PrecisCa Oncology Podcast : Precision Cancer Insights PrecisCa

On this episode, PrecisCa speaks with Dr. Sara Hurvitz, medical oncologist & the Director of Breast Oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Dr. Hurvitz answers the following:
What are the biggest advances in breast cancer in 2021?
What is your current approach to metastatic triple negative breast cancer?
How do you choose between CDK4/6 inhibitors in both the curative and metastatic settings?
How do you treat metastatic HER2 positive breast cancer with organ dysfunction through various lines of therapy?
Did we learn any new information about T-DXD (Enhertu) in 2021?
How do you envision the future development of T-DXD (Enhertu)?

Sara A Hurvitz, MD, is Professor of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); co-director of the Santa Monica-UCLA Outpatient Oncology Practice; Medical Director of the Clinical Research Unit of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA; and Director of Breast Oncology. Dr. Hurvitz received board-certification in internal medicine, hematology, and medical oncology. Dr. Hurvitz has won numerous awards over the past few years, among them the Marni Levine Memorial Breast Cancer Research Award 2008 through 2015.

Visit www.precisca.com for more resources, content, and access to our entire catalogue of educational content. There you will have access to our complete library of educational videos. New episodes of the PrecisCa Oncology Podcast are released weekly. Please consider sharing our podcast, subscribing & turning on notifications to be the first to know about new releases. Together, we can raise the level of cancer care from diagnosis to recovery.

On this episode, PrecisCa speaks with Dr. Michael Lanuti, an Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School & the Director of Thoracic Oncology, Division of Thoracic Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. 
Dr. Lanuti sits down with PrecisCa to discuss the following:
What tests need to be ordered before surgery for lung cancer?
Which patient should not undergo surgery for lung cancer?
What is a sleeve resection?
What is the role of pulmonary function testing and who should be tested?
How many days do patients spend in the hospital with various types of lung surgery?
What are the average operative times for Surgical Techniques in Lung Cancer?
What are some common complaints after a patient has undergone lung surgery?
Dr. Lanuti is the Director of Thoracic Oncology for the Division of Thoracic Surgery and the Thoracic Surgery liaison to the MGH Cancer Center. Clinical interests include minimally invasive surgery for lung cancer, complex airway tumors, multimodality treatment of esophageal cancer, mediastinal tumors, navigation and robotic bronchoscopy, non surgical treatment of lung tumors using percutaneous and bronchoscope thermal ablation techniques.
Dr. Lanuti spearheads translational research in a Thoracic Oncology Research Laboratory. The principle goals of the laboratory are to design novel therapeutics to treat lung and esophageal cancer that can be brought to clinical trials.  The laboratory uses oncolytic viruses in combination with other modalities such as chemotherapy and angiotensin system inhibitors to target solid tumor. Some of these strategies include development of oncolytic viruses that help degrade tumor matrix. Ultimately, this translational effort will strive to bring treatment strategies from the laboratory bench to the bedside and back to the bench again for re-evaluation and improvement. 
Dr. Lanuti has investigated molecular risk factors for esophageal adenocarcinoma and found an elevated risk associated with single nucleotide polymorphisms in the epidermal growth factor (EGF) gene which is associated with differentiation of tumor tissue
After receiving a Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Lanuti received his M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He completed his internship and residency in Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and a 2-year research fellowship in a Thoracic Oncology Laboratory focusing on novel treatments for lung cancer.  
Dr. Lanuti continued with sub-specialty training and completed a Cardiothoracic Fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He has been on staff in the Division of Thoracic Surgery since 2004 and holds a parallel appointment as Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. He has been the Friedman-Lambert Scholar in Academic Thoracic Surgery at MGH/HMS since 2004 and directs a Thoracic Oncology Research Lab for the past 15 years focusing on novel treatment of lung cancer, pulmonary fibrosis and imaging of radiation induced lung injury in the setting of lung cancer.
Visit www.precisca.com for more resources, content, and access to our entire catalogue of educational content. There you will have access to our complete library of educational videos. New episodes of the PrecisCa Oncology Podcast are released weekly. Please consider sharing our podcast, subscribing & turning on notifications to be the first to know about new releases. Together, we can raise the level of cancer care from diagnosis to recovery.

On this episode, PrecisCa speaks with Dr. Joyce O'Shaughnessy, a medical oncologist and the Director of Breast Cancer Research Program at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. 
 

Dr. O'Shaughnessy sits down with us to answer the following questions:

Which breast cancer patients are eligible for preoperative pembrolizumab in the curative setting based on the KEYNOTE-522 trial? What about adjuvant pembrolizumab?
How is trastuzumab deruxtecan optimally utilized for HER2+ metastatic breast cancer?
Which CDK 4/6 inhibitor is recommended for treatment of HR+ HER2- metastatic breast cancer based on available survival data?
Can you discuss the data from the MonarchE Trial that led to FDA approval of abemaciclib in October 2021?


Joyce A. O’Shaughnessy, M.D. focuses on breast cancer prevention and treatment. She is Co-Chair of Breast Cancer Research and Chair of Breast Cancer Prevention Research at Baylor-Sammons Cancer Center and for The US Oncology Network and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for US Oncology Research Network. In 2009 D Magazine elected Dr. O’Shaughnessy as one of the best hematology oncologists in Dallas, Texas. 
 

Dr. O’Shaughnessy received her M.D. from Yale University Medical School. Her internship and residency in internal medicine were completed at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1985. She concluded a fellowship in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute in 1987 and was a Senior Investigator there until 1995. Dr. O’Shaughnessy is a member of American Association for Cancer Research; American Society of Clinical Oncology; American Medical Women’s Association; American Medical Association; American College of Physicians; and Women in Cancer Research. Dr. O’Shaughnessy is an Associate Editor, Clinical Breast Cancer Journal; founder, The School of Breast Oncology.

Visit www.precisca.com for more resources, content, and access to our entire catalogue of educational content. 

On this episode, PrecisCa speaks with Dr. Suresh Ramalingam, medical oncologist and Executive Director at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
 

Dr. Ramalingam sits down with us to answer the following questions:


What is the prognosis of lung cancer by stage?


What are the side effects of targeted therapy for lung cancer & how do you manage them?


Do you ever use immunotherapy in patients with driver mutations? What are the concerns about sequencing of immunotherapy and targeted agents?


How do you treat metastatic EGFR mutated lung cancer in First, Second and Third line settings?


How do you approach brain metastases in EGFR-mutated lung cancer? What are the modalities that can be used to treat brain metastases and how do the different TKI's compare in terms of brain metastases?


What are the benefits of enrolling in a clinical trial?



Board certified in medical oncology, Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD, FACP, FASCO, is nationally recognized as an investigator and a physician in the area of small cell and non-small cell lung cancer.Dr. Ramalingam serves as executive director of Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University and associate vice president for cancer of Woodruff Health Sciences Center. He is past-president of the Georgia Society of Oncology and a member of the board of Georgia CORE. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and a Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar.Dr. Ramalingam holds professional memberships with American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Association for Cancer Research, and International Association of Lung Cancer Study. He plays an active role in the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group as the Chair of the Thoracic Malignancies Committee and as the Deputy Chair of Therapeutics Programs. He serves on several international, national and institutional committees. He is a member of the Medical Oncology Board Exam Committee for American Board of Internal Medicine. 
Visit www.precisca.com for more resources, content, and access to our entire catalogue of educational content. There you will have access to our complete library of educational videos.
New episodes of the PrecisCa Oncology Podcast are released weekly. Please consider sharing our podcast, subscribing & turning on notifications to be the first to know about new releases. Together, we can raise the level of cancer care from diagnosis to recovery.
 

On this episode, PrecisCa speaks with Yi-Bin Chen MD, MS. Dr. Chen is the Director of the Transplant and Cell Therapy program at  Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School -- uniting the programs of conventional transplant and emerging cellular therapies. His clinical interests mainly revolve around improving the outcomes of patients undergoing autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplantation.  
 

Dr. Chen sits down with us to answer the following questions:

When should a patient with new MDS or leukemia be referred to a transplant center, and what key considerations may support early and broad referral?
How do the associations of certain mutations with good or poor prognosis influence your treatment of patients with newly diagnosed MDS who have undergone next-generation sequencing?
What factors influence your decision to utilize a haploidentical transplant for AML?
What is your preferred approach for treating chronic GVHD, and what factors influence your choice of initial systemic therapy vs. subsequent lines of therapy?
How do you select the combination of conditioning regimen and GVHD prophylaxis for a patient undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplant?
How do you interpret the recent data on maintenance TKI after allogeneic stem cell transplantation in FLT3 mutated AML, and would you recommend it or save TKI for any relapse of disease?


Yi-Bin Chen grew up in New Jersey. He majored in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, earning a B.S./M.S. at Yale University before attending medical school at Harvard Medical School. Subsequently, Dr. Chen did his internship and residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, including an additional year as Chief Resident. This was followed by a fellowship in hematology/oncology at the Dana-Farber Mass General Brigham combined program.
 
In 2008, he joined the staff of the Blood & Marrow Transplant (BMT) Program at the MGH Cancer Center, has served as Director of Clinical Research since 2012 and was named overall Program Director in 2016. In 2020, he was named Director of the Hematopoietic Cell Transplant and Cell Therapy Program, uniting the programs of conventional transplant and emerging cellular therapies. His clinical interests mainly revolve around improving the outcomes of patients undergoing autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplantation. He has led original clinical trials involving all aspects of BMT, including conditioning regimens, alternative graft sources, novel approaches concerning the prevention and therapy of acute and chronic graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) and the use of maintenance therapies after BMT. He collaborates extensively with local and national colleagues as well as industry in addition to developing his own original clinical trials. He currently lives in Needham, MA with his wife and two children.

On this episode, PrecisCa speaks with David M. Schuster MD, FACR. Dr. Schuster is a Professor in the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Schuster also serves as Director of the Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, and is a Georgia Research Alliance Distinguished Scientist. Board certified in radiology and nuclear medicine, he specializes in molecular medicine and integrative imaging. Dr. Schuster sits down with us to explain PET Scans, false readings & the importance of selecting the right scanners for the right situation.
Visit www.precisca.com for more resources, content, and access to our entire catalogue of educational content. There you will have access to our complete library of educational videos.
New episodes of the PrecisCa Oncology Podcast are released weekly. Please consider sharing our podcast, subscribing & turning on notifications to be the first to know about new releases. Together, we can raise the level of cancer care from diagnosis to recovery.