Revisit the OncLive On Air Episodes From February 2024

OncLive On Air

In case you missed it, below is a recap of every episode of OncLive On Air® published in February 2024. Check out our podcasts page for a full episode lineup and to stay updated with the latest releases!

Camidge and Okuyama Sasaki Highlight How Safety Net Hospitals Widen the Scope of Cancer Care

In this exclusive installment of How This Is Building Me, host D. Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, sat down with Sonia Okuyama Sasaki, MD, of the Colorado University Anschutz School of Medicine in Aurora and Denver Health, to highlight the unique aspects of safety net hospitals; the educational experiences that shaped Dr Okuyama Sasaki’s medical career; barriers to helping low-income patients access cancer treatments and resources; and more.

“I’m an expert in underserved patient populations, where oftentimes, cancer is the least of their problems,” Okuyama Sasaki explained during the interview. “[One-third] of my patients may not have insurance. It’s not uncommon for me to find patients who have to worry about where they’re going to eat next or sleep next. I also, not infrequently, will see patients who don’t know how to read and write; they can hide that quite well. It’s always very humbling to identify those barriers to their care and be able to help them.”

“It was like this [Denver Health] job was made for you,” Camidge commented.

Lunning and Brander Emphasize the Importance of Early CLL Diagnosis and Treatment

In this exclusive episode of Blood Club, host Matthew Lunning, DO, FACP, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, was joined by Danielle M. Brander, MD, of Duke Cancer Institute in Durham, North Carolina, to discuss factors that affect patients’ eligibility for early chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) treatment intervention; risk-assessment tools for newly diagnosed CLL; patient characteristics that influence the choice of frontline CLL therapy; and more.

“CLL…has been completely turned upside down by the therapeutics that now are becoming standard of care, and chemotherapy is in the rear-view mirror,” Lunning highlighted in the interview.

“[Treatment] costs and approvals take time,” Brander added. “This is a global problem. Everything we’ve talked about, the testing, etc., is not universally available or feasible. We need to be cognizant about looking at the data and asking: Which of these barriers can we [overcome]?”

Community Oncologists on the Importance of Self-Reliance and Collegial Trust as Women in Medicine

In this exclusive episode in OncLive®’s Women in Oncology series, Blessy Mathew Jacob, MD, Ana Van Der Wall, MD, and Vance M. Wright-Browne, MD, who all practice with Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute, talked through the gender bias challenges they have faced throughout their careers, explained the growth opportunities they have found through these obstacles, and reflected on past accomplishments and future goals.

“If you’re thinking about a career in oncology, go for it,” Jacob said in the interview. “It is truly a field that nicely combines all the basic science you learn, [as well as] molecular and genetic [knowledge]. The field is moving so fast, and new treatments are coming out, it seems like, almost every day. Patients are living longer than they ever did with cancer, and it has been a fulfilling, large component of my life.”

“Just make sure you find your community,” Van Der Wall added. “You’re not alone. You just sometimes have to look for the right positions that you’re comfortable with working in. It’s a beautiful career.”

“You have to love [oncology] because the hours are long and it’s constant studying,” Wright-Browne emphasized. “But if you love it, it’s one of the most rewarding jobs in the world.”

FDA Approval Insights: Enfortumab Vedotin Plus Pembrolizumab in Locally Advanced/Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma

On December 15, 2023, the FDA approved the combination of enfortumab vedotin-ejfv (Padcev) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer. This regulatory decision was supported by findings from the phase 3 EV-302/KEYNOTE-A39 trial (NCT04223856), in which enfortumab vedotin plus pembrolizumab elicited a median overall survival of 31.5 months (95% CI, 25.4–not estimable) vs 16.1 months (95% CI, 13.9-18.3) with platinum-based chemotherapy (HR, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.38-0.58; P < .0001).

In an exclusive interview with OncLive, Matthew Galsky, MD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and The Tisch Cancer Institute in New York, New York, spotlighted the significance of this approval, key data from EV-302, and ongoing and planned urothelial cancer research.

“There are major implications of these findings both in terms of advancing the field for the first time in decades and based on the effect size, as this was not a small benefit that was seen; it was a large benefit,” Galsky emphasized during the interview.

Camidge and Kelley Share the Details of Practicing Within Various Health Care Models

In this episode of How This Is Building Me, host D. Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, spoke with Michael J. Kelley, MD, of the Duke University School of Medicine, the Duke Cancer Institute, the Durham Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, about the ways Dr Kelley’s passion for research drove his career path, the benefits of motivating and innovative colleagues, the importance of perseverance when pursuing a career in medicine, the details of providing cancer care through VA medical center facilities, and more.

“[Dr Kelley] really exemplifies the idea of the big-picture view of oncology,” Camidge said in the discussion.

“If there’s one thing that doesn’t work in the VA, it’s coming in quickly and telling the VA how to change,” Kelley noted. “If you want to make change in a large organization…commitment is important.”

Kitko and Patel Emphasize the Importance of GVHD Research and Awareness

In an exclusive interview with OncLive, Carrie L. Kitko, MD, of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee, and Sagar S. Patel, MD, of the University of Utah Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City, discuss the signs of graft-vs-host disease (GVHD), principles around treatment selection, and ongoing research with novel agents and biomarkers of response. The Second Annual GVHD Day was held by the GVHD Alliance on February 17, 2024.

“We all have patients who, for reasons we don’t understand today, haven’t responded well to…treatments and are impacted by the debilitating nature of chronic GVHD, in particular,” Kitko emphasized. “We’ve made such good progress, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop.

“GVHD Day…helps amplify a [disease that is] relatively rare compared with many [others] one may see in the media,” Patel added. “Being able to bring together caregivers, survivors, patients, and physicians [with] a multidisciplinary focus on one platform is amazing. GVHD Day ties in with a lot of the work we do as transplanters.”

Tripathy Talks Through the Enduring Impact of the Miami Breast Cancer Conference

In an exclusive interview with OncLive, Debu Tripathy, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, as well as a cochair of the 41st Annual Miami Breast Cancer Conference, highlighted features of the conference that stood out to him during his first time speaking at Miami Breast, ways that this meeting has evolved, and the value of the multidisciplinary discussions that the conference inspires.

“The meeting has an aura about it, where not only the speakers, but the attendees just have this amazing attention focused on what you’re doing and what you’re saying; every word you’re saying matters,” Tripathy emphasized during the interview. “Everybody’s here to learn, they’re here to take it to a higher level, and they already know a lot.”

Mims Expands on the Evaluation of Emavusertib in the TakeAim Leukemia Trial of AML and MDS

In an exclusive OncLive interview, Alice Mims, MD, of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center—James in Columbus, discussed the utility of the IRAK4 and FLT3 inhibitor emavusertib (previously CA-4948) in heavily pretreated patients with FLT3-mutated relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndromes, the rationale for the phase 1/2a TakeAim Leukemia trial (NCT04278768), and the potential implications of these trial findings.

“It’s exciting that we’re starting to see responses [with emavusertib monotherapy] in these populations—especially as the agent has dual activity against different targets,” Mims said in the interview. “It’s important to…[see whether emavusertib] could be used initially in combinations, as opposed to current FLT3 inhibitors [alone].”

Kang Highlights Considerations for the Integration of Torpialimab into Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Clinical Practice

In our last February episode, Hyunseok (Hyu) Kang, MD, MPH, FACP, of the University of California, San Francisco Health, sat down with OncLive to explain the significance of the FDA approvals of frontline toripalimab-tpzi (Loqtorzi) plus cisplatin and gemcitabine in patients with metastatic or recurrent locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and toripalimab monotherapy for patients with recurrent, unresectable, or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma with disease progression on or after platinum-containing chemotherapy.

“For patients who have already been treated with chemotherapy in the first-line setting, this will open up the possibility of using an on-label anti–PD-1 antibody in the second-line setting, so they will benefit from response rates of up to 20% or 25%, and survival benefits,” Kang emphasized in the interview. “For patients getting first-line treatment for recurrent and metastatic nasopharynx cancer, they will get first-line treatment with toripalimab and chemotherapy, which will extend their progression-free survival by a significant margin.”