Medical Oncology
Physician insights on cancer treatment protocols, immunotherapy, targeted therapies, and clinical trial updates.
Recent Discussions
Would the presence of multifocal LVSI change your adjuvant treatment recommendation for a surgically staged IA dedifferentiated endometrial carcinoma?
Dedifferentiated is considered a high-grade lesion. There is admittedly low quality evidence on optimal management given lower incidence.I would recommend treatment with vaginal brachytherapy and very much offer chemotherapy. Would prefer vaginal brachytherapy, given the patient was surgically stage...
Is there a difference in survival or disease response between patients with recurrence free interval ≥1 vs <1 year from platinum-based cytotoxic therapy who are treated with pembrolizumab + lenvatinib?
As presented by Dr. Columbo at ESMO 2021, the OS favored len/pem with an HR of 0.65 (0.52-0.81) in pMMR pts with a PFI <12 mo while the HR was 0.75 (0.36-1.58) in those with a PFI >12 mo.
How would you treat an isolated para-aortic lymph node endometrial cancer recurrence following a prolonged disease free interval previously treated with surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, if it is located outside of the previously irradiated field?
If no biopsy is done then surgery followed by adjuvant chemo and RT. If bx proven then based on nodal location and size, could be surgery and chemo RT or chemoRT without surgery.
Would you recommend adjuvant chemotherapy to a patient who has stage IB grade 1 endometrioid endometrial cancer with isolated tumor cells in two pelvic lymph nodes and extensive LVSI?
No. ITC is treated as n0. This patient should probably get whole pelvic RT +/- brachytherapy.
Given patients with substantial LVSI experience a pelvic recurrence rate of ~25%, how do you counsel patients with stage IA endometrioid endometrial cancer with LVSI regarding the relative risks/benefits of EBRT versus VBT alone?
Updated analysis of PORTEC-1 and 2 noted that 5-year pelvic lymph node recurrence was 26.3% when >4 vessels had LVSI involvement, compared to 6.7% with 1-3 foci and 3.3% with no LVSI1. Based on the data from PORTEC-2 which randomized patients to vaginal cuff brachytherapy or EBRT, on multivariable a...
Will you be changing your management of locally advanced cervical cancer based on the results of the recently published INTERLACE trial?
Absolutely NOT. INTERLACE results are in abstract form only, including early-stage disease I-II at 86%, and the details regarding radiation are minimal, stating it's prescribed to point A and recommend CT/MR planning (we do not know how many patients underwent image-guided brachytherapy). Also, ind...
For patients with advanced endometrial cancer, are the improved outcomes in PFS from DUO-E/RUBY/NRG-GY018 sufficient to move immunotherapy to the frontline for all presuming FDA approval?
The standard of care for metastatic endometrial cancer is systemic therapy with chemotherapy and now with or without immunotherapy. With this approach to therapy, there is a roughly 70% reduction in the risk of progression or death across three separate trials for the dMMR population (RUBY, GY018, A...
Do you have concerns about the validity of the INTERLACE data, considering the long study recruitment period (10 years) and evolution of radiation techniques that have occurred during that time frame?
The long recruitment period and change in the practice of brachytherapy do create some uncertainty in interpretation. As mentioned, 60% had point A-based brachytherapy in INTERLACE. Any modern cervical cancer trial needs to have current technology especially IMRT (helps with nodal boost, conformity,...
When do you transfuse cervical cancer patients undergoing chemoradiation?
Although we try to keep hemoglobin 10 gm and above for patients on chemo Rt, it is not clear whether it makes any difference to outcome. Anemia is associated with inferior treatment outcome in cervix cancer, but hemoglobin levels prior to and during treatment are strongly correlated with tumor size,...
For a patient with carcinosarcoma of the uterus and an allergic reaction to paclitaxel, would you have any reservations about using docetaxel instead?
While there is no clear data for this in carcinosarcoma, Yes, I would be comfortable using Docetaxel in this scenario. I am extrapolating from ovarian cancer, where the two drugs have similar activity; The SCOTROC trial in ovarian cancer compared Carbo-Paclitaxel vs. Carbo-Docetaxel and found simila...