Oncology News Central Peer-Spectives

Last month, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) determined that progression-free survival (PFS) could not be reliably interpreted in a confirmatory clinical trial for sotorasib (Lumakras) used to treat KRAS G12C–mutated locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).  Ravi A. Madan, MD , senior clinician at the National Cancer Inst...

How should results of the  FLAURA2 clinical trial  be applied in practice? The study examined the use of osimertinib plus chemotherapy in the first-line treatment of EGFR-mutated advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) compared with osimertinib alone and found that progression-free survival was significantly improved with the combination treatment. Pasi A. Jänne, MD, PhD , director of three ca...

“Therapies are improving dramatically” in mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), according to Michael Wang, MD, professor in the department of lymphoma/myeloma, division of cancer medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Dr. Wang presented updates on major advances in MCL at the recent Society of Hematologic Oncology (SOHO) annual meeting. Here, he speaks with Bob Figlin, MD,...

Recent advances have provided new options for when and how best to treat patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Trials of combination strategies have shown promise in providing patients the potential for unmaintained remissions.  Marco Ruella, MD , an assistant professor of medicine in hematology-oncology at the Perlman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and scientific...

The World Conference on Lung Cancer (World Lung) will be held in Singapore, September 9–12. The current president of International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), Heather A. Wakelee, MD, division chief of medical oncology at the Stanford Cancer Institute in California, shares which presentations and findings she is most looking forward to at this year’s event. She speaks with Rob...

Updates to the American Society for Clinical Oncology’s (ASCO’s) living guidelines for therapy in patients with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with driver alterations were recently released. Dwight H. Owen, MD, MS, from The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James, examines the new recommendations that he and his team introduced with Bob Figlin, MD, the Steven Spielbe...

In early July, beloved surgeon and breast cancer advocate Susan Love, MD, MBA, died at age 75 years, after a recurrence of leukemia. Dr. Love’s legacy extends beyond the lives of her patients and into the approaches and attitudes of her fellow physicians. Stephanie Graff, MD, medical advisor to the Dr. Susan Love Foundation for Breast Cancer Research and director of breast oncology at the Legorret...

HER2 inhibitors dramatically changed care for many breast cancers; however, less is known about HER3, which acts in concert with HER2. Does HER3 have the same potential to reshape treatment strategies? Erika Hamilton, MD, director of breast cancer and gynecologic cancer research at Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville, talks with Bob Figlin, MD, the Steven Spielberg family chair in hematol...

Although findings have suggested that adjuvant osimertinib is beneficial in early-stage non-smallcell lung cancer (NSCLC), some concerns have persisted. Balazs Halmos, MD, MS, associate director of clinical science, and director of both thoracic oncology and clinical cancer genomics at Montefiore Einstein Cancer Center in New York, says that “all these doubts have been shifted away,” given recent...

How should community oncologists best approach ESR1 mutations in breast cancer, given the latest findings? Recent data presented at the 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting and elsewhere have shed light on issues related to ESR1 testing and treatment selection. Bob Figlin, MD, the Steven Spielberg Family Chair in hematology oncology at Cedars-Sinai Cancer in Los Angeles...

Recent results demonstrated that mRNA vaccination improved recurrence-free survival among patients with melanoma. This has led to questions about what’s next for this promising intervention. Bob Figlin, MD , the Steven Spielberg Family Chair in hematology-oncology at Cedars Sinai Cancer in Los Angeles, welcomes Jeffrey Weber, MD, PhD , deputy director, professor, and co-director of the melanoma re...

Within the last few years, an “explosion of data” regarding adjuvant and neoadjuvant treatment for resectable lung cancer has contained “major wins” for patient care. Although exciting, the rapid advancement has led to questions about when chemotherapy and chemoimmunotherapy should be adopted or avoided. Bob Figlin, MD, the Steven Spielberg Family Chair in hematology-oncology at Cedars Sinai Cance...

As treatment options increase for patients with CLL, so do questions about which interventions, if any, are right for which patients and when. Bob Figlin, MD, and Nicole Lamanna, MD, discuss key considerations, ranging from cardiac toxicity to why Dr. Lamanna “won't just treat for a symptom.”

The newly opened Pragmatica-Lung trial compares ramucirumab plus pembrolizumab versus usual care for treatment of stage IV or recurrent non-small cell lung cancer. The trial is designed to ease enrollment requirements and data collection needs, focusing on the key endpoint of overall survival. Listen as study lead Karen Reckamp, MD, professor and division director for Cedar Sinai Cancer and Medica...

With more than 10 known driver mutations in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), testing is ever more critical, says Heather Wakelee, MD , division chief of medical oncology at Stanford University and president of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. Listen as she and Peer-Spectives host Bob Figlin, MD, the Steven Spielberg Family Chair in Hematology Oncology at Cedars-Sinai...

Treatment options are expanding quickly in early non-small cell lung cancer. Listen as Heather Wakelee, MD , division chief of Medical Oncology at Stanford University and president of the  International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, describes how she’s using new agents and incorporating trial findings into practice. She and host Bob Figlin, MD, the Steven Spielberg Family Chair in Hema...

After a decade of limited gains in metastatic pancreatic cancer, Zev Wainberg, MD, professor of medicine and co-director of the GI oncology program at the University of California, Los Angeles, presented the results of the NAPOLI-3 trial at the ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium last month. The data showed an improvement in overall survival and usher in a new standard for the hard-to-treat di...

The landscape for breast cancer treatment is shifting quickly, with an ever-increasingemphasis on targeted and hormonal therapies. Listen as Virginia Kaklamani,MD, professor of medicine in the division of hematology oncology at UT Health San Antonio, and medical directorof the breast oncologyprogram at UT Health San Antonio, MD Anderson Cancer Center,talks with Bob Figlin, MD, Steven Spielberg Fam...

Listen as Gabriela Hobbs, MD, clinical director of the leukemia atMass General, talks with Bob Figlin, MD, the Steven Spielberg Family Chair in Hematology Oncology at Cedars-Sinai Cancer in Los Angeles, about the latest progress in the treatment of myelofibrosisand how she both assesses new patients and plans their treatment. New agents, including JAK2 inhibitors,are not curative but can have subs...

Melissa Johnson, MD,a medical oncologist with Tennessee Oncology and Director of Lung Cancer Research at Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville,joins host Robert Figlin, MD, Steven Spielberg Family Chair in HematologyOncologyat Cedars-Sinai Cancer, to talk about KRAS G12C inhibition in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)treatment. She talks about how she uses sotorasib (Lumakras), which is U....

The key steps to launching a successful and professionally fulfilling hematology/oncology fellowship is to “reflect, project, and adapt,” according to Gerald Hsu, MD, PhD, associate clinical professor of medicine and director of the Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Program at UCSF. Dr. Hsu spoke with Robert Figlin, MD, to discuss how new fellows can best navigate the opportunities they’re presented...

Tejas Patil, MD, assistant professor of medical oncology at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, talks with Robert A. Figlin, MD, about new targeted therapies for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), particularly tepotinib (Tepmetko) for MET exon 14 and sotorasib (Lumakras) for KRAS G12C. The MET exon 14 skip mutation has attracted renewed attention because tepotinib and capmatinib (Tabrecta),...

  Jonathan Cohen, MD, MS, Associate Professor, Hematology and Medical Oncology, Emory University School of Medicine, , joins OBR Editor-in-Chief Robert Figlin, MD, to talk about mantle cell lymphoma. Dr. Cohen describes the key to making a correct diagnosis and what the best frontline treatment approaches are for different patient groups. He also talks about how BTK inhibitors and CAR T-cell thera...

Bob Figlin, MD, and Toni Choueiri, MD, the director of the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discuss the early results from the COSMIC-313 trial, which Dr. Choueiri presented at ESMO 2022. The trial enrolled previously untreated patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell cancer who were classified as intermediate- to poor-risk. Standard of care doublet the...

Bob Figlin, MD, and Jamie Von Roenn, MD, discuss strategies for learning about the oncology specialty earlier in the training pipeline, particularly for under-represented groups. They also look at opportunities for oncology fellows to build skills in different career areas.