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Fierce Biotech Summit 2024
Meet Veristat in Boston at the Fierce Biotech Summit Conference | September 30 - October 1 in Boston, Massachusetts
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Discussion with Gabriela Rosu, MD, Sr. Director, Global Medical Affairs
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting is a very exciting conference overall. I've been attending ASCO for many years now, and it is a great opportunity to network and learn about the latest and greatest scientific advances. You'll find investigators, cancer physicians, and drug development companies presenting their latest clinical trial data results. In terms of science, they share the most exciting trends in cancer treatments today.
After returning from #ASCO24, I reflected on the top 3 trends that will continue to disrupt and shape the cancer research world in the coming year(s).
Trend #1: Improving Results in Immuno-Oncology
👉(read or watch below)
One of the most exciting topics I saw was improving immunotherapy results. The Plenary session presenter shared that immunotherapy was pushed earlier in the lineup of therapies available for patients through different combinations. And doing some innovative things, like introducing a combination of checkpoint inhibitors as neoadjuvants in advanced melanoma. This approach is very different from what we thought before. You’d think that immunotherapy would work after you resect the tumor, so the patient should have a lower tumor burden. In this case, they kept the tumor, treated the patients with a combination of immune checkpoint inhibitors, and then they did the surgery. They continued with the same combination and had much better results. The explanation would be that if you mobilize the T cells and you let them in the whole tumor, they would be actually exposed to all the tumor antigens. So, they would become much better equipped to fight with all the different types of cells in the tumor after you reset the tumor.
Trend #2: Addressing the Refractory Disease in Multiple Myeloma Patients
👉(read or watch below)
I’ve worked on many studies in hematologic malignancies, especially myeloma. The latest advancements are looking at patients who are refractory, and they're trying to find ways to figure out why. This is complicated because these patients don't respond to the first-line therapy, which creates many problems. They often have some genetic mutations that are hard to overcome, so they're trying to figure out ways to prolong life, because that's the ultimate goal in oncology research - to prolong life for these patients.
Trend #3: AI’s Impact on Clinical Research
👉(read or watch below)
Another exciting trend that affects not only cancer research but almost every single domain of our lives is artificial intelligence (AI). And you can do some amazing things with AI in medicine. AI can develop models that can predict how a tumor will react to different drug combinations. It is also used to figure out biomarkers. In one example, a clinic used AI to influence patient behavior. They developed a navigation system that allowed them to attract patients back to the clinic. There were patients lost to follow-up which makes it difficult to determine if a drug works or not if you don't get them to the follow-up screening and follow-up imaging. The clinic imagined that this navigator and the patients were actually able to get into the system, and they brought them back to get the follow-up imaging.
Interestingly, few people know there are many regulations in place. Currently, the FDA and EMA have created very quick regulations regarding AI utilization. Some people would say, "We don't have the right regulations." We do. They will evolve, but they are in place. You cannot start using this very powerful tool if you don't have the right regulations in place.
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