ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program Research Round Up: Central Nervous System Tumors and Lymphoma [Video]

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Every year, the ASCO Annual Meeting brings together attendees from around the globe to learn about the latest research in the treatment and care of people with cancer. This year, attendees from 138 countries worldwide gathered virtually for the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program, held Friday, May 29 through Sunday, May 31.

In the annual Research Round Up podcast series, Cancer.Net Associate Editors answer the question, “What was the most exciting or practice-changing research in your field presented at the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program?” In this final episode of 2020, editors discuss new research in the fields of central nervous system tumors and lymphoma.

First, Dr. Glenn Lesser will discuss new research on a form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that begins in the central nervous system, and research into a possible treatment for breast cancer that has spread to the brain. Dr. Lesser is the Louise McMichael Miracle Professor and Associate Chief in the section on Hematology and Oncology in the Department of Internal Medicine at Wake Forest University, with joint appointments in the Departments of Anesthesiology, Neurosurgery, and Public Health Sciences. He is also the Cancer.Net Associate Editor for Central Nervous System Tumors.

View Dr. Lesser’s disclosures at Cancer.Net.

Dr. Lesser: Hello. My name is Glenn Lesser, and I’m a professor of medical oncology and director of medical neuro-oncology at the Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I’m also the editor of the brain tumor section for ASCO’s Cancer.Net. And today, I would like to briefly discuss what I think are 2 of the most clinically relevant research studies on brain tumors that were presented at this year’s ASCO’s Virtual Scientific Program. I should say right up front I have no disclosures or relationships that are relevant to the particular studies I’ll be discussing today.

Unlike the progress we’ve seen in the treatment of many cancers over the past few years, patients with brain tumors and the physicians who care for them have not seen the same rapid advance in effective treatment strategies. Cancer that begins in the brain, so-called primary brain tumors, and the more common situation of cancer that spreads to the brain after originating elsewhere in the body, so-called metastatic or secondary brain tumors, still have relatively few effective treatment options available. However, I believe that the 2 abstracts we’ll discuss today may impact the way that we treat certain primary and metastatic brain tumors in the future.

The first study I’d like to talk about was presented by Dr. Omuro on behalf of a group of international colleagues that described a randomized study of standard chemotherapy with or without low dose whole brain radiation in patients with a brain tumor known as a primary central nervous system lymphoma, which I may also talk about as a PCNSL for abbreviation. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a relatively common cancer that involves the blood and lymph nodes throughout the body. Primary central nervous system lymphoma is the term used when patients develop a non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that’s confined to the central nervous system which is really made up of the brain, the spinal cord, the spinal nerves, and the spinal fluid. This turns out to be a pretty rare diagnosis with only about 1,500 new cases of this cancer occurring in this country each year. This type of lymphoma is important, though, because it’s very treatable in most patients, and a significant percentage of our patients can be cured with appropriate therapy. Because the disease is so rare, we really don’t have the results of large clinical trials to help us determine the best treatment approach for patients with primary central nervous system lymphoma. And as a result, there are a variety of controversies over how to initially treat patients who develop this lymphoma, so-called induction therapy, as well as what type of treatment to give once the disease has been made to go away, or so-called consolidation therapy. In the past, radiation therapy to the whole brain was used to treat patients with PCNSL. And most of these patients who were treated with radiation-contai…