Every year, the ASCO Annual Meeting brings together attendees from around the globe to learn about the latest research in the treatment and care of people with cancer. Cancer.Net’s annual Research Round Up podcast series delves deep into the Annual Meeting’s scientific abstracts with leaders on this website’s Editorial Board. This year, a record 42,750 attendees from 138 countries worldwide gathered virtually for the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program, held May 29 through May 31.
In this year’s Research Round Up podcast series, Cancer.Net Associate Editors answer the question, “What was the most exciting or practice-changing research in your field presented at the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program?”
In the first episode for this year, 3 editors discuss new research in the fields of leukemia, colorectal cancer, and lung cancer. Listen below, and subscribe to Cancer.Net Podcasts on Apple Podcasts or Google Play for new episodes in this series throughout the summer.
Dr. Jessica Altman, the Cancer.Net Associate Editor for Leukemia, discusses an early study that looked at a combination of the immunotherapy magrolimab with the chemotherapy azacitidine (Vidaza) to treat myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). [3:05] She also discusses a study on the effects of supportive care, also known as palliative care, on quality of life for people treated for AML. [5:40]
Dr. Jeffrey Meyerhardt, the Cancer.Net Associate Editor for Genitourinary Cancers, discusses 4 studies on colorectal cancer. The first, KEYNOTE-177, looked at the effects of using an immunotherapy called pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to treat patients with metastatic colorectal cancer that had a specific genetic change, or mutation, known as microsatellite-instability high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair deficiency (dMMR). [8:50]
Next, he discusses an update to the BEACON CRC study, which looked at different combinations of targeted therapy to treat colorectal cancer with a genetic change known as a BRAF mutation. [11:13] Finally, he discusses 2 studies that looked at ways to improve adjuvant therapy for colorectal cancer. Adjuvant therapy is systemic therapy that is given after surgery. [13:09]
Dr. Jyoti Patel, the Cancer.Net Associate Editor for Lung Cancer, discusses 3 studies that explored different treatment options for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The first study she discusses, the ADAURA study, looked at the targeted therapy osimertinib (Tagrisso) to treat NSCLC with an EGFR mutation. [16:49] Next, she discusses the CheckMate 9LA study, which looked at a combination of 2 immunotherapy drugs, nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy), plus chemotherapy to treat metastatic or recurrent NSCLC. [20:26] Finally, she discusses a study that looked at the use of an antibody-drug conjugate, trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu), to treat metastatic NSCLC with a HER2 mutation. [23:47]
Disclosure information for this podcast’s speakers can be found in their individual biographies, which are linked in the paragraphs above.
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