Journal Of Clinical Oncology (jco) Podcast

In this study of cancer operations conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of pulmonary complications and SARS-COV-2 nosocomial infections were compared between patients operated on in COVID-19-free facilities and those operated on in non-segregated facilities. Because lower rates of pulmonary complications and nosocomial SARS-COV-2 infection were observed in COVID-free facilities, the authors propose a restructuring of surgical facilities and pathways for cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. This JCO podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article “Elective Cancer Surgery in COVID-19-Free Surgical Pathways During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: An International Multicenter Comparative Cohort Study, “ by Bhangu et al.  My name is Ken Tanabe, and I serve as Chief of Surgical Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital, Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, and Deputy Clinical Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in Boston, Massachusetts.  My oncologic sp

This podcast reviews the results of the whole genome sequencing study by Samur and colleagues that identified a genomic signature associated with superior survival in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma. Disclosures: SAH has served on advisory boards or as a consultant for Adaptive Biotechnologies, Amgen, Celgene, Genentech, GSK, Oncopeptides, Sorrento; Takeda; has received research funding from Oncopeptides.     This JCO Podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article “Genome-Wide Somatic Alterations in Multiple Myeloma Reveals a Superior Outcome Group” by Samur et al. My name is Sarah Holstein, and I am an Associate Professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska in the United States. My oncologic specialty is plasma cell dyscrasias. I do not have any relationships to disclose related to these studies. The clinical heterogeneity of myeloma has long been appreciated as it is clear there is a broad range of disease behavior, with some patients having indole

This podcast describes a study addressing the use of dexrazoxane as a cardioprotectant in a cohort of more than 1,000 pediatric acute myeloid leukemia patients.   Transcript This JCO Podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article “Effect of Dexrazoxane on Left Ventricular Systolic Function and Treatment Outcomes in Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A Report From the Children’s Oncology Group” by Getz et al. My name is Elvira van Dalen, and I am an epidemiologist at the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology in Utrecht, The Netherlands and a Coordinating Editor of Cochrane Childhood Cancer. My oncologic specialties are cardiotoxicity and systematic reviews and guidelines in the field of pediatric oncology. I have nothing to disclose. Anthracyclines are widely used in pediatric oncology. Unfortunately, one of their most serious adverse effects is cardiotoxicity, which can occur during or shortly after treatment, but also decades later. In the Dutch LATER Childhood Cancer study, we fo

This podcast reviews the results of the observational study by Ladas and colleagues that found protective associations between dietary antioxidant intake and the occurrence of bacterial infections and mucositis.    TRANSCRIPT   This JCO podcast provides observations and commentary from the JCO article "The Protective Effects of Dietary Intake of Antioxidants and Treatment-Related Toxicity in Childhood Leukemia, A Report From the DALLT Cohort" by Ladas et al. My name is Wendy Demark-Wahnefried, and I am Webb Endowed Chair and Professor of Nutrition Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, as well as the Associate Director for Cancer Prevention and Control at the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB in Birmingham, Alabama in the United States. I do not have any relationships to disclose regarding these studies, and my review is grounded by the fact that I am a nutrition scientist with particular expertise in cancer survivorship. The topic of nutrition and cancer generates a great deal of inte

This podcast summarizes and provides commentary on the recent article by Yadav et al. in which the authors demonstrate that expansion of the current NCCN guidelines for genetic testing in breast cancer patients to include all women diagnosed at or below the age of 65 markedly improves the sensitivity for detecting pathogenic germline variants without requiring the testing of all breast cancer patients.   TRANSCRIPT This JCO Podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article “Evaluation of Germline Genetic Testing Criteria in a Hospital-Based Series of Women with Breast Cancer” by Yadav et al. My name is Erin Cobain, and I am a Clinical Lecturer at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan United States. My oncologic specialty is breast cancer. In this study, the authors sought to determine the sensitivity and specificity of current genetic testing criteria for the detection of pathogenic germline variants in women with breast cancer. Current national comprehensive canc

The combination of pembrolizumab and lenvatinib is a promising second line option for metastatic or recurrent MSS endometrial cancer, although there can be considerable toxicity and choosing appropriate patients is key.   TRANSCRIPT This JCO Podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article “Lenvatinib and Pembrolizumab in Patients With Advanced Endometrial Cancer” by Makker et al. My name is Meghan Shea, and I am an Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. My oncologic specialty is gynecologic oncology. Patients with advanced endometrial carcinoma have limited options after receiving the carboplatin and paclitaxel doublet for recurrent or metastatic disease. The study that accompanies this podcast evaluates the combination pembrolizumab and lenvatinib, providing a much needed second-line option for this patient population. The approval of single-agent pembrolizumab for tumors with microsatellite instability (from here on

This podcast will discuss the findings from a phase II trial of gemcitabine, cisplatin and PARP inhibitor therapy in germline BRCA/PALB2 mutant pancreatic cancer and discuss an optimal treatment strategy in this setting.   TRANSCRIPT This JCO Podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article “A Randomized, Multi-Center, Phase II Trial of Gemcitabine, Cisplatin with or without Veliparib in Patients with Pancreas Adenocarcinoma and a Germline BRCA/ PALB2 Mutation” by O'Reilly et al. My name is Daniel Renouf, and I am a medical oncologist at the BC Cancer Vancouver Centre in Vancouver, Canada. My oncologic specialty is pancreatic cancer. In this podcast, we will be discussing an important and evolving area that is changing our standard treatment strategies for pancreatic cancer. Progress has been slow for pancreatic adenocarcinoma, which is now the third leading cause of cancer-related death in North America and is projected to become the second leading cause of cancer-related death within the next

Towards improved characterization of immune-related adverse events in the setting of pre-existing autoimmune disease. TRANSCRIPT This JCO Podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article “Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy in Patients with Preexisting Inflammatory Bowel Disease”, by Abu-Sbeih et al. My name is Katy Tsai, and I am Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco. My oncologic specialty is the treatment of advanced melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers.   Immune checkpoint inhibitors, referred to as ICIs in this podcast, have transformed the landscape of treatment options in oncology. While ICIs were first approved for the treatment of advanced melanoma in 2011, since that time, ICIs have shown activity in a variety of other histologies. Anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1, with or without anti-CTLA-4, are now approved for the treatment of lung cancer, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, renal cell carcinoma, and many

This podcast describes a study examining aerobic capacity in a cohort of over 1200 adult survivors of childhood cancer and related impairments of cardiac, pulmonary and neuromuscular body systems, to understand how aerobic capacity influences all-cause mortality. TRANSCRIPT This JCO Podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article 'Exercise Intolerance, Mortality, and Organ System Impairment in Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancer' by Ness et al. My name is Kristin Campbell, and I am a licenced physical therapist and associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. My oncologic specialty is in rehabilitation, primarily related to breast cancer. Exercise intolerance is a global measure of functional capacity that reflects the complex integration of body systems. It is well established in the general population that exercise intolerance is predictive of future cardiovascular health and mortality. Whether this relationship also existed for a

This podcast describes the results of the BLOOM study, evaluating the efficacy of osimertinib in EGFR-mutated lung cancer with leptomeningeal disease after failure of prior EGFR TKI therapy. TRANSCRIPT This JCO Podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article “Osimertinib In Patients With Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Mutation-Positive Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer and Leptomeningeal Metastases: The BLOOM Study” by Yang et al. My name is Jürgen Wolf and I am the medical director of the Center for Integrated Oncology at the University Hospital of Cologne in Germany. I am a medical oncologist with expertise in personalized lung cancer care.   About 10% of patients with advanced EGFR-mutated lung cancer suffer from leptomeningeal disease. While this disease manifestation in non-small-cell lung cancer is generally associated with a particularly poor prognosis, with survival times of only a few months, the question arises whether treatment with specific tyrosine kinase inhibitors might enable a bett

This podcast reviews the results of KEYNOTE 164 investigating the use of pembrolizumab for mismatch repair deficient metastatic colorectal cancer, the place of this agent in the current clinical paradigm, and future directions to identify which patients are most likely to benefit from this treatment strategy. TRANSCRIPT This JCO Podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article 'A Phase II, Open-Label Study of Pembrolizumab in Treatment-Refractory, Microsatellite Instability-High/Mismatch Repair-Deficient Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: KEYNOTE-164' by Le et al. My name is Dustin Deming, and I am an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center in Madison, Wisconsin. My oncologic specialty is gastrointestinal oncology. Microsatellite instability high status or mismatch repair deficiency is found in approximately 15% of early stage colorectal cancers, but only 3-4% of metastatic colorectal cancer. The mechanisms by which these cancers acquire their DNA repair aberrations

This podcast evaluates results from a phase II clinical trial of pembrolizumab for relapsed Mycosis Fungoides and Sezary Syndrome in the context of the current systemic treatment landscape for this disease. TRANSCRIPT This JCO Podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article "Pembrolizumab in Relapsed and Refractory Mycosis Fungoides and Sezary Syndrome: A Multicenter Phase II Study" by Khodadoust et al. My name is Jennifer Amengual, and I am an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, New York, USA. My oncologic specialty is lymphoma. Mycosis fungoides, otherwise known as MF, and Sezary Syndrome, its leukemic variant, are rare subtypes of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Although most patients with MF have indolent disease, those with advanced stage MF often experience resistance to systemic therapy with a persistent and progressive disease course, which has a negative impact on overall well-being and survival. Patients may have intense pruritus,

This podcast discusses the results and implications of a recent study on gender bias in speaker introductions at an international oncology conference. This JCO Podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article "Evaluating Unconscious Bias: Speaker Introductions at an International Oncology Conference" by Duma et al. My name is Dr. Tatiana Prowell. I am an Associate Professor of Oncology at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and Breast Cancer Scientific Liaison at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in Silver Spring, Maryland. My oncologic specialty is breast cancer. In the article that accompanies this podcast, Duma and colleagues report the results of a retrospective observational study of speaker introductions at two consecutive years of ASCO Annual Meetings. The investigators hypothesized that female speakers in oral sessions would be introduced with a professional form of address less frequently than male speakers. For the purposes of the study, they defined a professional address as use

Treatment-free survival is a novel endpoint in immunotherapy. TRANSCRIPT This JCO Podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article “Treatment-Free Survival: A Novel Outcome Measure of the Effects of Immune Checkpoint Inhibition—A Pooled Analysis of Patients With Advanced Melanoma” by Regan et al. My name is Adil Daud, and I am Professor of Medicine and Dermatology and Director of the Melanoma Program at the University of California, San Francisco. My oncologic specialty is medical oncology. Cancer therapy has achieved great success in the last 40-50 years. Where treatment with chemotherapy required inpatient hospitalization and gut-wrenching toxicity, therapy today can often be achieved with lower grade side effects and limited time in the hospital or outpatient infusion center. While these changes have brought enormous benefit to patients, many patients feel that the tug of ongoing therapy for metastatic or advanced cancer and long for a time where therapy is not continuing, and the word “cure

TRANSCRIPT This JCO Podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article “Progression of Disease Within 24 Months (POD24) in Follicular Lymphoma Is Associated With Reduced Intratumoral Immune-Infiltration” by Dr. Tobin and colleagues. My name is Dr. Carla Casulo, and I am Associate Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Oncology at the Wilmot Cancer Institute of the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY, USA. My oncologic specialty is Lymphoma.   Follicular lymphoma is the most frequently occurring indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma and has a long natural history, with median overall survival nearing two decades. Patients with follicular lymphoma may experience a variable clinical course, with periods of long remission punctuated by episodes of recurrent lymphoma requiring re-treatment. Among all patients, up to one third will have early disease recurrence, defined as occurring within 24 months of diagnosis. Please note that progression of disease within 24 months will be referred to as POD24 for the

This podcast summarizes the findings of the Lunenburg Lymphoma Biomarker Consortium systematic evaluation of MYC rearrangements in DLBCL, and discusses the prognostic impact of MYC, BCL2 and BCL6 rearrangements, and implications for FISH testing in newly diagnosed DLBCL.   TRANSCRIPT This JCO Podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article “Prognostic Significance of MYC Rearrangement and Translocation Partner in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma - A Study by the Lunenburg Lymphoma Biomarker Consortium” by Rosenwald et al. My name is Jeremy Abramson, and I am an attending physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. My oncologic specialty is lymphoma. MYC rearrangements occur in approximately 10% of diffuse large B-cell lymphomas and have been associated with a worse prognosis.  When the MYC translocation occurs in concert with translocations of BCL2, BCL6, or both, initial series have suggested particularly poor outcomes with fe

This podcast discusses the work of Sheetz and colleagues describing the impact of centralization of high-risk cancer surgery within health care systems and networks in the United States. TRANSCRIPT This JCO Podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article “Centralization of High-Risk Cancer Surgery Within Existing Hospital Systems” by Sheetz et al. My name is Stephen Edge, and I am Vice President of Healthcare Outcomes and Policy and Professor of Surgery and Oncology at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, NY. My oncologic specialty is surgical oncology. Recent years have seen substantial consolidation of hospitals and practices into networked care systems. The benefits of health networks may include efficiencies of scale, better ability to thrive in the shifting health care economy, and enhanced quality. In the article that accompanies this podcast, Dr. Sheetz and colleagues at the University of Michigan studied the impact of health care networ

Dr. Osama Rahma, an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the role of MSI in gastric cancer. TRANSCRIPT This JCO Podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article “Individual Patient Data Meta-Analysis of the Value of Microsatellite Instability as a Biomarker in Gastric Cancer” by Pietrantonio et al. My name is Osama Rahma, and I am an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. My oncologic specialty is Gastrointestinal Cancer and Cancer Immunotherapy. Despite the advances in surgical approach and perioperative multimodalities in gastric cancer, the recurrence rate remains over 50%. While many patients benefit from perioperative chemotherapy many others don’t derive such benefits and experience toxic side effects. Accordingly, there is an unmet need to identify prognostic markers to guide  chemotherapy decisions in the neoadjuvant and adjuvant settings. Microsatelli

This JCO Podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article, "Treatment of Childhood Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma with Induction Chemotherapy and Concomitant Chemoradiotherapy: Results of the Children’s Oncology Group ARAR0331 Study" by Rodriguez-Galindo et al. My name is Suzanne Wolden, and I am the Director of Pediatric Radiation Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York City, USA.  My oncologic specialty is Pediatric Radiation Oncology. This important manuscript summarizes the results of Children’s Oncology Group protocol ARAR0331 for childhood nasopharyngeal carcinoma.  The study enrolled 111 patients, of whom 75% were male and 47% were African American, with a median age of 15.  Eligible patients had AJCC stage IIb-IVC disease and received three cycles of induction chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin followed by concurrent cisplatin and radiotherapy.  Three patients had progressive disease during induction chemotherapy, eight were removed from the study due to physician or pare

This JCO Podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article “Maintaining Outstanding Outcomes Using Response and Biology-Based Therapy for Intermediate-Risk Neuroblastoma: A Report From the Children's Oncology Group Study ANBL0531” by Twist et al. My name is Javed Khan, and I am Deputy Chief and Senior Investigator at the Genetics Branch and an Attending for the Pediatric Oncology Branch of the National Cancer Institutes of the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland. My oncologic specialty is Pediatric Hematology Oncology. Childhood cancer is a life-threatening disease where survival rates have increased exponentially to over 75% over the past three decades. However, this has come at a considerable cost with significant incidence of late effects including hearing loss, scoliosis, hypothyroidism, growth and development delay, infertility, psychological, emotional, cognitive and neurological sequelae, and secondary malignancies. Most of these late effects have been attributed therapy including chemotherapy, sur