Interviews

Jason J. Luke, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the The University of Chicago Medicine, discusses the importance of conducting research into less common subsets of melanoma. After giving a talk on non-cutaneous melanoma, a rare subtype, Luke explained that not all cases of melanoma arise on the skin and shared why more research is necessary in the field.

Hans Hammers, MD, PhD, associate professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, discusses what he believes is most important in future investigation for the treatment of patients with renal cell carcinoma. With combination therapies on the rise in the field of kidney cancers, new pivotal and early clinical trials are constantly arising looking at new combination regimens.

Frederick Locke, MD, co-leader of the Department of Blood and Marrow Transplant and Cellular Immunotherapy Program at Moffitt Cancer Center, discussed the long-term follow-up results of the pivotal ZUMA-1 trial. These updated findings were presented at the 2017 ASH Annual Meeting, showing promise in the treatment of patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Robert C. Doebele, MD, PhD, associate professor in the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Colorado, discusses the significance of brain metastases in patients with non–small cell lung cancer. 

Elizabeth Mittendorf, MD, PhD, director of the Breast Oncology Program at the Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the importance of identifying biomarkers in patients with breast cancer. Current studies are looking at PD-L1 as a possible biomarker, but Mittendorf believes there may be other biomarkers that will prove to be more reliable. 

Bridget F. Koontz, MD, associate professor of radiation oncology, Duke Cancer Institute, discusses a single-arm, phase II trial of 6 months of concurrent androgen deprivation therapy/abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) plus prednisone and definitive radiotherapy for men with intermediate- to high-risk localized prostate cancer.

Hyman B. Muss, MD, professor of medicine, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Medicine, discusses how he chooses which treatment to use for patients diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).

Anas Younes, MD, chief of the Lymphoma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses results from a trial studying the combination of nivolumab and ibrutinib for the treatment of patients with relapsed non-Hodgkin lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Harold J. Burstein, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, explains how ovary suppression is done in patients with breast cancer. This is a particularly important treatment for younger women who still wish to have children one day.

Susan M. Domchek, MD, director of the Basser Center for BRCA at Penn Medicine, discusses the role biomarkers have in the treatment of patients with breast cancer. Identifying biomarkers in patients early on, such as knowledge of estrogen receptor status, can lead to better treatment plans, Domchek says.

Fatima Cardoso, MD, medical oncologist at the Champalimaud Clinical Centre in Portugal, explains the biggest issue in treatment of male breast cancer is due to lack of education. Male patients are most commonly diagnosed in the advanced stages because of this and are commonly given the wrong treatments, says Cardoso.

Ajai Chari, MD, associate professor of medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, advises on the best way to choose treatment regimens for patients with multiple myeloma. Since 9 different drugs have been approved after many phase III trials, a community physician may be overwhelmed by this surplus of options, Chari says.

Anas Younes, MD, chief of the Lymphoma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses current research for staging patients with follicular lymphoma. In order to design new clinical trials, researchers must have reliable predictors of overall survival and progression-free survival in patients.

Shaji Kumar, MD, professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology at the Mayo Clinic, discusses the effects genetic abnormalities have on patients with high-risk multiple myeloma. Recent advancements have helped to identify these abnormalities in patients.

Joaquim Bellmunt, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist at the Bladder Cancer Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the updated results of the phase III KEYNOTE-045 trial after 2 years of follow-up. These updated results confirmed the primary findings of the study, which compared pembrolizumab (Keytruda) with investigator's choice of chemotherapy in patients with recurrent, advanced urothelial carcinoma.

Marina C. Garassino, MD, medical consultant in the Medical Oncology Division, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy, discusses current advancements with immunotherapy as first- and second-line treatments for patients with lung cancer.

Joshua Bauml, MD, an assistant professor at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses the possibilities with using liquid biopsies in patients with lung cancer.

Kathleen Moore, MD, associate director for clinical research at the Stephenson Oklahoma Cancer Center, discusses the development of combination therapy strategies for patients with ovarian cancer.

Robert Andtbacka, MD, associate professor in the Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgery at the University of Utah School of Medicine, discusses a study exploring the role of talimogene laherparapvec (T-VEC; Imlygic) in the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma.

Constantine S. Tam, MD, associate professor, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, discusses the phase III DUO trial, a randomized comparison of duvelisib versus ofatumumab (Arzerra) in patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic leukemia.

Tian Zhang, MD, assistant professor of medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Duke Cancer Institute, discusses the phase III KEYNOTE-564 trial of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as adjuvant treatment for renal cell carcinoma (RCC).&nbsp;<br /> &nbsp;

Hossein Borghaei, DO, MS, chief of the Division of Thoracic Medical Oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center, discusses biomarkers that may help identify patients with lung cancer who can benefit from immunotherapy agents. Since the introduction of these agents, PD-L1 has been used as a potential biomarker for selecting patients that may benefit from treatment. As PD-L1 is not completely reliable, there is interest in developing additional biomarkers.

Sattva S. Neelapu, MD, associate professor, Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma, Division of Cancer Medicine, at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses long-term findings of the ZUMA-1 trial investigating axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel; Yescarta) in patients with refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Omid A. Hamid, MD, chief of Translational Research and Immunotherapy, director,&nbsp;Melanoma Therapeutics, The Angeles Clinic and Research Institute, discusses options for patients with melanoma who have exhausted standard therapies.

Thomas Karasic, MD, investigator at Penn Medicine, discusses a phase II trial of palbociclib (Ibrance) in patients with advanced&nbsp;<br /> esophageal or gastric cancer.<br /> &nbsp;

Lisa A. Carey, MD, professor, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the CALGB 40502/NCCTG N063H trial in patients with triple-negative breast cancer, a randomized phase III trial of paclitaxel compared with nab-paclitaxel or ixabepilone with bevacizumab as first-line chemotherapy for locally recurrent or metastatic breast cancer.<br /> &nbsp;