Cedars-Sinai Experts Present New Research at European Cancer Conference
Prostate, Lung, Kidney and Colorectal Cancer Study Results are Focus of Cedars-Sinai’s Newest Research at ESMO Congress 2023 in Madrid
Physician-scientists from Cedars-Sinai Cancer are available to discuss their research and other breaking news during the European Society for Medical Oncology’s ESMO Congress 2023 Oct. 20-24 in Madrid.
Stephen Freedland, MD, director of the Center for Integrated Research in Cancer and Lifestyle at Cedars-Sinai Cancer and professor of Urology at Cedars-Sinai, will present data from the EMBARK Phase III international clinical trial, which tested two new treatment options for men with recurrent prostate cancer. Trial results published Oct. 18 in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that both options helped patients live longer—without their disease progressing—than the current standard of care. The next question for investigators was how the therapies would affect patients’ quality of life.
“In terms of how patients feel, we found no difference between these experimental therapies and the standard of care in terms of overall quality of life,” Freedland said. “So we’re able to preserve patients’ quality of life, including one option that better preserved sexual function than the current standard of care, even on these extra-aggressive therapies that help patients live longer without disease progressing.”
Freedland will present additional results at 8:30 a.m. Central European Time on Oct. 22, with simultaneous publication in NEJM Evidence.
Also at ESMO Congress 2023:
- Karen Reckamp, MD, director of Medical Oncology and associate director of Clinical Research at Cedars-Sinai Cancer, can discuss late-breaking results of a Phase III randomized global clinical trial of two therapeutic options that may represent a new standard of care for advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
The first option paired chemotherapy with a drug called amivantamab, an antibody that helps direct the activity of immune cells. The second option added lazertinib, a drug that identifies and attacks cancer cells with minimal damage to normal cells. In the trial of 657 patients, both therapies outperformed chemotherapy alone, improving progression-free survival and overall response rate. Overall response rate was 64% for patients receiving the amivantamab-chemotherapy combination and 63% for patients also receiving lazertinib, vs 36% for patients receiving chemotherapy alone.
- Robert Figlin, MD, deputy director of Cedars-Sinai Cancer and the Steven Spielberg Family Chair in Hematology-Oncology, will present findings from the LITESPARK study, a Phase II clinical trial of a combined therapy for kidney cancer.
The therapy paired cabozantinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that identifies and attacks cancer cells with minimal damage to normal cells, with belzutifan, a medication used to treat von Hipple-Lindau disease. This condition, in which non-cancerous tumors can grow in various parts of the body, including the kidneys, places patients at increased risk of developing kidney cancer. The combination showed durable antitumor activity in kidney cancer patients who had not undergone previous treatment, or who had previously been treated with immunotherapy.
- Jun Gong, MD, medical director of Colorectal Cancer Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Cancer, can discuss a comparative analysis, being presented at the conference, between tumor immune microenvironments of primary and metastatic colorectal cancer tumors. Findings from this study help explain the difference in response to immunotherapy among colorectal cancer that has spread to the liver or abdominal lining, as well as recently reported benefits of immunotherapy among patients with colorectal cancer that has spread to the lung.
Contact: Christina Elston | christina.elston@cshs.org | 626-298-0702.