番茄社区

CHICAGO -- The 2015 meeting of the (ASCO) will highlight the recent "explosion of data and knowledge" in cancer research and care, reflected in the conference theme "Illumination and Innovation: Transforming Data into Learning."

"With data as a shared resource, we can accelerate learning from each other and from our patients, sharing new insights and making faster strides against cancer," ASCO president , said in a statement.

"Today in the United States, we are challenged to reinvent how we practice medicine in response to society's demand for higher-quality and more affordable healthcare and a more efficient clinical research enterprise. A shift has started from reimbursement models based on production to models based on quality and outcomes.

"The survival of existing models and the success of developing models of community practice and research will depend on meeting these challenges successfully."

The demand for data and innovation is evident in the number of abstracts submitted for consideration in the ASCO 2015 program, almost 6,000, representing a 7.5% increase over 2014. The program will encompass presentations addressing every aspect of the patien4t experience, said Yu, from prevention to survivorship.

Responding to feedback from the ASCO membership and attendees of past meetings, organizers have included three Clinical Science Symposia that focus on molecular pathways involved in cell growth, apoptosis, and regulation of immune system and its ability attack cancer.

In particular, strategies to unharness the immune system's ability to thwart cancer occupy a prominent bloc of time and attention in the ASCO 2015 program. The successful development of inhibitors and neutralizers of programmed death receptor 1 (PD-1) and its ligand (PD-L1) have fueled interest in other strategies to "rev up" the immune system in ways not previously recognized or understood.

Consistent with previous meetings, ASCO 2015 has incorporated a substantial amount of content related to advances and challenges in breast cancer. Reflecting advances in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, abstracts selected for the meeting focus on the more difficult types of breast cancer: HER2-positive and triple-negative disease.

The program includes more than 250 posters, 20 oral presentations, and a Clinical Science Symposium featuring four studies of gene expression profiling and biomarker discovery in breast cancer. A small sample of the breast cancer content includes:

• A randomized trial comparing an aromatase inhibitor and tamoxifen for reducing the risk of recurrence after lumpectomy and chemotherapy among postmenopausal patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer
• A phase III trial evaluating pegylated irinotecan in patients with progressive disease
• A phase III comparison of adjuvant AC chemotherapy followed by either ixabepilone (Ixempra) or paclitaxel in early-stage triple-negative disease
• An evaluation of the androgen receptor (AR) inhibitor enzalutamide (Xtandi) in AR-positive triple-negative breast cancer
• A comparison of bevacizumab (Avastin) versus letrozole (Femara) as first-line hormonal therapy in advanced hormone receptor-positive breast cancer
• A phase III trial to compare fulvestrant (Faslodex) alone or in combination with CDK-4/6 inhibitor palbociclib (Ibrance) in pre- and postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer that progressed on prior hormonal therapy
• Studies to evaluate adjuvant use of bisphosphonates and the monoclonal antibody denosumab (Prolia)
• A phase III randomized comparison of T-DM1 (Kadcyla) plus or minus pertuzumab (Perjeta) versus conventional therapy with trastuzumab (Herceptin) and a taxane as first-line treatment in metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer
• Long-term follow-up from a trial of adjuvant chemotherapy plus trastuzumab followed by the selective HER2/EGFR inhibitor neratinib in early HER2-positive breast cancer

番茄社区 will provide daily coverage of ASCO 2015 through next week, providing news related to key clinical and research developments in breast cancer and other malignancies.

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