Interviews

Mark Gilbert, MD, neuro-oncologist, chief of neuro-oncology, National Institute of Health, discusses predicting how a patient's brain tumor might act and respond to treatment based on their genetics.

Maciej Michal Mrugala MD, PhD, MPH, chief of the Division of Neuro-Oncology, University of Washington

Michael Lim, MD, director of Brain Tumor Immunotherapy, associate professor of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins Medicine, discusses checkpoint inhibitors in glioblastoma.

Nicholas A. Butowski, MD, director, Translational Research in Neuro-Oncology, University of California, San Francisco, discusses the eligibility of patients with glioblastoma to receive a convection-enhanced delivery of nanoliposomal irinotecan with real-time imaging.

​Rimas Lukas, MD, director, Medical Neuro-Oncology, co-director, Neurology Medical Student Clerkship Program, The University of Chicago Medical Center, discusses the next steps following a phase I study looking at atezolizumab in glioblastoma.

Jonathan R. Strosberg, MD, associate professor, Moffitt Cancer Center, discusses the targeted, systemic radiation treatment 177-Lu-Dotatate (Lutathera), a somatostatin analogue peptide, in patients with neuroendocrine tumors.

Oliver Sartor, MD, medical director, Tulane Cancer Center, discusses how radium-223 dichloride became deemed safe in patients with bone-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). The treatment was tested in an open-label phase I/II trial where patients were given 6 additional doses of radium-223 on top of their original 6-dose regimen.

Carey Anders, MD, assistant professor for the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology, UNC Chapel Hill, discusses the exclusion of patients with breast cancer who have developed brain metastases from clinical trials.

Amitabh Chak, MD, MS, professor of Medicine, director, Clinical Research, Division of Gastroenterolgy Diseases, Case Western Reserve University, discusses advances in esophageal cancer. Chak says some of the more "exciting" developments in the treatment of the disease are transnasal endoscopy, as well as a new type of screening device that acts as a "pap smear" for the esophagus.

Peter Martin, MD, discusses the evolving paradigm of treatment for mantle cell lymphoma. Martin says the evolution of the paradigm currently includes Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor, phosphoinositide 3-kinase inhibitor, immunomodulatory treatments, and immunotherapies.

​Darren Feldman, MD, assistant attending physician for the Genitourinary Oncology Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses how to properly treat neutropenic fever as a toxicity stemming from chemotherapy treatment.

​Daniel Hamstra, MD, PhD, radiation oncologist, Texas Center for Proton Therapy, Texas Oncology, discusses the benefits of shorter radiotherapy treatment sessions for patients with prostate cancer.

Matthew Cooperberg, MD, genitourinary cancer specialist, University of California San Francisco, discusses the appropriateness of a more aggressive approach to men with high-risk prostate cancer. Cooperberg says currently, men will normally respond to surgery followed by adjuvant radiotherapy, as well as systemic therapy.

​Tomasz M. Beer, MD, FACP, deputy director, Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, discusses the potential for genomic tests to result in new treatments.

Heimberger says the treatment paradigm's future is two-pronged, in that it will consist of both combination therapies that activate the immune system and prevent immunosuppression, as well as understand CT and MRI scans of brain cancer patients.

David Reardon, MD, clinical director, Center for Neuro-Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses identifying certain characteristics in a patient's brain tumor in order to administer better treatment.

Susan Panullo, MD, director, Neuro-oncology, director, Neurosurgical Radiosurgery, Weill Cornell Brain and Spine Center, discusses the improvement in quality of life in patients with glioblastoma treated with Optune (NovoTTF-100A).

Lorraine Pelosof, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Hematology and Oncology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, on the increasing proportion of non-smokers developing non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Eric Lim, MD, consultant thoracic surgeon, Royal Brompton Hospital, Senior lecturer in thoracic surgery and reader, Imperial College London, discusses the decline in smoking not correlating to the current amount of lung cancer diagnoses.

Georgia L. Wiesner, MD, MS, director, Clinical and Translational Hereditary Cancer Program, Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, professor of Medicine, cancer geneticist, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, discusses the role genetic testing for colorectal cancer (CRC) plays in families.

​Charles M. Perou, PhD, professor of Genetics, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, UNC School of Medicine, discusses precision medicine in breast cancer and currently known biomarkers.

Geoffrey Shapiro, MD, PhD, director, Early Drug Development Center, Dana Farber, discusses the role of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK4) in some breast cancer subtypes and the lack of targeted agents in triple-negative breast cancer.

Anthony Mato, MD, MSCE, director of the CLL Program, University of Pennsylvania, discusses the difference between intolerance and resistance when giving patients with chronic lymphotic leukemia ibrutinib.

​John McCarty, MD, medical director, Bone Marrow Transplant Program, Virginia Commonwealth University Health, discusses advice physicians can give to patients with lymphoma seeking stem cell mobilization.

Aaron Logan, MD, PhD, discusses the evolving definition of immunotherapy and its importance within the realm of oncology. Logan says immunotherapies were initially meant try to vaccinate patients against their own tumors, though the methodologies involved did not prove successful.

​Michael A. Davies, MD, PhD, discusses the importance of identifying which patients diagnosed with melanoma are at the highest risk for developing brain metastases.

Ashani T. Weeraratna, PhD, discusses the similarities in treatment between younger and older patients with melanoma. She says this lack of differentiation between treatment regimens could pose a problem in the future. One such issue is that older patients tend to react less well to treatments like vemurafenib.

Sheri Holmen, PhD, discusses treating metastases in melanoma. Holmen says the treatment of metastases in melanoma is currently the cancer's biggest unmet clinical need, specifically brain metastases.

Beer says that while BRCA is normally associated with breast cancer, the gene is found in up to 20% of advanced prostate cancers. He says of this 20% patient population, roughly half inherit the BRCA gene and the other half acquire it.

Srinivasan says enrolling patients in clinical trials that best represents their type of kidney cancer is an appropriate course of action for treatment.