Tag Archive for: ASCO 2022

Follicular Lymphoma Research and Treatment Updates

Follicular Lymphoma Research and Treatment Updates from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Dr. Matthew Matasar shares follicular lymphoma treatment and research highlights from the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting.

Dr. Matthew Matasar is a lymphoma expert at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Chief of Medical Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Bergen. To learn more about Dr. Matasar, visit here.

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Emerging Follicular Lymphoma Treatment Approaches


Transcript:

Katherine Banwell:

Cancer researchers recently came together to share findings at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting also known as ASCO. Are there highlights from the meeting that follicular patients need to know about? 

Dr. Matasar:

The pace of innovation in follicular lymphoma is absolutely breathtaking. And the treatment options that are being explored and coming available to us now are really extraordinary. And they’re extraordinary because they offer this unparalleled possibility of very highly effective and less toxic, fewer less long-term and short-term side effects than prior options may have afforded us.  

This is particularly true in two general areas of investigation. The first is what we call immunotherapy or treatments that are designed to leverage your own immune system’s ability to kill cancer cells. And the second is what we would call targeted therapies, treatments that are designed to attack a specific enzyme, or protein, or pathway that is relied upon by follicular lymphoma cells to survive and to grow.  

Immunotherapy for follicular lymphoma is perhaps the most exciting of everything right now. And there’s a class of agents that are called bispecific antibodies. These are antibodies or proteins that have two specific regions on them, one that binds onto the surface of the follicular lymphoma cell and one that serves as sort of an activator or tractor beam for your own body’s healthy T cells. So, it attaches to the B cell. It drags over and stimulates T cells, and says, “Get them, guys.” And it causes your own body’s T cells to recognize, attack, and kill lymphoma cells for you.  

There’s a number of these agents that are in active clinical development. And we say updates at ASCO this year showing that these agents are very effective at treating follicular lymphoma even when prior chemotherapy agents have been unsuccessful at achieving durable remissions with really very little toxicity particularly after the first month of treatment is under your belt.  

Katherine Banwell:

What are you excited about when it comes to follicular lymphoma research? 

Dr. Matasar:

What I’m excited about is the overall pace of innovation. We have more drugs that are approved in the treatment of this illness in the last five years than in the 20 years that preceded it. And we have more options that we expect to become available over these next three years than were approved in the last five, immunotherapy, targeted therapy, therapies that modified the genetic signatures of the cells, treatments that used living cells and genetically modified those cells to attack your lymphoma, combinations of immunotherapies and targeted therapies.   

The innovation is really extraordinary, and it gives me tremendous hope that over these upcoming years, I’m going to have even more choices to offer my patients with follicular lymphoma, ways to improve their quality of life, the length of their life, and to find better ways to manage this illness.  

Katherine Banwell:

That sounds so promising. 

Why Is It Important for Follicular Lymphoma Patients to Be Empowered?

Why Is It Important for Follicular Lymphoma Patients to Be Empowered? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Lymphoma expert Dr. Matthew Matasar explains why it is important for patients with follicular lymphoma to feel empowered in their care and shares how he empowers his own patients.

Dr. Matthew Matasar is a lymphoma expert at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Chief of Medical Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Bergen. To learn more about Dr. Matasar, visit here.

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Why Follicular Lymphoma Patients Should Speak Up About Symptoms and Side Effects


Transcript:

Katherine Banwell:

How do you empower patients? 

Dr. Matasar:

For me, empowering patients isn’t something that you do. It’s just inherent to the practice of medicine and taking care of people with lymphoma. There’s lots of ways that you can think about this, but one of my standard lines when I’m talking with patients is that I’ll say that this is their climb.  

They’re the mountain climber, and I’m just the sherpa. I’m the one lugging the bags and trying to help point out the paths. But this is their climb, and it’s about them, and it’s never about me.   

Katherine Banwell:

Why is it important to empower patients? 

Dr. Matasar:

It’s inherent. It’s obvious at some level that you have to empower patients because the care of patients, the care of people, is about people. It’s not about the doctor, or the nurse, or the clinical trial, or the drug, or pharma, or the hospital. It’s about you. I can only be as good a doctor as I am at listening to you or to my patient. And this is extremely clear with diseases like follicular lymphoma, which have such tremendous variety in terms of how it affects people, variety in terms of the options that I have to offer as treatments. It’s an extremely individualized and personalized situation.  

So, if it’s not about you, and your goals, and your preferences, and your priorities, then I can’t do my job right.  

Katherine Banwell:

Right. You need as much information as possible from the patient.  

Dr. Matasar:

It’s all about the patient. And the clearer that I understand my patient’s personality, priorities, preferences, family situation, all of that stuff, the better job I’ll be able to do at helping them pick the right path forward.  

Expert Update: Bladder Cancer Treatment & Research News

Expert Update: Bladder Cancer Treatment & Research News  from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Dr. Fern Anari reviews highlights from the ASCO 2022 meeting and shares her expert perspective on the future of bladder cancer treatment.

Dr. Fern M. Anari is a genitourinary medical oncologist and assistant professor in the department of hematology/oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center. Learn more about Dr. Anari, here.

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Current Treatment Approaches for Bladder Cancer


Transcript:

Katherine Banwell:

Dr. Anari, cancer researchers recently came together for the 2022 ASCO meeting. Were there any highlights from that meeting that bladder cancer patients should know about?  

Dr. Anari:

Yes. So, our annual meetings are always a really exciting time to learn about and share the results of really cutting-edge research that’s been going on. And this year at ASCO 2022, I think there were several standout studies for various stages of bladder cancer. 

So, in patients with localized bladder cancer, again, similarly to what we discussed with immunotherapy and what we call BCG unresponsive bladder cancer, they looked at combining BCG with another new drug. And what they found is that the cancer shrunk down completely in over two-thirds of cases. 

And those responses tend to last over two years of follow-up. The drug was shown to be safe and tolerable. So, I think that’s a really exciting potential future treatment for people. There was another study that looked at a targeted treatment called enfortumab vedotin, which is typically used in the metastatic setting after someone’s received chemotherapy and/or immunotherapy. They looked at using that before surgery in localized muscle-invasive bladder cancer. 

The reason it’s important to look at drugs like this is because the standard of care right now is to give cisplatin-based chemotherapy before surgery to remove the bladder.  

But not everyone is eligible to get that cisplatin drug for various reasons. So, the current standard of care is to just go straight to surgery. But we know that by giving some form of a chemotherapy before, that helps increase cure rates. 

And what they actually found in this study looking at enfortumab vedotin is that they were able to shrink down cancer completely, meaning at the time of surgery there was no cancer left in the bladder 36% of the time, which is actually on par with our standard of care treatment that we use today.  

So, I think this also shows a lot of promise in patients who historically would need to go straight to surgery without any preoperative treatment. And then, lastly, HER2 is a type of targeted therapy as well that’s most commonly known in the breast cancer treatment world. But it’s also been looked at in bladder cancer.  

And there’s a new drug that’s being studied that really strongly targets HER2, which is expressed on some bladder cancer cells. So, they’re looking at this new drug in combination with immunotherapy, which is already approved in bladder cancer. And, again, I think this is another really promising combination for patients who’ve already received other treatments for their bladder cancer.   

Katherine Banwell:

It sounds like a lot of progress is being made in the field.  What are you excited about when it comes to bladder cancer research?   

Dr. Anari:

I think what excites me the most is being able to offer patients both the standard treatment options where, really, the clinical trials of yesterday are our standard treatments today. So, I’m excited to be able to offer them the standard treatment but also give them the background of why that’s approved and why we use it but also give them the hope that we have these really promising drugs.  

And, luckily, at our cancer center, we have access to a lot of these before they’re approved by the FDA. So, it’s really exciting to be able to offer this cutting-edge research in the form of treatments to our patients. 

New Developments in MPN Care

New Developments in MPN Care from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Does myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) care have new developments? Dr. Kristen Pettit from Rogel Cancer Center shares MPN research updates she hopes to hear about at ASCO 2022.

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Transcript:

Dr. Kristen Pettit:

Yeah, so the ASCO 2022 meeting will certainly be exciting for MPNs, I’m expecting the abstracts haven’t been selected yet as of the time we’re discussing this, so I’m not sure exactly what’s going to be discussed. But what I’m hoping to hear more about is the investigational JAK inhibitor momelotonib for patients with myelofibrosis, specifically those with anemia, I’m hoping to see more results about that.

I’m hoping to hear more about the up-front combination studies that are ongoing in myelofibrosis, so JAK inhibitors plus novel agents compared to JAK inhibitors alone as the first treatment option for patients with myelofibrosis. I’m hoping we get some interim results or updated results from some of those ongoing studies, and I’m hoping to hear more about some of the later line treatment options for patients with myelofibrosis as well.

There are a lot of exciting things going on out there, and we’ve gotten a couple of great updates over the last year, for example, at the ASH meeting in December, and I think we’ll get some more exciting updates at ASCO in May and June.