Latest Conference Articles

Francis Yao, MD, professor of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, medical director of the Liver Transplant Program at UCSF Medical Center, discusses the Milan criteria in liver cancer.

About one quarter of patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis-associated hepatocellular carcinoma present without cirrhosis at diagnosis, suggesting a crucial subset of patients for future research with implications for HCC screening and surveillance.

Nivolumab continues to post durable responses in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma regardless of whether they had hepatitis B or C or whether they had received prior treatment with sorafenib.

After 9 years of failed trials for once-promising drugs, regorafenib (Stivarga) has emerged as the clear choice for second-line therapy in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma after demonstrating survival improvements for patients whose disease has progressed after systemic treatment.

Richard S. Finn, MD, an associate professor of Medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, discusses the challenges with determing a biomarker for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in an interview during the 10th Annual Conference of the International Liver Cancer Association (ILCA) in Vancouver, Canada. Finn is the current ILCA president.

Morris Sherman, MD, PhD, professor of Medicine at University of Toronto, discusses the issues oncologists face with screening patients for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in an interview during the 10th International Liver Cancer Association (ILCA) Annual Conference.

Although regorafenib is not currently approved, Morris Sherman, MD, PhD, already views the agent as the standard second-line therapy, with hopes for moving the agent into the frontline setting.

Early evidence suggests that the combination of locoregional therapy with an immune checkpoint inhibitor is a safe and effective strategy to pursue for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

Andrew X. Zhu, MD, PhD, professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, director of Liver Cancer Research, Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses the possibility of an optimal second-line treatment for all patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Klaus Hoeflich, PhD, director of Biology, Blueprint Medicines, discusses diagnosis of liver cancer as well as the treatment challenges associated with the disease during the 10th Annual Conference of the International Liver Cancer Association in Vancouver, Canada.

Although it has been nearly 10 years since a new drug was approved for the treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, the past decade has been marked by advances on the scientific and radiology fronts and the prospects for the development of new therapies are bright.

Biomarkers, such as immune cell PD-L1 expression, mutational burden, and immune system activation should be investigated further to clarify the mechanisms behind response and nonresponse to immunotherapy in patients with lung cancer.

Biomarker-driven trials that include multiple substudies represent a new approach for investigating which patients with lung cancer are more likely to respond to different targeted therapies and are helping to set the pace throughout the oncology field.

The past few years have seen rapid evolution in the treatment and handling of advanced non–small cell lung cancer, prompting questions on how to optimize immunotherapies and targeted agents as well as incorporate biomarker testing.

The optimal use of emerging assays that characterize molecular abnormalities from plasma in late-stage non–small cell lung cancer will be to augment tissue biopsies at initial diagnosis and to evaluate patients for second- and third-line therapies.

Paul A. Bunn Jr, MD, discussed how combining immunotherapy with chemotherapy, molecular therapy, or anti-angiogenic therapy has shown promising results in recent randomized trials of patients with lung cancer, although the combinations have yet to demonstrate clear superiority.

The value of PD-L1 expression when using checkpoint inhibitors in non–small cell lung cancer is underscored by the just-announced disappointing progression-free survival findings from the phase III CheckMate-026 study of frontline nivolumab (Opdivo) versus physician's choice of combination chemotherapy.

Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, Ensign Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology), professor of Pharmacology, chief of Medical Oncology, Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital, associate director for Translational Research, Disease Alligned Research Team Leader, Thoracic Oncology Program, Yale Cancer Center, discusses the next generation of agents coming down the pipeline in non–small cell lung cancer.

David R. Gandara, MD, director, Thoracic Oncology Program, professor, senior advisor to director, UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, UC Davis Health System, discusses the most recent—and significant—advancements in the field of lung cancer.

ROS1 and TRK are two emerging targets that have significant therapeutic promise for patients with non–small cell lung cancer, although they are not commonly considered while doing mutation testing.

Tony Mok, MD, discussed translational advances on the horizon in non-small cell lung cancer during a presentation at the 2016 International Lung Cancer Congress.

Paul A. Bunn Jr, MD, Distinguished Professor, Division of Medical Oncology/University of Colorado, James Dudley Chair in Lung Cancer Research, University of Colorado Denver, 2014 Giant of Cancer Care in Lung Cancer, discusses the phase III results from CheckMate-026, which explored nivolumab (Opdivo) monotherapy in treatment-naïve patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer.

Tony Mok, MD, professor of Medicine, Department of Clinical Oncology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong, discusses breakthrough therapies and ongoing trials for patients with ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer.

Edward B Garon, MD, director, Thoracic Oncology, Jonnson Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCLA, discusses the evolution of immunotherapy for the treatment of patients with non–small cell lung cancer.

Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD, professor of Medicine, University of Colorado Denver, CEO, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, discusses the importance of molecular testing for patients with lung cancer.

New classes of immunotherapies emerging in lung cancer are building on previous success with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors.

Volker Heinemann, MD, PhD, director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, discusses how depth of response, which is highly correlated with overall survival, was improved for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who added selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) to chemotherapy.

Bruno Daniele, MD, director, Department of Oncology and Medical Oncology, G. Rummo Hospital, Italy, discusses the potential impact of regorafenib (Stivarga) for the treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

The addition of cetuximab to standard FOLFOX-4 chemotherapy in the first-line treatment of patients with RAS wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer significantly improved survival outcomes.

MABp1, a novel anti–interleukin 1-alpha antibody, was safe, well-tolerated, and demonstrated a significant impact on symptoms compared with placebo for patients with advanced colorectal cancer.