Precision Medicine in Oncology®

Immunotherapy has been a game changer in oncology, improving survival and providing long, durable responses in melanoma, lung, head and neck cancer, and others.

Before undergoing surgery, radiation therapy, or a systemic treatment, Clayton S. Lau, MD, advises that the active surveillance approach for some patients with early prostate cancer is likely a more effective approach—but they should be better educated on it.

Yvonne Saenger, MD, director of Melanoma Immunotherapy at Columbia University Medical Center, discusses the importance of developing accurate biomarkers when it comes to administering immunotherapy.

Given the poor prognoses often seen in patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer, researchers are seeking novel therapies that may hold more promise than surgery or radiation.

David L. Rimm, MD, PhD, professor of pathology and of medicine, director of pathology tissue services, director of translational pathology, Yale Cancer Center, discusses various options for biomarker testing in lung cancer.

Ezra Cohen, MD, associate director, Moores Cancer Center, professor of Medicine, University of California, San Diego Health System, discusses biomarker testing in patients with head and neck cancer.

Maintenance therapy with niraparib reduced the risk of progression or death by 73% compared with placebo for patients with germline BRCA-positive platinum-sensitive, recurrent ovarian cancer.

In kidney cancer there are three “eras” in the history of treatment advances, said James Hsieh, MD, PhD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Steven Katz, MD, professor, Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Health System, discusses the incorporation of precision medicine into the treatment paradigm of breast cancer.

Ramona Dadu, MD, assistant professor, Department of Endocrine Neoplasia and Hormonal Disorders, Division of Internal Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the current treatment approaches being evaluated for patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer.

It is important to achieve a complete and thorough understanding of triple-negative breast cancer in order to most effectively treat patients.

Joyce O'Shaughnessy, MD, co-chair, breast cancer research, chair breast cancer at Baylor University Medical Center, discusses precision medicine in triple negative breast cancer.

Michael A. Postow, MD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the current treatment landscape in melanoma.

John Hays, MD, assistant professor of Internal Medicine, Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses how researchers are actively exploring how to target rarer mutations in patients with a variety of gynecologic cancers.

Holli Dilks, PhD, director, Personalized Medicine Operations, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discusses the challenges associated with having a precision medicine-based approach in the field of oncology.

Maria Schwaederle, PharmD, Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy and Division of Hematology and Oncology, University of California, San Diego, discusses results of a meta-analysis of 13,203 patients in phase I clinical trials.

Robert Coleman, MD, and Leslie Randall, MD, provide further insight on the importance of BRCA testing.

The phase III AURA3 study has confirmed the benefits of osimertinib seen in earlier phase II studies for patients with EGFR T790M-mutant locally-advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer following progression on a frontline EGFR TKI.

Allison W. Kurian, MD, MSc, discusses 2 clinical trials utilizing multigene panels to uncover previously undetected risks in patients with breast and ovarian cancer.