Interviews

Martin Hutchings, MD, PhD, senior consultant in the Department of Hematology at the Copenhagen University Hospital, discusses common implications in treating patients with advanced stage Hodgkin lymphoma. Trials rarely perform subgroup analyses, and when they do, it is common for researchers to come across particular biases in the selected subgroups. 

Robert "Bo" Gamble, director of strategic practice initiatives at Community Oncology Alliance, shares his perspective on the 340B Drug Discount Program and the implications of the program for the oncology community. He also provides his thoughts on possible solutions for imbalances created by the program.

Manish A. Shah, MD, director of Gastrointestinal Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine, discusses the need for targeted therapies beyond the second-line setting in esophageal cancer. While this is a deadly disease with most metastatic patients dying within a year, a recent clinical trial with pembrolizumab addresses an unmet need in the population, Shah says.

H. Jack West, MD, thoracic oncologist at the Swedish Cancer Institute of Swedish Medical Center, discusses the data with atezolizumab (Tecentriq) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). West says that the choice of treatment is likely best left to the judgement of the physician and patient. 

Daniela A. Bota, MD, medical director of Neuro-Oncology at University of California Irvine, discusses the findings from a dose-escalation trial of marizomib.

Charles G. Drake, MD, PhD, director of Genitourinary Oncology at New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, discusses his thoughts on whether sunitinib would be more successful as a treatment for patients with renal cell carcinoma if used in the neoadjuvant setting.

Andre Goy, MD, chief, Division of Lymphoma, chairman and director, John Theurer Cancer Center, discusses the progress made with immunotherapy for the treatment of hematologic malignancies over the last 5 years.

Neil E. Kay, MD, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic, discusses the challenges that arise when treating a patient with relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Most times, responses in this setting are short lived.

Maria Svensson, MD, Lund University, discusses the growing interest in checkpoint inhibitor blockade treatments for gastrointestinal cancers. In the past, there have been promising results with this treatment in metastatic disease.

Mario M. Leitao, Jr, MD, FACOG, FACS, program director of Gynecologic Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, highlights some of the phase I and II clinical trials in ovarian cancer currently enrolling at his institution. He also discusses the rationale behind a new trial that is expected to open soon.

Alexander Perl, MD, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses the current challenges with CAR T-cell therapy for the treatment of patients with acute myeloid leukemia

Noa Biran, MD, physician, Multiple Myeloma Division, John Theurer Cancer Center, discusses the rationale for selecting stem cell transplant as treatment over a chemotherapy regimen for patients with multiple myeloma.

Nicholas J. Vogelzang, MD, a medical oncologist at the Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, discusses the rationale behind conducting the PROSPECT trial in patients with relapsed prostate cancer. Patients enrolled in this study had prostate cancer return after hormonal ablation.

Todd Yezefski, MD, a senior fellow in the Clinical Research Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, discusses the results of a trial investigating cost and outcome differences in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer in the United States and Canada. Specifically, he looked at patients in Washington and British Columbia. This data was presented at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Noopur S. Raje, MD, a medical oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy in patients with multiple myeloma. This therapy has been an exciting advancement in both hematology as well as solid tumors, she notes.

Maha H. Hussain, MB, ChB, professor of medicine and deputy director at Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the current role of PARP inhibitors in clinical trials for treatment of patients with prostate cancer.

Maria Svensson, MD, Lund University, discusses the importance of biomarkers in the field of gastric cancers. In a recent study, she used evidence of mismatch repair to determine prognosis of the patients.

Julie R. Brahmer, MD, associate professor of oncology and co-director of the Upper Aerodigestive Department at the Bloomberg Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, John Hopkins Medicine, discusses the change in standard of care for patients with stage III non–small cell lung cancer. Durvalumab was recently approved by the FDA as a consolidation therapy for patients with stage III locally-advanced, unresectable NSCLC who had not progressed following standard chemoradiotherapy.

Benjamin G. Neel, MD, PhD, director of the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone, discusses how his institution has changed vastly over the last few years, with an increasing number of clinical trials available for patients with lung cancer and other cancers. Clinical trials are often the best option for cancers where the outcomes with conventional treatments may be uncertain, Neel says.

Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, deputy director of the Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone Medical Center, discusses the adverse events commonly associated with the combination of dabrafenib and trametinib in the adjuvant setting for patients with BRAF V600E– or V600K–positive stage III melanoma.

Toni K. Choueiri, MD, a medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses how clinical trials can help improve cancer treatments for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma, a largely incurable and lethal disease. He also shares recent statistics on the low clinical enrollment numbers as well as how many could potentially be enrolling for newer treatments. 

Steven E. Coutre, MD, professor at the Stanford University Medical Center, discusses the importance of molecular profiling in hematologic diseases, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Andrew L. Pecora, MD, president of the Physician Services Division and chief innovation officer at Hackensack Meridian Health, discusses the significance of his findings when combining an anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1 in patients with multiple myeloma. He sought out to find whether these 2 drugs could be combined safely after an autologous stem cell transplant. 

Sumanta K. Pal, MD, associate professor of the Department of Medical Oncology and Experimental Therapeutics at City of Hope, discusses the data he considers when treating patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma.

Brian T. Hill, MD, PhD, director of Lymphoid Malignancies at the Cleveland Clinic, discusses current combinations being investigated for the treatment of patients with mantle cell lymphoma.

Brian Burgess, DO, PhD, a first-year fellow at the University of Kentucky, discusses the biggest challenge with targeted therapies in ovarian cancer. PARP resistance has become a huge barrier in this treatment paradigm. 

Daniel J. DeAngelo, MD, PhD, associate professor at the Harvard School of Medicine and a member of the Adult Leukemia Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, highlighted the 4 FDA approvals in the last year for the treatment of patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

Casey Cosgrove, MD, a fellow at the Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center, discussed a pilot trial that screened patients with endometrial cancers for Lynch syndrome.The potential impact of this study could lead to the prevention of endometrial, ovarian, and colorectal cancers in the future, Cosgrove said.