Oncology for the Inquisitive Mind

In this episode, Michael and Josh delve into the world of early melanoma. Some may think that melanoma has had its moment in the sun (pun slightly intended) and that other cancer treatments are passing it by. But in this instance, you can teach an old dog new tricks, an old immunotherapy dog, to be precise. In addition, one of today's studies has Michael's favourite design of any trial: see if you can figure out which one!

Studies Discussed in Today's Episode
KEYNOTE-054
NADINA

For more episodes, resources and blog posts, visit www.inquisitiveonc.com
Please find us on Twitter @InquisitiveOnc!
If you want us to look at a specific trial or subject, email us at inquisitiveonc@gmail.com

Art courtesy of Taryn Silver
Music courtesy of AlisiaBeats: https://pixabay.com/users/alisiabeats-39461785/

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. If you are unwell, seek medical advice.

Oncology for the Inquisitive Mind is recorded with the support of education grants from our foundation partners Pfizer and Merck Pharmaceuticals. Our partners have access to the episode at the same time you do and have no editorial control over the content.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you like cemiplimab, you will like this episode. Since its introduction, cemiplimab has become the mainstay of treatment for cutaneous SCC, the most common non-melanoma skin cancer likely to attend an oncologist. Cemiplimab's scope is expanding; once reserved purely for the locally advanced or metastatic setting, evidence is emerging for its efficacy in the neoadjuvant setting. Today, Josh and Michael explore the use cases for cemiplimab in cSCC

NOTE: this episode was NOT sponsored by cemiplimab!

Studies Discussed in Today's Episode
Migden et al. (2018)
Gross et al (2023)

For more episodes, resources and blog posts, visit www.inquisitiveonc.com
Please find us on Twitter @InquisitiveOnc!
If you want us to look at a specific trial or subject, email us at inquisitiveonc@gmail.com

Art courtesy of Taryn Silver
Music courtesy of AlisiaBeats: https://pixabay.com/users/alisiabeats-39461785/

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. If you are unwell, seek medical advice.

Oncology for the Inquisitive Mind is recorded with the support of education grants from our foundation partners Pfizer and Merck Pharmaceuticals. Our partners have access to the episode at the same time you do and have no editorial control over the content.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For over a decade, sorafenib remained unchallenged as first-line therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma, based on the SHARP trial, which showed survival increasing from 7.9 to 10.7 months. This demonstrated modest efficacy in a disease notoriously resistant to systemic treatment. That drought broke in 2020, when IMbrave150 demonstrated that atezolizumab plus bevacizumab beat sorafenib outright, pushing median survival past 19 months and putting immunotherapy on the map for liver cancer. Two years later, HIMALAYA proved that a single priming dose of anti-CTLA-4 could unlock durable responses, with the STRIDE regimen nearly doubling five-year survival compared with sorafenib. Then IMbrave050 asked whether that success could move earlier, into the adjuvant setting after resection — and the early promise didn’t hold up on longer follow-up. Together, these three trials mark both immunotherapy’s arrival in liver cancer and the limits of assuming it translates cleanly across settings.

Trials Discussed on Today's Episode:
HIMALAYA Trial
IMbrave 050
IMbrave 150

For more episodes, resources and blog posts, visit www.inquisitiveonc.com
Please find us on Twitter @InquisitiveOnc!
If you want us to look at a specific trial or subject, email us at inquisitiveonc@gmail.com

Art courtesy of Taryn Silver
Music courtesy of AlisiaBeats: https://pixabay.com/users/alisiabeats-39461785/

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. If you are unwell, seek medical advice.

Oncology for the Inquisitive Mind is recorded with the support of education grants from our foundation partners Pfizer and Merck Pharmaceuticals. Our partners have access to the episode at the same time you do and have no editorial control over the content.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Until recently, biliary tract cancers were relegated to orphan cancer status: rare cancers such as cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder cancers. These aggressive malignancies were lumped together, historic trials were small, and patients were stuck with gemcitabine-cisplatin chemotherapy as the only real option, a regimen that hadn't changed for almost a decade. Then two trials cracked the field open. BILCAP, reported in 2019, gave resected patients their first evidence-based reason to take adjuvant capecitabine, pushing median survival from around three years to over four. And in 2022, TOPAZ-1 became the first trial to prove immunotherapy has a place in biliary cancer. Durvalumab was added to standard chemo, and in the latest three-year follow-up, it cut the risk of death by over a quarter. Together, these two trials didn't just add drugs to a protocol; they turned biliary tract cancer from an afterthought into a disease with modern treatment pathways.

Trials Discussed on Today's Episode:
BILCAP
TOPAZ-1

For more episodes, resources and blog posts, visit www.inquisitiveonc.com
Please find us on Twitter @InquisitiveOnc!
If you want us to look at a specific trial or subject, email us at inquisitiveonc@gmail.com

Art courtesy of Taryn Silver
Music courtesy of AlisiaBeats: https://pixabay.com/users/alisiabeats-39461785/

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. If you are unwell, seek medical advice.

Oncology for the Inquisitive Mind is recorded with the support of education grants from our foundation partners Pfizer and Merck Pharmaceuticals. Our partners have access to the episode at the same time you do and have no editorial control over the content.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today's episode, we have a very special guest: Dr Kerry Jewell is a nuclear medicine physician, medical advocate and very good friend of the show, who recently published her debut novel A Little Unwell. Kerry is wonderfully eloquent doctor who frequently chooses violence when with dealing with Michael, whom she has known for his entire medical career. Today, Kerry discusses her book, working as a nuclear medicine physician, provides some of her amazing wisdom for our oncology colleagues and gets candid about a recent, heart-breaking diagnosis.

A Little Unwell available here: https://www.amazon.com.au/Little-Unwell-Kerry-Jewell/dp/0733653952
*This is not an affiliate link. We just think the book is great!

For more episodes, resources and blog posts, visit www.inquisitiveonc.com
Please find us on Twitter @InquisitiveOnc!
If you want us to look at a specific trial or subject, email us at inquisitiveonc@gmail.com

Art courtesy of Taryn Silver
Music courtesy of AlisiaBeats: https://pixabay.com/users/alisiabeats-39461785/

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. If you are unwell, seek medical advice.

Oncology for the Inquisitive Mind is recorded with the support of education grants from our foundation partners Pfizer and Merck Pharmaceuticals. Our partners have access to the episode at the same time you do and have no editorial control over the content.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.