Tony Berberabe, MPH

Howard L. Kaufman, MD, FACS discusses the abstracts chosen for presentation during the Presidential Session of the SITC 31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs. 

Study results that examined patient-reported outcomes and quality of life measures demonstrate that hypofractionated radiotherapy (H-RT) is a viable, safe, and value-added alternative to patients with low-risk prostate cancer.

For patients who are likely to experience contiguous recurrence of glioblastoma, a new computer simulation using tumor treating fields (TTF) and employing a personalized transducer array, delivered electric field (EF) intensities that exceeded therapeutic intensities in 3 different tumor locations.

Results from a phase II study from Korea demonstrated high rates of tumor local control, overall survival (OS), and grade 1/2 gastrointestinal and hepatic toxicities in patients who received stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after incomplete transarterial chemoembolization (TACE).

Jim Zhong, MD, and colleagues describe a National Cancer Database (NCDB) outcomes analysis of patients with muscle invasive bladder cancer treated with either radical surgery or bladder preservation therapy.

Patients with renal cancer who underwent cytoreductive nephrectomy (CN) and targeted therapy (TT) had improved survival compared with patients who did not undergo the surgery, according to research from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.¹ Historically, only 3 in 10 such patients undergo the procedure.

The pivotal phase III prostate cancer trial ARMO 3-SV will be discontinued based on recommendations made by the trial's independent data monitoring committee.

The phase III ARMOR 3-SV trial for prostate cancer was not likely to meet its primary endpoint of radiographic progression-free survival (PFS) improvement, the trial’s independent data monitoring committee (DMC) decided, leading to the trial’s discontinuation, according to the manufacturer Tokai Pharmaceuticals.

A study of apalutamide (ARN-509) in patients with high-risk, localized, or locally advanced prostate cancer who are receiving primary radiation therapy is hoping to reduce the risk of metastasis and death from prostate cancer for these high-risk patients, according to the study’s global principal investigator, Howard M. Sandler, MD.

Researchers are hoping the results of a latestage efficacy and safety study of apalutamide (ARN-509) in patients with high-risk, localized, or locally advanced prostate cancer who are receiving primary radiation therapy will demonstrate an improvement in metastasis-free survival, according to global principal investigator, Howard M. Sandler, MD.

The immunotherapy agent atezolizumab (Tecentriq) reduced the size of tumors by 24% in patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC), according to phase II clinical trial results presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Using the Decipher Prostate Cancer Classifier assay to predict which patients might respond to hormonal therapy has resulted in the discovery and validation of an adjuvant androgen-deprivation therapy resistance signature.

The amount of vitamin D in a man's blood could be an effective biomarker to identify an aggressive form of prostate cancer, doubly so for men who are considering active surveillance.

Men whose prostate cancer is treated with radiotherapy had a higher risk of developing secondary malignancies in the bladder, colon, and rectum, as compared with men who were not exposed to radiotherapy.

The FDA has accepted a supplemental new drug application for a capsulated form of enzalutamide for review in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. This application includes findings from the head-to-head studies, TERRAIN and STRIVE.

A current estimation shows that roughly 25% of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancers (mCRPC) contain alterations in DNA repair genes. These would normally code for proteins to correct errors arising when cells duplicate their DNA before cell division.

Resistance to androgen receptor therapies in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) has historically posed a challenge to clinicians. Now, a new blood test that analyzes circulating tumor cells (CTCs) could help overcoming these hurdles.

The programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) and PD-1 ligand (PD-L1) inhibitors "are going to disrupt the current treatment paradigm and will likely be the backbone of combination therapy," said Hans J. Hammers, MD, PhD.

Recent studies suggest that RP may be a better initial treatment given many of these patients require multimodal therapy to manage their disease. The question about radiation versus surgery lies in the details, with treatment tailored to each patient.

Phase II findings have shown a substantial improvement in overall survival with the dendritic vaccine ICT-107 in a subgroup of patients with HLA-A2+ newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), warranting further exploration in a phase III study.

With novel treatments such as abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) and enzalutamide (Xtandi) emerging and financial challenges of diminished reimbursement faced by urology practices mounting, urology groups are beginning to offer in-office dispensing to their metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients.

Pro-inflammatory cytokines were elevated in patients with melanoma undergoing the combination treatment of radiation therapy and the systemic anti�CTLA-4 immunotherapy, ipilimumab.

Patients who received hypofractionated radiation therapy did not demonstrate statistically significant differences in long-term outcomes compared with patients who received conventional radiation therapy, according to a study .

In the first phase III trial to show a benefit for adjuvant therapy in prostate cancer, treatment with an adjuvant combination of docetaxel, androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), and radiation therapy (RT) improved 4-year overall survival (OS) rates in patients with high-risk localized prostate cancer, when compared with ADT plus RT alone.

The role of androgen receptor variant-7 in patients with early stage prostate cancer is not well characterized but data presented at the 2015 American Urological Association Meeting by Tyler M. Bauman, BS, is bringing the discussion into focus.

PSA testing utilization decreased by 50% among primary care physicians at Oregon Health & Science University, following a recommendation against screening from the USPSTF.

Treatment with the PARP inhibitor olaparib demonstrated a durable ORR of 87.5% in a biomarker-defined subgroup of men with pretreated sporadic mCRPC in a phase II multi-step adaptive trial.

The continuing contentious debate about screening for prostate cancer remains top of mind among the public and lay press, but, Leonard G. Gomella, MD, says the decision to screen or not to screen boils down to “using common sense.”

Treatment with enzalutamide reduced the risk of progression by 76% compared with bicalutamide in men with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), according to results from the STRIVE study.