On Friday, July 14, the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center held the second annual Updates on Hematology & Oncology Conference. This conference highlights important findings presented at the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Founded in 1964, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is the world's leading professional organization for physicians and oncology professionals caring for people with cancer. The ASCO Annual Meeting is the Society's yearly gathering where oncologists unveil their latest clinical research findings.

Davendra Sohal, MD, MPH, associate director for clinical research at the Cancer Center and host of the conference, recognized the significance of the Updates on Hematology & Oncology Conference.

“The annual Updates on Hematology & Oncology Conference highlights the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center as the premier academic medical center in the Greater Cincinnati area, providing cutting-edge education on cancer treatment,” Sohal said. “The event is free and open to everyone involved in cancer care and research. It is highly supported by pharma, and we receive consistently good feedback. We bring in up to three global leaders from outside the Cancer Center and our own experts who are recognized globally to present the information shared at the ASCO Annual Meeting.”

Three external speakers were featured during this year’s Updates on Hematology & Oncology Conference, along with eight speakers from the University of Cincinnati.

Keynote Presentations:

“Breast Updates from ASCO 2023”
Bryan P. Schneider, MD, LuCC
Vera Bradley Chair of Oncology
Professor of Medicine and Medical/Molecular Genetics
Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, Indiana University

“Updates on Genitourinary Cancers”
Petros Grivas, MD, PhD
Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology
Clinical Director, Genitourinary Cancer Program
University of Washington, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

“Updates on Lung Cancer”
Vamsi Velcheti, MD, FACP, FCCP
Professor of Medicine, NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Director, Thoracic Oncology Program

In addition to disease-site-specific updates, the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting also highlighted precision medicine.

According to the American Cancer Society, precision medicine, or personalized medicine, allows healthcare providers to offer treatment based on the particular genes, proteins, and other substances in a person’s body. Precision medicine is used for certain cancers to determine what tests and treatments might work best.

Presentation Summaries:

Updates on Breast Cancer

Bryan Schneider, MD, Vera Bradley Chair of Oncology and professor of medicine and medical/molecular genetics at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, opened the first session by covering recent advancements in breast cancer. The presentation focused on CDK4/6 inhibitors and which drug to use during early-stage, first-line, and second-line metastatic breast cancer. Dr. Schneider also presented advancements in precision genomics, such as HER2 as a pan-tumor marker and IDH 1/2 for brain tumors as new standards of care.

Updates on Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Emily Curran, MD, medical director of the Cancer Center’s Clinical Trials Office and assistant professor in the UC College of Medicine, provided insight on the advances in acute leukemias – acute lymphoblastic leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia – sharing that Blinatumomab is beneficial for consolidation therapy regarding acute lymphoblastic leukemia and targeted therapies appear promising in acute myeloid leukemia.

Updates on Melanoma

Rekha Chaudhary, MD, a clinical researcher at the Cancer Center and adjunct associate professor in the UC College of Medicine, provided updates on skin cancer and immunotherapy. She discussed adjuvant and neo-adjuvant treatments, metastatic disease, recurrent disease, and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. Dr. Chaudhary also highlighted immunotherapy in comparison to chemotherapy – relapse-free survival, progression-free survival, distant-metastatic-free survival, and circulating tumor DNA.

“The role of immunotherapy continues to expand,” said Dr. Sohal. “Less treatment might just be good enough, with lower side effects.”

As explained by the American Cancer Society, immunotherapy has become an important part of treating some types of cancer in the last few decades. Immunotherapy is a type of treatment that uses a person's own immune system to fight cancer, and it can boost or change how the immune system works so it can find and attack cancer cells.

Updates on Head & Neck Cancer

Christopher A. Lemmon, MD, a clinical researcher at the Cancer Center and assistant professor in the UC College of Medicine, closed Session I with updates on head and neck cancers. He focused on locally advanced head and neck squamous cell cancer, recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell cancer, and nasopharynx cancer. Dr. Lemmon shared that chemoimmunotherapy is the standard of care for recurrent/metastatic nasopharynx cancer and that adding immunotherapy to locally advanced disease is promising but requires longer follow-up.

Updates on Genitourinary Cancer

Petros Grivas, MD, PhD, professor in the Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Medicine at the University of Washington and clinical director of the Genitourinary Cancers Program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, provided updates on genitourinary cancers. Part of Dr. Grivas’ presentation included a look into the ARASENS Trial and its findings – the combination of darolutamide, ADT, and docetaxel improved overall survival and should now be considered a new standard of care for patients with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer.

Updates on Cellular Therapies

Edward A. Faber, Jr., DO, MS, a clinical researcher at the Cancer Center, professor at UC College of Medicine, and Director of the BMT & Cellular Therapy Program, presented updates on cellular therapies. Covering the practice of partnering with patients to ensure those being treated get equal billing and shared decision making, he highlighted CAR-T, antibody conjugates, targeted therapies, and mRNA vaccines with immunotherapy. Dr. Faber shared that the focus from the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting was on rapidly expanding applications, the benefit of earlier use, strategies to limit SE’s and toxicities, more timely approaches, learning how to individualize, and recognizing when it’s time for SOC versus IT/CT trials.

Updates on Gastrointestinal Cancer

Davendra Sohal, MD, MPH, associate director for clinical research at the Cancer Center, Co-Director of the GI cancer disease team, and professor in the UC College of Medicine, presented updates on gastrointestinal malignancies. Dr. Sohal provided insight on recent advances in pancreatic cancer regarding the utilization of personalized RNA neoantigen vaccines to stimulate T cells as well as the use of immunotherapy in treating cholangiocarcinoma and the use of adjuvant immunotherapy in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Updates on Lymphoma

Tahir Latif, MBBS, MBA, professor in the UC College of Medicine, shared updates on lymphoma, discussing recent FDA approvals in lymphoma, current and future therapies for Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and recent advances in CAR-T cell therapies.

Updates on Lung Cancer

Vamsi Velcheti, MD, FACP, FCCP, professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and director of the Thoracic Oncology Program shared recent advances in early-stage lung cancer management. Part of Dr. Velcheti’s presentation covered the use of adjuvant immunotherapy in the management of non-small cell lung cancer as well as a look into updates in the management of metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.

Updates on Gynecologic Oncology

Thomas Herzog, MD, clinical researcher at the Cancer Center and professor and vice chair of quality & safety for Obstetrics and Gynecology at the UC College of Medicine, presented updates on gynecology oncology, including advances in ovarian cancer, cervical cancer, endometrial cancer. Part of Dr. Herzog’s presentation focused on NextGen technologies, pan-omics and systems biology and how they will dynamically profile vulnerabilities to produce novel targets for study and how PARPs – a family of protein involved in a number of cellular processes – have transformed front-line ovarian cancer SOC.

Updates on Radiation Oncology

Jordan R. Kharofa, MD, clinical researcher at the Cancer Center, vice chair of education in Radiation Oncology, and associate professor in the UC College of Medicine, provided updates as well as insight to the future directions in rectal cancer. Covering the treatments available, he explained the newer treatment trends – non-operative management, selective use of radiation therapy, and MSI-H Tumors: Immunotherapy and Omission of Chemotherapy/RT.