Tumor-Agnostic Therapy Video Perspectives

In this video series, Vivek Subbiah, MD, medical director of the Clinical Center for Targeted Therapy (Phase I Program), executive director of oncology research and associate professor at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discussed:

• practice-changing tumor-agnostic therapies, including dabrafenib (Tafinlar, Novartis) plus trametinib (Mekinist, Novartis) and “new kid on the block” selpercatinib (Retevmo, Eli Lilly);
• how they are “just scratching the tip of the iceberg” in tumor-agnostic therapeutics;
• why tumor-agnostic drug development “represents a new way of thinking about how cancer is treated” and will play a role in the future of personalized, precision oncology;
• three areas to focus on in the future research of tumor-agnostic therapies;
• the importance of comprehensive next-generation sequencing (NGS) to identify genomic alterations in patients, in other words “don’t guess, do NGS;” and
• upcoming research that he’s looking forward to in identifying potential tissue-agnostic targets beyond RET and NTRK, such as NRG fusions, HER2 and more.

Disclosures: Subbiah reports grants from Blueprint Medicines, Boston Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly/Loxo Oncology, Helsinn Pharmaceuticals and Turning Point Therapeutics; a grant and advisory board or consultant position with Eli Lilly/Loxo Oncology; research grants from AbbVie, Agensys, Alfa-sigma, Altum, Amgen, Bayer, Berghealth, Blueprint Medicines, Boston Biomedical, Boston Pharmaceuticals, Celgene, D3, Dragonfly Therapeutics, Exelixis, Fujifilm, GlaxoSmithKline, Idera Pharma, Incyte, Inhibrx, MedImmune, Multivir, Nanocarrier, National Comprehensive Cancer Network, NCI-CTEP, Northwest Biotherapeutics, Novartis, Pfizer, Pharmamar, Roche/Genentech, Takeda, Turning Point Therapeutics, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Vegenics; advisory board and consultant positions with Daiichi Sankyo, Helsinn, Incyte, MedImmune, Novartis, QED Pharma, Relay Therapeutics, Roche, and Signant Health; travel funds from ASCO, ESMO, Incyte, and Pharmamar; and educational grant support from Medscape.