Interviews

Debu Tripathy, MD, of the Department of Breast Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, MD Anderson Cancer Center, was an investigator in the phase III MONALEESA-7 trial. The purpose of the study was to examine how endocrine therapy, in combination with a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, affects progression-free survival and overall survival in premenopausal patients with HR-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer.

Addressing the need for treatments that are more effective and less toxic for patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia, Paolo Ghia, MD, of the Universita Vita-Salute San Raffaele, and other researchers conducted a phase III randomized, multicentric ASCEND study, testing acalabrutinib monotherapy in comparison with physician’s choice of standard regimens in patients R/R CLL.

The Rapid Integration Program, a training initiative for new physician&rsquo;s assistants and nurse practitioners working in the field of oncology, is a Florida Society of Community Oncology (FLASCO) initiative that came from an ASCO meeting. Winston Tan, MD, of the Head and Neck Cancer Center at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, speaking during the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting, was in attendance at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting when the idea for a training program was first introduced.<br /> &nbsp;

Tanios Bekaii-Saab, MD, discusses the results from the phase III BEACON CRC study; investigators evaluated the efficacy and safety of triplet encorafenib, binimetinib, and cetuximab in patients with&nbsp;BRAF&nbsp;V600E&ndash;mutant metastatic colorectal cancer who previously received up to 2 lines of prior therapy.

David Spigel, MD, chief scientific officer, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discussed with&nbsp;<em>Targeted Oncology</em>at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting how the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) is the change agent for helping physicians provide their patients with quality care.&nbsp;<br /> &nbsp;

Marina C. Garassino, MD, medical consultant, Thoracic Unit, Fondazione IRCCS &ndash; Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy, discusses the results from the randomized phase III RELAY trial, in which the combination of ramucirumab plus erlotinib was compared to erlotinib plus placebo in patients with EGFR-mutated non&ndash;small cell lung cancer. These data were presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.