Interviews

Selina Chen-Kiang, PhD, a professor of pathology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College, discusses the rationale of her phase I trial investigating the use of CDK4/6 inhibitors for the treatment of patients with mantle cell lymphoma.

Owen O’Connor, MD, PhD, director of the Center for Lymphoid Malignancies at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, discusses the possibility of using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies for the treatment of patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). This can be tricky for a number of reasons, but O’Connor is hopeful that there are treatment regimens for this patient population that can work.

Joshua R. Richter, MD, a hematologist/oncologist at John Theurer Cancer Center, discusses results from the Living with Cancer patient-reported outcomes (PROs) tool, which is a survey to record self-reported symptoms from patients. Richter used this tool to survey 239 patients with multiple myeloma on their symptoms and psychological distress.

Alan Skarbnik, MD, director of the Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Program at John Theurer Cancer Center, discusses the possibility of triplet combinations for the treatment of hematologic malignances. The biggest challenge with this type of treatment regimen is the increased risk of adverse events.

Jacqueline C. Barrientos, MD, associate professor of the Karches Center for Oncology Research at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, discusses which types of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia are the best candidates for treatment with ibrutinib

Martin H. Voss, MD, an assistant attending at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses recent data supporting the use of neoadjuvant therapy in patients with locally advanced kidney cancer.

Jennifer Litton, MD, associate professor in the Department of Breast Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses her opinion on the use of PARP inhibitors in the field of breast cancer. 

Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses results of the CELESTIAL trial. The results were clinically and statistically significant, Abou-Alfa notes. 

Mark G. Kris, MD, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the recent FDA approval of durvalumab (Imfinzi) for the treatment of patients with locally advanced, unresectable stage III non–small cell lung cancer.

David M. Nanus, MD, chief of the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine, discusses the use of immunotherapy in the community setting. He also gives advice to community oncologists that are using these treatments in their practice.&nbsp;<br /> &nbsp;

Jennifer Litton, MD, associate professor in the Department of Breast Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the role of biosimilars in the treatment of breast cancer.

Robert &quot;Bo&quot; Gamble, director of Strategic Practice Initiatives, Community Oncology Alliance (COA), discusses some of the exciting topics that will be covered during the upcoming 2018 Community Oncology Conference.&nbsp;

Miguel-Angel Perales, MD, deputy chief of Adult Bone Marrow Transplant Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses what experts are expecting to change in the treatment landscape of non-Hodgkin&rsquo;s lymphoma in the next year. Perales says by the end of 2018, there may be 3 CAR T-cell therapies approved for the treatment of non-Hodgkin&rsquo;s lymphoma.

Jaron Mark, MD, gynecologic oncology fellow at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses findings from a restrictive protocol that limited the number of opioids prescribed after gynecologic surgeries. Patients looked at in this trial had undergone ambulatory or minimally invasive procedures.&nbsp;

Akihito Kawazoe, MD, discussed the safety and efficacy results of the phase I/II SCOOP trial of napabucasin plus pembrolizumab for treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

Ira Winer, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at Wayne State University, discusses the outlook on immunotherapy in the treatment landscape of gynecologic cancers.&nbsp;

Ursula A. Matulonis, MD, director, Gynecologic Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses initial safety and activity findings from a phase IB escalation study of&nbsp;mirvetuximab soravtansine, a folate receptor alpha-targeting antibody-drug conjugate,&nbsp;with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in patients with platinum-resistant epithelial ovarian cancer.

Tanios Bekaii-Saab, MD, professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic, discusses results of the ReDOS trial. In the trial, investigators compared 2 arms with different dosing strategies for regorafenib in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

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&ndash;small cell lung cancer.&nbsp;

Elizabeth Mittendorf, MD, PhD, director of the Breast Oncology Program at the Susan F. Smith Center for Women&rsquo;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.&nbsp;

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.

Thierry Andre, MD, a professor of medical oncology at the University Pierre et Marie Curie, and Head of the Medical Oncology Department in St. Antoine Hospital, Assistance Publique H&ocirc;pitaux de Paris, discusses factors that a community oncologist should consider when choosing the right treatment for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

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.