Oncology for the Inquisitive Mind

On this episode, Josh and Michael examine the treatment of advanced melanoma, the condition that blazed the trail for immunotherapy to change the face of cancer treatment. However, immunotherapy is not the ONLY treatment for melanoma, as a significant proportion of cases also harbour a BRAF mutation. So, if you have someone with such an example, what do you do? How would you sequence your treatment? This question, and a reflection on the incredible beginnings of immunotherapy is coming to you on today's episode.

Studies Discussed in Today's Episode
Checkmate 067
DreamSeq

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.

Our guest today is someone whose work touches almost every corner of oncology: from the exam room to the lab to the systems we work within.

Dr Narjust Florez, MD, FASCO, is a thoracic medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where she treats young patients and women with lung cancer and leads a research program spanning early diagnosis, clinical trials, and cancer health disparities. She's the Associate Director of the Cancer Care Equity Program and leads the EQUAL Study, which tackles disparities in lung cancer screening among Hispanic and East Asian patients. She's also become one of the most influential voices on physician wellness and burnout in oncology, and on building a more equitable path for women and underrepresented trainees in the field — work that's earned her recognition as the youngest Fellow ever named to the Association for Clinical Oncology, and a spot as JAMA Oncology's first Latina Associate Editor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Please welcome Dr Narjust Florez.

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.

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.