for, Vivian challenged Sheriff Jim Clark on the steps of the courthouse in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 during a drive to promote Black people to register to vote."You can turn your back on me, but you cannot turn your back upon the idea of justice," Vivian said to Clark as reporters recorded the interaction. "You can turn your back now and you can keep the club in your hand, but you cannot beat down justice. And we will register to vote, because as citizens of these United States we have the right to do it."Vivian conceived and directed an educational program, Vision, and put 702 Alabama students in college with scholarships (this program later became Upward Bound). His 1970 Black Power and the American Myth was the first book on the Civil Rights Movement by a member of Martin Luther King's staff.On August 8, 2013, President Barack Obama named Vivian as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.Steve's own Memoir is "Three Quarters, Two Dimes, and a Nickel". His work has appeared in Chicago Tribune. & Slate. He's also a Guggenheim Fellow© 2025 All Rights Reserved© 2025 Building Abundant Success!!Join Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBASSpot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAmazon Music ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBASAudacy: https://tinyurl.com/BASAud
Time Magazine, CNN, Media Images & Reporting Reflect the Colors of Change.This Week I Take Time to Reflect & Just Breathe. Also Reflect of Things Happening in Our World. In Remembrance of Jimmie Lee Jackson & The Late Honorable John Lewis (D,GA).In 2025, We are STILL Fighting the Good Fight for Voter's Rights for ALL.I have been Blessed to Meet, Learn, Train & Work along side of Several Civil Rights Icons. On of them was the Late The Honorable John Lewis (D,GA) who Fought & Marched in 2020 to the Very End!!I have attended events Remembering the History, People & Sacrifice.The Fight for Justice Continues Today in 2025 as People Take to the Streets to Voice their Opinions to Help Bring About Change.My Guest this Week was asked to join the Selma March in Alabama in 1965 by Dr. Martin Luther King. His name: Joseph Cooney Esq., then a newly ordained Priest. He also worked with SCLC in the Voters Registration Summers of 1966-67.In 1965,State Troopers Clashed with Citizens marching to Montgomery, Alabama to petition the state for African-American's Right to Vote. Many lives would change in this fight. Some lives both Black & White lost. The March from Selma to Montgomery was inspired by the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson was a civil rights activist in Marion, Alabama, and a deacon in the Baptist church. On February 18, 1965, while participating in a peaceful voting rights march in his city, he was beaten by troopers and shot by Alabama State Trooper John Bonard Fowler Jackson was unarmed and died eight days later in the hospital.His death was part of the inspiration for the Selma to Montgomery marches in March 1965, a major events in the American Civil Rights Movement that helped gain Congressional passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This opened the door to millions of African Americans being able to vote again in Alabama and across the South, regaining participation as citizens in the political system for the first time since the turn of the 20th century, when they were disenfranchised by state constitutions and discriminatory practices.© 2025 Building Abundant Success!!© 2025 All Rights Reserved Join Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBAS Spot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAmazon ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBASAudacy: https://tinyurl.com/BASAud
In this episode of Lung Cancer Considered, host Dr. Narjust Florez leads a discussion on how small cell lung cancer continues to evolve with new treatment options and recent FDA approval. Listen to the episode to learn about the current standard of care and future therapies with a brief discussion about small cell transformation. Guest: Triparna Sen, MD Associate Professor Director, Lung Cancer PDX Program, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Guest: Jacob Sands, MD Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Lowe Cancer Center for Thoracic Oncology Dana Farber Cancer Institute
In todays episode I check in with Kirby Molen, Zane Peterson and Keith Foster about the way the show is going and what will be going on tomorrow at the show.If you're the area, you should be at the show tomorrow!
This content has been developed for healthcare professionals only. Patients who seek health information should consult with their physician or relevant patient advocacy groups.For the full presentation, downloadable Practice Aids, slides, and complete CME information, and to apply for credit, please visit us at PeerView.com/ZPF865. CME credit will be available until January 26, 2026.Charting a New Course in Limited-Stage SCLC Amid an Immunotherapy Sea Change: Elevating Curative-Intent Treatment Approaches In support of improving patient care, PVI, PeerView Institute for Medical Education, is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.SupportThis activity is supported by an independent educational grant from AstraZeneca.Disclosure information is available at the beginning of the video presentation.
This content has been developed for healthcare professionals only. Patients who seek health information should consult with their physician or relevant patient advocacy groups.For the full presentation, downloadable Practice Aids, slides, and complete CME information, and to apply for credit, please visit us at PeerView.com/ZPF865. CME credit will be available until January 26, 2026.Charting a New Course in Limited-Stage SCLC Amid an Immunotherapy Sea Change: Elevating Curative-Intent Treatment Approaches In support of improving patient care, PVI, PeerView Institute for Medical Education, is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.SupportThis activity is supported by an independent educational grant from AstraZeneca.Disclosure information is available at the beginning of the video presentation.
This content has been developed for healthcare professionals only. Patients who seek health information should consult with their physician or relevant patient advocacy groups.For the full presentation, downloadable Practice Aids, slides, and complete CME information, and to apply for credit, please visit us at PeerView.com/ZPF865. CME credit will be available until January 26, 2026.Charting a New Course in Limited-Stage SCLC Amid an Immunotherapy Sea Change: Elevating Curative-Intent Treatment Approaches In support of improving patient care, PVI, PeerView Institute for Medical Education, is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.SupportThis activity is supported by an independent educational grant from AstraZeneca.Disclosure information is available at the beginning of the video presentation.
This content has been developed for healthcare professionals only. Patients who seek health information should consult with their physician or relevant patient advocacy groups.For the full presentation, downloadable Practice Aids, slides, and complete CME information, and to apply for credit, please visit us at PeerView.com/ZPF865. CME credit will be available until January 26, 2026.Charting a New Course in Limited-Stage SCLC Amid an Immunotherapy Sea Change: Elevating Curative-Intent Treatment Approaches In support of improving patient care, PVI, PeerView Institute for Medical Education, is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.SupportThis activity is supported by an independent educational grant from AstraZeneca.Disclosure information is available at the beginning of the video presentation.
This content has been developed for healthcare professionals only. Patients who seek health information should consult with their physician or relevant patient advocacy groups.For the full presentation, downloadable Practice Aids, slides, and complete CME information, and to apply for credit, please visit us at PeerView.com/ZPF865. CME credit will be available until January 26, 2026.Charting a New Course in Limited-Stage SCLC Amid an Immunotherapy Sea Change: Elevating Curative-Intent Treatment Approaches In support of improving patient care, PVI, PeerView Institute for Medical Education, is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.SupportThis activity is supported by an independent educational grant from AstraZeneca.Disclosure information is available at the beginning of the video presentation.
This content has been developed for healthcare professionals only. Patients who seek health information should consult with their physician or relevant patient advocacy groups.For the full presentation, downloadable Practice Aids, slides, and complete CME information, and to apply for credit, please visit us at PeerView.com/ZPF865. CME credit will be available until January 26, 2026.Charting a New Course in Limited-Stage SCLC Amid an Immunotherapy Sea Change: Elevating Curative-Intent Treatment Approaches In support of improving patient care, PVI, PeerView Institute for Medical Education, is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.SupportThis activity is supported by an independent educational grant from AstraZeneca.Disclosure information is available at the beginning of the video presentation.
This content has been developed for healthcare professionals only. Patients who seek health information should consult with their physician or relevant patient advocacy groups.For the full presentation, downloadable Practice Aids, slides, and complete CME information, and to apply for credit, please visit us at PeerView.com/ZPF865. CME credit will be available until January 26, 2026.Charting a New Course in Limited-Stage SCLC Amid an Immunotherapy Sea Change: Elevating Curative-Intent Treatment Approaches In support of improving patient care, PVI, PeerView Institute for Medical Education, is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.SupportThis activity is supported by an independent educational grant from AstraZeneca.Disclosure information is available at the beginning of the video presentation.
This content has been developed for healthcare professionals only. Patients who seek health information should consult with their physician or relevant patient advocacy groups.For the full presentation, downloadable Practice Aids, slides, and complete CME information, and to apply for credit, please visit us at PeerView.com/ZPF865. CME credit will be available until January 26, 2026.Charting a New Course in Limited-Stage SCLC Amid an Immunotherapy Sea Change: Elevating Curative-Intent Treatment Approaches In support of improving patient care, PVI, PeerView Institute for Medical Education, is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.SupportThis activity is supported by an independent educational grant from AstraZeneca.Disclosure information is available at the beginning of the video presentation.
Time Magazine, CNN, Media Images & Reporting Reflect the Colors of Change.This Week I Take Time to Reflect & Just Breathe. Also Reflect of Things Happening in Our World. In Remembrance of Jimmie Lee Jackson & The Late Honorable John Lewis (D,GA).In 2025, We are STILL Fighting the Good Fight for Voter's Rights for ALL.I have been Blessed to Meet, Learn, Train & Work along side of Several Civil Rights Icons. On of them was the Late The Honorable John Lewis (D,GA) who Fought & Marched in 2020 to the Very End!!I have attended events Remembering the History, People & Sacrifice.The Fight for Justice Continues Today in 2025 as People Take to the Streets to Voice their Opinions to Help Bring About Change.My Guest this Week was asked to join the Selma March in Alabama in 1965 by Dr. Martin Luther King. His name: Joseph Cooney Esq., then a newly ordained Priest. He also worked with SCLC in the Voters Registration Summers of 1966-67.In 1965,State Troopers Clashed with Citizens marching to Montgomery, Alabama to petition the state for African-American's Right to Vote. Many lives would change in this fight. Some lives both Black & White lost. The March from Selma to Montgomery was inspired by the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson was a civil rights activist in Marion, Alabama, and a deacon in the Baptist church. On February 18, 1965, while participating in a peaceful voting rights march in his city, he was beaten by troopers and shot by Alabama State Trooper John Bonard Fowler Jackson was unarmed and died eight days later in the hospital.His death was part of the inspiration for the Selma to Montgomery marches in March 1965, a major events in the American Civil Rights Movement that helped gain Congressional passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This opened the door to millions of African Americans being able to vote again in Alabama and across the South, regaining participation as citizens in the political system for the first time since the turn of the 20th century, when they were disenfranchised by state constitutions and discriminatory practices.© 2025 Building Abundant Success!!© 2025 All Rights Reserved Join Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBAS Spot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAmazon ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBASAudacy: https://tinyurl.com/BASAud
This week's episode will be focusing on Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC). We will go all the important details on risk factors, diagnostic work-up, staging and treatment of both locoregional and metastatic SCLC. We are so excited to welcome Dr. Stephen Liu international expert for lung cancer, Director of Thoracic Oncology & Developmental Therapeutics at Georgetown Lombardi Cancer Center and Co-Host of the IASLC Podcast.
The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the 3rd study session on the late Dr. Maya Angelou's The Heart of A Woman. This is a rare "double dip" for the book club, as we read I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings in the summer of 2014 just after the transition of the famed author and Wake Forest scholar. Ironically, when The C.O.W.S. last read Dr. Angelou, she was frolicking as a young lady in San Francisco. Gus T. was inundated with the life and literary work of Dr. Angelou during his recent Golden State sojourn. And it took Gus seeing the documentary film Soundtrack to a Coup d'État three times to accurately write down the title Heart of a Woman. The extraordinary film on the assassination of Patrice Lumumba is "receipt-heavy," and Andrée Blouin and Dr. Angelou's respective memoirs are just two of the many books in the project. Last week, Dr. Angelou described hearing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Fred Shuttlesworth and Wyatt Tee Walker of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference speaking in New York about their counter-racist work in the south. Dr. Angelou was so touched by their words she began thinking of how she could act to support their efforts. She's strikingly candid about the widespread tendency of she and most other black people to be "uncle toms" and the necessity of telling her black son about "the power of White power." En route to offering her services to Bayard Rustin and the SCLC, Dr. Angelou encounters a phalanx of White Men who volunteer their White time and expertise to aid the niggra, and, probably, spy for COINTELPRO. #AppleEvent #SoundtrackToACoupdÉtat #TheCOWS16Years INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 605.313.5164 CODE: 564943#
On this day in 1957, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was founded in Atlanta, Georgia. Emerging from the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which began in 1955, this pivotal organization was created by Southern civil rights leaders to coordinate efforts to end racial segregation and inequality in the South. The SCLC adopted the philosophy of nonviolent resistance, inspired by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and deeply rooted in the Black church. Martin Luther King Jr., already a national figure following his leadership in Montgomery, was elected its first president. Under King's leadership, the SCLC spearheaded major civil rights campaigns, including the Birmingham Campaign and the March on Washington, becoming a cornerstone in the fight for justice and equality during the Civil Rights Movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dr Edward B Garon shares his perspectives on the evolving therapeutic landscape for patients with lung cancer, moderated by Dr Stephen “Fred” Divers. Produced by Research To Practice. CME information and select publications here.
On Sunday, December 1st, the world will come together to honor and recognize World AIDS Day 2024, “Take the rights path: My health, my right”, a day dedicated to remembering those we've lost, celebrating the resilience of those living with HIV, and recommitting ourselves to the fight against this global epidemic. This day is not just a time for reflection but a call to action—a reminder that while significant progress has been made in treatment, awareness, and prevention, the work is far from over. By recognizing this day, we not only combat the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS but also reaffirm our collective responsibility to ensure equitable access to healthcare, education, and support for all. Together, we can continue to move closer to a future free of HIV/AIDS. In “WE SEE YOU”, meet Dr. Maurice O'Brian Franklin, a distinguished Public Policy and Public Administration Adjunct Professor at California State University, Northridge. Currently, he holds pivotal positions, including membership in Manhattan's Community Board 10, where he represents Central Harlem and provides leadership in the Landmark and Transportation, Health and Human Service Committee. He is also the Second Vice-President of the Harlem Hospital Community Advisory Board, a Board member of the Prince Hall Medical Foundation, and the Chair of Health and Wellness for the founding Chapter of One Hundred Black Men in Harlem. Additionally, Dr. Franklin serves as a community advisor to the City University of New York, Graduate Center's Harlem Strong Community Mental Health Project. Recognized for his influential public opinion columns, Dr. Franklin received accolades from the Oklahoma Press Awards in 2023 for his article critiquing the police killing of Tyre Nichols, underscoring his commitment to social justice and advocacy. Dr. Franklin, as the second openly gay executive staffer for the SCLC, founded three nationally recognized nonprofit organizations: Los Angles, California based, The Black AIDS Institute (BAI), the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), and Second Sunday.
Dr Suresh S Ramalingam from the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, and Dr Gregory J Riely from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, New York, discuss the implications of recent data sets for the current and future management of lung cancer, moderated by Dr Neil Love. Produced by Research To Practice. CME information and select publications here (https://www.researchtopractice.com/PostESMO24/Lung).
Dr. Greg Kalemkerian reviews the latest evidence-based rapid update from the Expert Panel on systemic therapy for small cell lung cancer. He discusses the updated recommendations for patients with limited-stage SCLC based on the ADRIATIC trial, and for patients with relapsed SCLC based on the DeLLphi-301 trial. Dr. Kalemkerian shares insights on what these changes mean for clinicians and patients, and highlights new trials in progress to provide more options for patients diagnosed with SCLC. Read the full rapid update, “Systemic Therapy for Small Cell Lung Cancer: ASCO Guideline Rapid Recommendation Update” at www.asco.org/thoracic-cancer-guidelines. TRANSCRIPT This guideline, clinical tools, and resources are available at http://www.asco.org/thoracic-cancer-guidelines. Read the full text of the guideline and review authors' disclosures of potential conflicts of interest in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, https://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/JCO-24-02245 Brittany Harvey: Hello and welcome to the ASCO Guidelines podcast, one of ASCO's podcasts delivering timely information to keep you up to date on the latest changes, challenges and advances in oncology. You can find all the shows, including this one at asco.org/podcasts. My name is Brittany Harvey and today I'm interviewing Dr. Greg Kalemkerian from the University of Michigan, lead author on, “Systemic Therapy for Small Cell Lung Cancer: ASCO Guideline Rapid Recommendation Update”. Thank you for being here today, Dr. Kalemkerian. Dr. Greg Kalemkerian: Thank you. Thank you for the invitation. Brittany Harvey: Great. Then, before we discuss this guideline, I'd like to note that ASCO takes great care in the development of its guidelines and ensuring that the ASCO Conflict of Interest Policy is followed for each guideline. The disclosures of potential conflicts of interest for the guideline panel, including Dr. Kalemkerian, who has joined us here today, are available online with the publication of the update in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, which is linked in the show notes. So then, to dive into the content of this rapid update, Dr. Kalemkerian, what prompted this update to the Systemic Therapy for Small Cell Lung Cancer Guideline, which was previously published in 2023? Dr. Greg Kalemkerian: So even though the original guideline only came out a year ago, the past year we've seen two significant advances in small cell lung cancer with two reports, one in limited stage with the addition of immunotherapy, the other in the addition of a new immunotherapeutic agent in relapsed small cell lung cancer. Brittany Harvey: It's great to have this new data in the small cell lung cancer space. So based on these new changes, what are the updated recommendations from the expert panel? Dr. Greg Kalemkerian: So the first recommendations have to do with patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer based on the ADRIATIC trial which added consolidation durvalumab for patients who had not had progression after standard chemotherapy and radiotherapy. And this study demonstrated a significant improvement in overall survival with about a 10% improvement in both 2- and 3-year overall survival, up to a 57% overall survival at 3 years for the patients receiving consolidation durvalumab. And based on those findings, we updated the recommendation for the standard treatment for limited-stage small cell lung cancer such that it included the use of consolidation immunotherapy with durvalumab for up to two years in patients who had had no disease progression, and completion of concurrent chemoradiotherapy for limited-stage small cell lung cancer. Of course, those patients would be those who do not have contraindications to the use of immunotherapy. As a corollary to that recommendation, for patients who have poorer performance status, so performance status of 3 or 4, who had had initial treatment perhaps with sequential chemotherapy and radiotherapy, if their performance status improves with their initial treatment, then it would also be reasonable to add consolidation immunotherapy for those patients as long as their performance status maintains improvement and they have no evidence of progression. The other update of the guidelines had to do with patients with relapsed small cell lung cancer and that was based on the DeLLphi-301 trial which was a phase II study looking at the use of tarlatamab, a bispecific T cell engager, binds to both DLL3 and CD3 in order to increase the immune killing of small cell lung cancer cells. So what this study did was it treated patients who had had at least two prior regimens. So this is third-line or beyond was what the population that this study looked at. And the majority of these patients had already had some immune checkpoint therapy. They all had good performance status and it did allow patients with brain metastases to be included in the study. When we look at the patients who received the approved 10 milligram dose of the drug, the response rate was about 40%. Responses were seen in both patients with sensitive and refractory based on the time since their prior treatment and the median duration of response was 10 months, which is much better than anything we've seen before with relapsed small cell lung cancer patients, remembering that all these patients were also third-line or beyond. So based on the results of the DeLLphi-301 trial, we updated two of the recommendations regarding relapsed small cell lung cancer. In the first one, we stated that in patients with relapsed small cell lung cancer with a chemotherapy free interval of less than 90 days, single agent systemic therapy would be considered standard of care, and that the preferred agents would include topotecan, lurbinectedin, or, now, tarlatamab. We did mention as a qualifying statement that single-agent chemotherapy is preferred over multi-agent chemotherapy. And the second recommendation was that, in patients with relapsed small cell lung cancer with a chemotherapy interval longer than 90 days, the rechallenge with a platinum-based regimen or single-agent chemotherapy was considered standard and the preferred agents for single agent therapy would be topotecan, lurbinectedin, or tarlatamab being added in the recent study. Tarlatamab was approved by the FDA for use in patients with relapsed small cell lung cancer with no stipulations with regard to the treatment. Brittany Harvey: Understood. I appreciate you describing those updated recommendations along with the supporting data for both limited stage small cell lung cancer and relapsed small cell lung cancer. So then, what should clinicians know as they implement these new and updated recommendations into practice? Dr. Greg Kalemkerian: So with regard to the ADRIATIC trial or the consolidation durvalumab being added for limite- stage small cell lung cancer patients, I think the important considerations are that this was done after patients had demonstrated no progression of disease after chemotherapy and radiotherapy, so the initial treatment does not change with platinum-etoposide plus definitive radiotherapy being recommended. The addition of durvalumab is going to be potentially useful in patients generally with good performance status, so performance statuses 0 to 1, and we still have to pay attention to the patients who may have contraindications to immunotherapy, things like interstitial lung disease, autoimmune problems that do occur in patients with small cell lung cancer where they develop paraneoplastic autoimmune syndromes such as Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome. Those patients with those types of preexisting conditions would not be good candidates for immunotherapy use. So still having the tailored treatment to the individual patient is what's most important. The duration of the durvalumab was up to two years and not beyond that, so following those specific guidelines for the use of durvalumab in patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer. With regard to tarlatamab, tarlatamab is an immunotherapy treatment. So we still do have the exclusions of people who have had prior severe immune-related adverse events, people who have pneumonitis, people who have interstitial lung disease, people with autoimmune neurologic problems we can see with small cell lung cancer, these patients should not be considered good candidates for the use of tarlatamab. The study did include patients who had had treated and asymptomatic brain metastases and there is some evidence that tarlatamab can have some control of brain metastases. So that's not necessarily an exclusion. Tarlatamab does have some other specific considerations to it in that 51% of patients had some evidence of cytokine release syndrome (CRS). Only 1% of those patients had grade 3 CRS. So even though they had frequent fevers and hypotension and hypoxia, it was generally not severe. But this concern for CRS and also for neurologic complications after treatment does require that patients be admitted to the hospital for a 24-hour observation period during the first and second doses. Subsequent to that, patients can be observed for some time after the infusion in the outpatient setting. But they also need to have very clear and strict guidance for when they go home about what things to look for. Looking for fevers, looking for shortness of breath, looking for any neurologic changes. It's a good idea for them to have a caregiver with them in order to observe them during that time. Most of these complications occur during the first or second cycles, but it is a drug that is going to require significant education not only of our staff, but also of the patients in order to ensure that the drug's used safely. Brittany Harvey: Absolutely. For these new options, it's important to tailor cancer treatment to the individual patient and the factors that you mentioned and be mindful of these potential toxicities. So, it's always great to learn of new options for patients. But in your view, how will this update impact patients with small cell lung cancer? Dr. Greg Kalemkerian: Well, clearly we need longer term follow up. So, with regard to the limited-stage small cell lung cancer situation, that's a curative situation. We have been curing patients with limited-stage disease with chemotherapy and radiotherapy for several decades now, but the cure rates were relatively low with about 25%, 30% of people becoming long term survivors. Now the hope is with the durvalumab being added on, that we can increase that number. Thus far, we have three-year survival data with a three-year survival of 57% overall survival and we're hoping that that is maintained over time and that we're not just delaying recurrences, but that we're actually preventing recurrences and helping people live longer, as has been seen with non-small cell lung cancer in stage III disease with the addition of durvalumab to chemoradiotherapy. So hopefully, we will be improving the cure rate of people with limited-stage small cell lung cancer. There are several other trials with immunotherapy in this space coming down the line and we're anxiously awaiting not only long term follow up from ADRIATIC, but also initial data from studies such as KEYLYNK and ACHILLES and NRG-LU005. So all of these studies in the next few years are hopefully going to guide treatment for limited-stage small cell lung cancer and hopefully improve the long term survival outcomes. With regard to tarlatamab, unclear at this point what the long term outcomes are going to be. Is a 40% response rate substantially better than what we've seen before? Well, lurbinectedin also had about a 40% response rate in patients who had sensitive disease, but the duration of response does look longer. And there are some patients now who have been on this study that are doing very well for quite long periods of time with the drug. So, the hope here also is that we will have some small subset of patients who continue to do better for long periods of time. Whether that'll translate into a cure or not, way too early to know, clearly hoping to add another brick in the wall so that we can keep the disease at bay, at least for a longer period of time for these patients. How we will integrate tarlatamab into the regimens is a bit unclear. Whether most of us will start using it as second-line therapy or whether we will use perhaps lurbinectedin or topotecan as second-line and tarlatamab as third-line, we're all going to have to work that out based on the potential toxicities, the logistical complications of using the drug at this point in time. But I do think that it's nice to have more options to add to our armamentarium to treat this very, very challenging and difficult disease. Brittany Harvey: Definitely. So, you've just discussed the need for both longer term follow up here along with some important ongoing trials in this space. So we'll look forward to future readouts of those trials to learn more about caring for patients in small cell lung cancer. So, I want to thank you so much for your work to rapidly update this guideline and thank you for your time today, Dr. Kalemkerian. Dr. Greg Kalemkerian: Okay. Again, thank you for the invitation, Brittany, and thanks to ASCO for developing the whole guideline structure to help all of us take better care of our patients. Brittany Harvey: Absolutely. And also thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in to the ASCO Guidelines podcast. To read the full update, go to www.asco.org/thoracic-cancer-guidelines. You can also find many of our guidelines and interactive resources in the free ASCO Guidelines App available in the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. If you have enjoyed what you've heard today, please rate and review the podcast and be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience and conclusions. Guest statements on the podcast do not express the opinions of ASCO. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement.
Samuel Silva from the Department of Pathology at Federal University of Ceará in Fortaleza, Brazil, discusses a research paper he co-authored that was published in Oncotarget Volume 15, titled, “Relationship between the expressions of DLL3, ASC1, TTF-1 and Ki-67: First steps of precision medicine at SCLC.” DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.28660 Correspondence to - Fabio Tavora - fabio.tavora@argospatologia.com Video interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJO2MD8AXkY Video transcription - https://www.oncotarget.net/2024/11/18/behind-the-study-dll3-asc1-ttf-1-ki-67-in-precision-medicine-for-sclc/ Sign up for free Altmetric alerts about this article: https://oncotarget.altmetric.com/details/email_updates?id=10.18632%2Foncotarget.28660 Subscribe for free publication alerts from Oncotarget: https://www.oncotarget.com/subscribe/ Keywords - cancer, DLL3, pathology, biomarkers, qupath, small cell carcinoma About Oncotarget Oncotarget (a primarily oncology-focused, peer-reviewed, open access journal) aims to maximize research impact through insightful peer-review; eliminate borders between specialties by linking different fields of oncology, cancer research and biomedical sciences; and foster application of basic and clinical science. Oncotarget is indexed and archived by PubMed/Medline, PubMed Central, Scopus, EMBASE, META (Chan Zuckerberg Initiative) (2018-2022), and Dimensions (Digital Science). To learn more about Oncotarget, please visit https://www.oncotarget.com and connect with us: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Oncotarget/ X - https://twitter.com/oncotarget Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/oncotargetjrnl/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@OncotargetJournal LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/oncotarget Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/oncotarget/ Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/user/Oncotarget/ Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0gRwT6BqYWJzxzmjPJwtVh MEDIA@IMPACTJOURNALS.COM
Featuring an interview with Dr Stephen V Liu, including the following topics: Management of localized non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (0:00) First-line treatment of advanced NSCLC (10:53) Targeted therapy for patients with NSCLC and actionable genomic alterations (30:24) Recent FDA approvals for NSCLC (37:49) Recent advances in small cell lung cancer (47:14) Lurbinectidin in combination with atezolizumab as front-line maintenance therapy for patients with early-stage SCLC (52:33) CME information and select publications
Chicago Tribune, Slate, NY Times Steve Fiffer is a New York Times Bestselling Author. His latest Book is "It's in The Action": Memories of a Nonviolent Warrior, Rev C.T. Vivian's Memoir.Reverend Vivian was a Major Force in the Fight for Civil Rights & Voters Rights in the Twentieth Century till he Passed July 17th, 2020.Regardless of Social Status, Party Affiliation or Belief, Race: Libertarian, Democrat, Progressive or Republican or Other, All Americans Should Have the Right to Vote!Senator Barack Obama, speaking at Selma's Brown Chapel on the March 2007, anniversary of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches, recognized Vivian in his opening remarks in the words of Martin L. King Jr. as "the greatest preacher to ever live."Studying for the ministry at American Baptist Theological Seminary (now called American Baptist College) in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1959, Vivian met James Lawson, who was teaching Mohandas Gandhi's nonviolent direct action strategy to the Nashville Student Movement. Soon Lawson's students, including Diane Nash, Bernard Lafayette, James Bevel, John Lewis and others from American Baptist, Fisk University and Tennessee State University, organized a systematic nonviolent sit-in campaign at local lunch counters.Vivian helped found the Nashville Christian Leadership Conference, and helped organize the first sit-ins in Nashville in 1960 and the first civil rights march in 1961. In 1961, Vivian participated in Freedom Rides. He worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. as the national director of affiliates for the SCLC. During the summer following the Selma Voting Rights Movement, Vivian is perhaps best known for, Vivian challenged Sheriff Jim Clark on the steps of the courthouse in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 during a drive to promote Black people to register to vote."You can turn your back on me, but you cannot turn your back upon the idea of justice," Vivian said to Clark as reporters recorded the interaction. "You can turn your back now and you can keep the club in your hand, but you cannot beat down justice. And we will register to vote, because as citizens of these United States we have the right to do it."Vivian conceived and directed an educational program, Vision, and put 702 Alabama students in college with scholarships (this program later became Upward Bound). His 1970 Black Power and the American Myth was the first book on the Civil Rights Movement by a member of Martin Luther King's staff.On August 8, 2013, President Barack Obama named Vivian as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.Steve's own Memoir is "Three Quarters, Two Dimes, and a Nickel". His work has appeared in Chicago Tribune. & Slate. He's also a Guggenheim Fellow© 2024 All Rights Reserved© 2024 Building Abundant Success!!Join Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBASSpot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAmazon Music ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBASAudacy: https://tinyurl.com/BASAud
BUFFALO, NY - November 6, 2024 – A new #research paper was #published in Oncotarget's Volume 15 on October 11, 2024, entitled “Relationship between the expressions of DLL3, ASC1, TTF-1 and Ki-67: First steps of precision medicine at SCLC” This study, led by researchers from the Federal University of Ceará in Brazil and collaborating institutions in Brazil, Argentina and Spain, presents important findings on small cell lung cancer (SCLC), one of the most aggressive forms of lung cancer with limited treatment options. The research reveals how specific biomarkers in SCLC tumors could open new opportunities for more personalized and targeted therapies for these patients. SCLC accounts for about 15% of all lung cancer cases and is known for its rapid spread and resistance to many treatments. Currently, the five-year survival rate for SCLC patients is below 5%. Recent advances in precision medicine aim to improve these outcomes by identifying and targeting the unique characteristics of each patient's tumor. Researchers Samuel Silva, Juliana C. Sousa, Cleto Nogueira, Raquel Feijo, Francisco Martins Neto, Laura Cardoso Marinho, Guilherme Sousa, Valeria Denninghoff, and Fabio Tavora analyzed tumor samples from 64 SCLC patients using both traditional and digital pathology tools. Their findings highlighted promising results for two of the analyzed biomarkers: Delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3) and Thyroid transcription factor-1 (TTF-1). DLL3 was identified in over 70% of the tumors, highlighting its potential as a promising target for therapies like Tarlatamab. Another key finding involved TTF-1 expression; patients with TTF-1-positive tumors showed improved survival rates, underscoring its potential as a prognostic marker to refine diagnoses and predict patient outcomes. The authors also noted that, “The use of digital pathology software QuPath enhanced the accuracy and depth of analysis, allowing for detailed morphometric analysis and potentially informing more personalized treatment approaches.” In conclusion, the study suggests that clinical trials targeting biomarkers like DLL3 and TTF-1 could enhance SCLC patient outcomes by tailoring treatments based on individual biomarker profiles. This research marks an important step forward in precision medicine for SCLC. DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.28660 Correspondence to - Fabio Tavora - fabio.tavora@argospatologia.com Video short - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYsZ0UHPszg Sign up for free Altmetric alerts about this article: https://oncotarget.altmetric.com/details/email_updates?id=10.18632%2Foncotarget.28660 Subscribe for free publication alerts from Oncotarget: https://www.oncotarget.com/subscribe/ Keywords - cancer, DLL3, pathology, biomarkers, qupath, small cell carcinoma About Oncotarget Oncotarget (a primarily oncology-focused, peer-reviewed, open access journal) aims to maximize research impact through insightful peer-review; eliminate borders between specialties by linking different fields of oncology, cancer research and biomedical sciences; and foster application of basic and clinical science. Oncotarget is indexed and archived by PubMed/Medline, PubMed Central, Scopus, EMBASE, META (Chan Zuckerberg Initiative) (2018-2022), and Dimensions (Digital Science). To learn more about Oncotarget, please visit https://www.oncotarget.com and connect with us: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Oncotarget/ X - https://twitter.com/oncotarget Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/oncotargetjrnl/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@OncotargetJournal LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/oncotarget Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/oncotarget/ Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/user/Oncotarget/ Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0gRwT6BqYWJzxzmjPJwtVh MEDIA@IMPACTJOURNALS.COM
As Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Otis Moss carries the torch for generations of church and civil rights leaders, including his own father, a regional director in the SCLC, and a friend of Dr. Martin Luther King. But it is his late sister Daphne whose influence most impacts his ministry and social advocacy. A brilliant young woman who struggled with schizophrenia, Daphne introduced a young Otis to what he calls “the continuum” – a spirituality born of poetry, literature and jazz that has woven its way through our history. Drawing as much from the beats of J Dilla as from the speeches of Dr. King; from the politics of Public Enemy as from the poetry of Langston Hughes; from John Coltrane and Miles Davis as from Reinhold Niebuhr and Abraham Joshua Heschel, Pastor Moss shares a timely, deeply personal story about the American jazz narrative — how a disparate and diverse people who are not supposed to make music together do — and do so beautifully.Music by Ryan Holladay and Jonathan Mouton. Follow Jonathan on Instagram: @entertainer4lyfeIf this episode resonates with you, we'd love to hear from you. Please take a moment to share your reflections by rating and reviewing Meditative Story in your podcast player. It helps other listeners find their way to the show, and we'd be so grateful.Each episode of Meditative Story combines the emotional pull of first-person storytelling with immersive music and gentle mindfulness prompts. Read the transcript for this story: meditativestory.comSign up for the Meditative Story newsletter: https://meditativestory.com/subscribeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Dr. Ryan Augustin and Dr. Jason Luke discuss neoadjuvant immunotherapy and the importance of multidisciplinary team coordination, promising new TIL therapy for advanced melanoma, and the emerging role of CD3 engagers in treatment strategies. TRANSCRIPT Dr. Ryan Augustin: Hello, I'm Dr. Ryan Augustin, your guest host of the ASCO Daily News Podcast today. I'm a medical oncology fellow at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Joining me today is Dr. Jason Luke, an associate professor of medicine and the director of the Cancer Immunotherapeutic Center at the University of Pittsburgh Hillman Cancer Center. I had the privilege of working as a postdoc in Jason's translational bioinformatics lab, where we investigated mechanisms of resistance to immunotherapy in melanoma and other cancers. Today, we'll be discussing 3 important topics, including neoadjuvant immunotherapy and the importance of multidisciplinary team coordination, the impact and practical considerations for incorporating TIL therapy into melanoma, and the current and future use of CD3 engagers in both uveal and cutaneous melanoma. You'll find our full disclosures in the transcript of this episode. Jason, it's great to have this opportunity to speak with you today. Dr. Jason Luke: Absolutely. Thanks, Ryan. It's great to see you. Dr. Ryan Augustin: So, to kick things off, Jason, we, of course, have seen tremendous advances in cancer immunotherapy, not only in metastatic disease but also the perioperative setting. Recent data have shown that the use of neoadjuvant therapy can provide not only critical prognostic information but can also help individualize post-resection treatment strategies and potentially even eliminate adjuvant therapy altogether in patients who achieve a pathologic, complete response. This signifies a conceptual shift in oncology with the goal of curing patients with immunotherapy. In triple-negative breast cancer, the KEYNOTE-522 regimen with pembrolizumab is standard of care. In non-small cell lung cancer, there are now four FDA approved chemo-IO regimens in both the neoadjuvant and perioperative settings. And, of course, in melanoma, starting with SWOG S1801 utilizing pembro mono therapy, and now with combined CTLA-4 PD-1 blockade based on results from the NADINA trial, neoadjuvant IO is the new standard of care in high-risk, resectable melanoma. It's important to highlight this because whereas other tumor types have more mature multidisciplinary care, for example, patients with breast cancer are reviewed by the whole team in every center, and every patient with lung cancer certainly benefits from multidisciplinary care conferences, that's not always the case with melanoma, given the relative frequency of cases compared to other tumor types. Jason, would you say that we have now moved into an era where the integration of a multidisciplinary team and melanoma needs to be prioritized. And why is it important to have multidisciplinary team coordination from the onset of a patient's diagnosis? Dr. Jason Luke: Well, I think those are great questions, Ryan, and I think they really speak to the movement in our field and the great success that we've had integrating systemic therapy, particularly immunotherapy, into our treatment paradigms. And so, before answering your question directly, I would add even a little bit more color, which is to note that over the last few years, we've additionally seen the development of adjuvant therapy into stages of melanoma that, historically speaking, were considered low-risk, and medical oncologists might not even see the patient. To that, I'm speaking specifically about the stage 2B and 2C approvals for adjuvant anti-PD-1 with pembrolizumab or nivolumab. So this has been an emerging complication. Classically, patients are diagnosed with melanoma by either their primary care doctor or a dermatologist. Again, classically, the next step was referral to a surgeon who had removed the primary lesion, with discussion around nodal evaluation as well. And that paradigm has really changed now, where I think integration of medical oncology input early on in the evaluation of the appropriate treatment plan for patients with melanoma is quite a pressing issue now, both because we have FDA approvals for therapeutics that can reduce risk of recurrence, and whether or not to pursue those makes a big difference to the patient for discussion early on. And, moreover, the use of systemic therapies now, prior to surgery, of course, then, of course, requires the involvement of medical oncology. And just for an emphasis point on this, it's classically the case, for good reason, that surgeons complete their surgery and then feel confident to tell the patient, “Well, we got it all, and you're just in really good shape.” And while I understand where that's coming from, that often leaves aside the risk of recurrence. So you can have the most perfect surgery in the world and yet still be at very high risk of recurrence. And so it's commonly the case that we get patients referred to us after surgery who think they're just in totally good shape, quite surprised to find out that, in fact, they might have a 20% to 50% risk of recurrence. And so that's where this multidisciplinary integration for patient management really does make a big difference. And so I would really emphasize the point you were making before, which is that we need multidisciplinary teams of med onc with derm, with surgery early on, to discuss “What are the treatment plans going to be for patients?” And that's true for neoadjuvant therapy, so, for palpable stage 3, where we might give checkpoint inhibitors or combinations before surgery. But it's true even in any reasonably high-risk melanoma, and I would argue in that state, anything more than stage 1 should be discussed as a group, because that communication strategy with the patient is so important from first principles, so that they have an expectation of what it's going to look like as they are followed out over time. And so we're emphasizing this point because I think it's mostly the case at most hospitals that there isn't a cutaneous oncology disease management meeting, and I think there needs to be. It's important to point out that usually the surgeons that do this kind of surgery are actually either the GI surgeons who do colon cancer or the breast surgeons. And so, given that melanoma, it's not the most common kind of cancer, it could easily be integrated into the existing disease review groups to review these cases. And I think that's the point we really want to emphasize now. I think we're not going to belabor the data so much, but there are enormous advantages to either perioperative or adjuvant systemic therapy in melanoma. We're talking about risk reduction of more than 50%, 50-75% risk reduction. It's essential that we make sure we optimally offer that to patients. And, of course, patients will choose what they think is best for their care. But we need to message to them in a way that they can understand what the risks and benefits of those treatments are and then are well set up to understand what that treatment might look like and what their expectations would be out over time. So I think this is a great art of medicine place to start. Instead of belaboring just the details of the trial to say, let's think about how we take care of our patients and how we communicate with them on first principles so that we can make the most out of the treatments that we do have available. Dr. Ryan Augustin: That's great, Jason. Very insightful points. Thank you. So, shifting gears now, I'd also like to ask you a little bit about TIL therapy in melanoma. So our listeners will be aware that TIL is a promising new approach for treating advanced melanoma and leverages the power of a patient's cytotoxic T cells to attack cancer cells. While we've known about the potential of this therapy for some time, based on pioneering work at the NCI, this therapy is now FDA approved under the brand AMTAGVI (Lifileucel) from Iovance Biotherapeutics, making it the first cellular therapy to be approved for a solid tumor. Now, I know TIL therapy has been administered at your institution, Jason, for several years now, under trial status primarily for uveal melanoma using an in-house processing. But for many cancer centers, the only experience with cellular therapy has come under the domain of malignant hematology with CAR T administration. At our institution, for example, we have only recently started administering TIL therapy for melanoma, which has required a tremendous multidisciplinary effort among outpatient oncology, critical care, and an inpatient hematology service that has expertise in cytokine release syndrome. Jason, where do you see TIL therapy fitting into the metastatic space? Which patients do you think are truly candidates for this intensive therapy? And what other practical or logistical considerations do you think we should keep in mind moving forward? Dr. Jason Luke: Well, thanks for raising this. I think the approval of lifileucel, which is the scientific name for the TIL product that's on the market now. It really is a shift, a landscape shift in oncology, and we're starting in melanoma again, as seems to be commonly the case in drug development. But it's really important to understand that this is a conceptually different kind of treatment, and therefore, it does require different considerations. Starting first with data and then actualization, maybe secondarily, when we see across the accelerated approval package that led to this being available, we quote patients that the response rate is likely in the range of 30%, maybe slightly lower than that, but a meaningful 25% to 30% response rate, and that most of those patients that do have response, it seems to be quite durable, meaning patients have been followed up to four years, and almost all the responders are still in response. And that's a really powerful thing to be able to tell a patient, particularly if the patient has already proceeded through multiple lines of prior standard therapy. So this is a very, very promising therapy. Now, it is a complicated therapy as well. And so you highlighted that to do this, you have to have a tumor that's amenable for resection, a multidisciplinary team that has done a surgery to remove the tumor, sent it off to the company. They then need to process the TIL out of the tumor and then build them up into a personalized cell product, bring it back, you have to lympho-deplete the patient, re-introduce this TIL. So this is a process that, in the standard of care setting under best circumstances, takes roughly six weeks. So how to get that done in a timely fashion, I think, is evolving within our paradigms. But I think it is very important for people who practice in settings where this isn't already available to realize that referring patients for this should be a strong consideration. And thinking about how you could build your multidisciplinary team in a way to be able to facilitate this process, I think is going to be important, because this concept of TIL is relevant to other solid tumors as well. It's not approved yet in others, but we kind of assume eventually it probably will be. And so I think, thinking through this, how could it work, how do you refer patients is very important. Now, coming back to the science, who should we treat with this? Well, of course, it's now an air quotes “standard of care option”, so really it ought to be available to anybody. I will note that currently, the capacity across the country to make these products is not really adequate to treat all the patients that we'd want. But who would we optimally want to treat, of course, would be people who have retained a good performance status after first line therapy, people who have tumors that are easily removable and who have not manifested a really rapid disease progression course, because then, of course, that six-week timeline probably doesn't make sense. The other really interesting data point out of the clinical trials so far is it has looked like the patients who got the least amount of benefit from anti-PD-1 immunotherapy, in other words, who progressed immediately without any kind of sustained response, those patients seem to have the best response to TILs, and that's actually sort of a great biomarker. So, this drug works the best for the population of patients where checkpoint inhibitors were not effective. And so as you think about who those patients might be in your practice, as you're listening, I think prioritizing it for primary progression on anti PD-1, again and giving it ahead thought about how would you get the patient through this process or referred to this process very quickly is really important because that lag time is a problem. Patients who have melanoma tend to progress reasonably quickly, and six weeks can be a long time in melanoma land. So, thinking ahead and building those processes is going to be important moving into the future Dr. Ryan Augustin: Definitely appreciate those practical considerations. Jason, thank you. Moving on to our final topic, I was hoping to discuss the use of immune cell engagers in melanoma. So, similar to CAR T therapy, bispecific T-cell engagers, or BiTEs, as they're commonly known, are standard of care in refractory myeloma and lymphoma. But these antibodies engaging CD-3 on T cells and a tumor specific antigen on cancer cells are relatively new in the solid tumor space. Tarlatamab, which is a DLL-3 and CD-3 bispecific antibody, was recently approved in refractory small cell lung cancer, and, of course, tebentafusp, an HLA-directed CD-3 T cell engager was approved in uveal melanoma in 2022. Both T and NK cell engaging therapies are now offering hope in cancers where there has historically been little to offer. However, similar to our discussion with TIL therapy, bispecifics can lead to CRS and neurotoxicity, which require considerable logistical support and care coordination. Jason, I was wondering if you could briefly discuss the current landscape of immune cell engagers in melanoma and how soon we may see these therapies enter the treatment paradigm for cutaneous disease. Dr. Jason Luke: I think it is an exciting, novel treatment strategy that I think we will only see emerge more and more. You alluded to the approval of tebentafusp in uveal melanoma, and those trials were, over the course of a decade, where those of us in solid tumor land learned how to manage cytokine release syndrome or the impact of these C3 bispecifics, in a way that we weren't used to. And what I'll caution people is that CRS, as this term, it sounds very scary because people have heard of patients that, of course, had difficult outcomes and hematological malignancies, but it's a spectrum of side effects. And so, when we think about tebentafusp, which is the approved molecule, really what we see is a lot of rash because GP100, the other tumor antigen target, is in the skin. So, patients get a rash, and then people do get fevers, but it's pretty rare to get more than that. So really what you have to have is the capacity to monitor patients for 12 hours, but it's really not more scary than that. So it really just requires treating a few people to kind of get used to these kinds of symptoms, because they're not the full-on ICU level CRS that we see with, say, CAR T-cells. But where is the field going? Well, there's a second CD3 bispecific called brenetafusp that targets the molecule PRAME, that's in a phase 3 clinical trial now for frontline cutaneous melanoma. And tebentafusp is also being evaluated in cutaneous melanoma for refractory disease. So, it's very possible that these could be very commonly used for cutaneous melanoma, moving into, say, a two-to-four-year time horizon. And so therefore, getting used to what are these side effects, how do you manage them in an ambulatory practice for solid tumor, etc., is going to be something everyone's going to have to learn how to deal with, but I don't think it should be something that people should be afraid of. One thing that we've seen with these molecules so far is that their kinetics of treatment effect do look slightly different than what we see with more classic oncology therapies. These drugs have a long-term benefit but doesn't always manifest as disease regression. So, we commonly see patients will have stable disease, meaning their tumor stops growing, but we don't see that it shrank a lot, but that can turn into a very meaningful long-term benefit. So that's something that we're also, as a community, going to have to get used to. It may not be the case we see tumors shrink dramatically upfront, but rather we can actually follow people with good quality- of-life over a longer period of time. Where is the field going? You mentioned tarlatamab in small cell lung cancer, and I think we're only going to see more of these as appropriate tumor antigens are identified in different tumors. And then the other piece is these CD3 engagers generally rely upon some kind of engagement with a T cell, whether CD3 engagers, and so they can be TCR or T-cell receptor-based therapies, although they can be also SCFV-based. But that then requires new biomarkers, because TCR therapy requires HLA restriction. So, understanding that now we're going to need to profile patients based on their germline in addition to the genomics of the tumor. And those two things are separate. But I would argue at this point, basically everybody with cutaneous melanoma should be being profiled for HLA-A(*)0201, which is the major T-cell receptor HLA haplotype that we would be looking for, because whether or not you can get access immediately to tebentafusp, but therefore clinical trials will become more and more important. Finally, in that T-cell receptor vein, there are also T cell receptor-transduced T cells, which are also becoming of relevance in the oncology community and people listening will be aware in synovial sarcoma of the first approval for a TCR-transduced T cell with afamitresgene autoleucel. And in melanoma, we similarly have TCR-transduced T cells that are coming forward in clinical trials into phase 3, the IMA203 PRAME-directed molecule particularly. And leveraging our prior conversation about TILs, we're going to have more and more cellular based therapies coming forward, which is going to make it important to understand what are the biomarkers that go with those, what are the side effect profiles of these, and how do you build your practice in a way that you can optimally get your patients access to all of these different treatments, because it will become more logistically complicated, kind of as more of these therapies come online over the next, like we said, two to four years kind of time horizon. So, it's very exciting, but there is more to do, both logistically and scientifically. Dr. Ryan Augustin: That's excellent. Thanks, Jason, and thank you so much for sharing your great insight with us today on the ASCO Daily News Podcast. Dr. Jason Luke: Thanks so much for the opportunity. Dr. Ryan Augustin: And thank you to our listeners for your time today. You will find links to the abstracts discussed today in the transcript of this episode, and you can follow Dr. Luke on X, formerly known as Twitter, @jasonlukemd. And you can find me, @RyanAugustinMD. Finally, if you value the insights that you hear on the ASCO Daily News Podcast, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. Guest statements on the podcast do not express the opinions of ASCO. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement. Follow today's speakers: @ryanaugustinmd Dr. Jason Luke @jasonlukemd Follow ASCO on social media: @ASCO on Twitter ASCO on Facebook ASCO on LinkedIn Disclosures: Dr. Ryan Augustin: No relationships to disclose Dr. Jason Luke: Stock and Other Ownership Interests: Actym Therapeutics, Mavu Pharmaceutical, Pyxis, Alphamab Oncology, Tempest Therapeutics, Kanaph Therapeutics, Onc.AI, Arch Oncology, Stipe, NeoTX Consulting or Advisory Role: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, EMD Serono, Novartis, 7 Hills Pharma, Janssen, Reflexion Medical, Tempest Therapeutics, Alphamab Oncology, Spring Bank, Abbvie, Astellas Pharma, Bayer, Incyte, Mersana, Partner Therapeutics, Synlogic, Eisai, Werewolf, Ribon Therapeutics, Checkmate Pharmaceuticals, CStone Pharmaceuticals, Nektar, Regeneron, Rubius, Tesaro, Xilio, Xencor, Alnylam, Crown Bioscience, Flame Biosciences, Genentech, Kadmon, KSQ Therapeutics, Immunocore, Inzen, Pfizer, Silicon Therapeutics, TRex Bio, Bright Peak, Onc.AI, STipe, Codiak Biosciences, Day One Therapeutics, Endeavor, Gilead Sciences, Hotspot Therapeutics, SERVIER, STINGthera, Synthekine Research Funding (Inst.): Merck , Bristol-Myers Squibb, Incyte, Corvus Pharmaceuticals, Abbvie, Macrogenics, Xencor, Array BioPharma, Agios, Astellas Pharma , EMD Serono, Immatics, Kadmon, Moderna Therapeutics, Nektar, Spring bank, Trishula, KAHR Medical, Fstar, Genmab, Ikena Oncology, Numab, Replimmune, Rubius Therapeutics, Synlogic, Takeda, Tizona Therapeutics, Inc., BioNTech AG, Scholar Rock, Next Cure Patents, Royalties, Other Intellectual Property: Serial #15/612,657 (Cancer Immunotherapy), and Serial #PCT/US18/36052 (Microbiome Biomarkers for Anti-PD-1/PD-L1 Responsiveness: Diagnostic, Prognostic and Therapeutic Uses Thereof) Travel, Accommodations, Expenses: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Array BioPharma, EMD Serono, Janssen, Merck, Novartis, Reflexion Medical, Mersana, Pyxis, Xilio
In this episode of the Oncology Brothers podcast, hosts Drs. Rahul and Rohit Gosain dive into the recent FDA approval of tarlatamab, a groundbreaking bispecific antibody for patients with extensive stage small cell lung cancer. Joined by Dr. Misty Shields from Indiana University, they explore the DeLLphi-301 study design, the efficacy of tarlatamab, and the operational challenges associated with its use. Key topics discussed include: • The study's primary endpoint of objective response rate and its implications for patient care. • The unique mechanism of action of tarlatamab targeting DLL3 and CD3 T cells. • The importance of monitoring for side effects such as cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and immune cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS). • Strategies for community oncologists to effectively manage patients receiving this new treatment. Dr. Shields also highlights the significance of patient advocacy and the role of organizations like Longevity Small Cell Smashers in supporting those affected by small cell lung cancer. Tune in for an insightful discussion that sheds light on the future of treatment options for small cell lung cancer and the collaborative efforts needed to ensure patient safety and care. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell for more updates on the latest in oncology! Website: http://www.oncbrothers.com/ X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/oncbrothers Contact us at info@oncbrothers.com
Dr Jacob Sands from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, discusses recent presentations on approved and investigational therapies in small cell lung cancer from the 2024 World Conference on Lung Cancer, moderated by Dr Neil Love. Produced by Research To Practice. CME information and select publications here (https://www.researchtopractice.com/WCLC2024/SCLC).
In part 2 of this 3-part Oncology Unplugged series, Chandler Park, MD, a genitourinary medical oncologist at Norton Cancer Institute in Louisville, Kentucky, and Tejas Patil, MD, an assistant professor of medical oncology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, discussed the evolving small cell lung cancer (SCLC) treatment paradigm. They examined critical data from recent studies, focusing on the role of prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) and the effects of immune checkpoint inhibitors in both limited-stage SCLC (LS-SCLC) and extensive-stage SCLC (ES-SCLC).
Rev. William Barber and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove discuss the political, moral, and spiritual dimensions of poverty. Together, they co-authored White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy, and they're collaborators at the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School.About Rev. William BarberBishop William J. Barber II, DMin, is a Professor in the Practice of Public Theology and Public Policy and Founding Director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School. He serves as President and Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, Co-Chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival, Bishop with The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, and has been Pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Goldsboro, NC, for the past 29 years.He is the author of four books: We Are Called To Be A Movement; Revive Us Again: Vision and Action in Moral Organizing; The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and The Rise of a New Justice Movement; and Forward Together: A Moral Message For The Nation.Bishop Barber served as president of the North Carolina NAACP from 2006-2017 and on the National NAACP Board of Directors from 2008-2020. He is the architect of the Forward Together Moral Movement that gained national acclaim in 2013 with its Moral Monday protests at the North Carolina General Assembly. In 2015, he established Repairers of the Breach to train communities in moral movement building through the Moral Political Organizing Leadership Institute and Summit Trainings (MPOLIS). In 2018, he co-anchored the relaunch of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival— reviving the SCLC's Poor People's Campaign, which was originally organized by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., welfare rights leaders, workers' rights advocates, religious leaders, and people of all races to fight poverty in the U.S.A highly sought-after speaker, Bishop Barber has given keynote addresses at hundreds of national and state conferences, including the 2016 Democratic National Convention, the 59th Inaugural Prayer Service for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, and the Vatican's conference on Pope Francis's encyclical “Laudato Si': On Care for Our Common Home.He is a 2018 MacArthur Foundation Genius Award recipient and a 2015 recipient of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award and the Puffin Award.Bishop Barber earned a Bachelor's Degree from North Carolina Central University, a Master of Divinity from Duke University, and a Doctor of Ministry from Drew University with a concentration in Public Policy and Pastoral Care. He has had ten honorary doctorates conferred upon him.About Jonathan Wilson-HartgroveJonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is an author, preacher, and community-builder who has worked with faith-rooted movements for social change for more than two decades. He is the founder of School for Conversion, a popular education center in Durham, North Carolina, and co-founder of the Rutba House, a house of hospitality in Durham's Walltown neighborhood.Mr. Wilson-Hartgrove is the author of more than a dozen books, including the daily prayer guide, Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, New Monasticism, The Wisdom of Stability, Reconstructing the Gospel, and Revolution of Values. He is a regular preacher and teacher in churches across the US and Canada and a member of the Red Letter Christian Communicators network.Show NotesCenter for Public Theology and Public Policy's ten-session online course: https://www.theologyandpolicy.yale.edu/inaugural-conferenceGet your copy of White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy: https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324094876Production NotesThis podcast featured Rev. William Barber and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, with Ryan McAnnally-LinzEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Kacie BarrettA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give
June 19, 1968. Over 50,000 people march on Washington D.C. to protest economic injustice in the climax of Martin Luther King and the SCLC's “Poor People's Campaign,” an event coined “Solidarity Day.” This episode originally aired in 2023.Support the show! Join Into History for ad-free listening and more.History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.