2019 Research Round Up Podcast: Gastrointestinal Cancers, AML, and MDS

2019 ASCO ® Annual Meeting; Research Round Up Podcast Series
August 21, 2019
Claire Smith, ASCO staff

In the annual Research Round Up series of podcasts,share on twitter Cancer.Net Associate Editors discuss the research in their field that was presented at this year’s ASCO Annual Meeting. Want more research news and scientific highlights? You can review all of Cancer.Net’s content related to the ASCO Annual Meeting, or learn more about the research presented at other scientific meetings throughout the year on the Cancer.Net Blog.

New research in gastrointestinal cancers

Dr. Jeffrey Meyerhardt, the 2015-2022 Cancer.Net Associate Editor for Gastrointestinal Cancers, discusses 4 studies in gastrointestinal cancer. The first study he discusses looked at how long some people with stage II colon cancer needed adjuvant chemotherapy, which is chemotherapy that is given after surgery, in order to reduce the risk of recurrence. [2:25] The second study he discusses is called the KEYNOTE-062 study, which compared the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab (Keytruda) with standard chemotherapy as an initial treatment for metastatic gastric, or stomach, cancer. [4:26] Finally, he discusses 2 studies in pancreatic cancer, including 1 study on adjuvant chemotherapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer [7:14] and 1 study, called POLO, on a targeted therapy called olaparib (Lynparza) for people with metastatic pancreatic cancer that is linked to the BRCA genetic mutation. [9:48]

Treatment advances in leukemia

Dr. Guillermo Garcia-Manero, the 2019 Cancer.Net Associate Editor for Leukemia, shares research highlights from the ASCO Annual Meeting across the field of leukemia. First, he discusses a study that looked at a new immunotherapy called Hu5F9-G4. This drug is a type of immunotherapy known as an immune checkpoint inhibitor. It works by targeting and blocking a specific molecule, CD47, found on some cancer cells. This study showed that combining Hu5F9-G4 with the standard therapy azicitidine (Vidaza) had promising results for people with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). [14:26] Dr. Garcia-Manero also discusses several other studies presented, including an early study on a CAR T-cell therapy for people with refractory acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) and a study on T-cell therapy for patients with a suppressed immune system. [16:15]

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