Dialogues

Oct 10, 2024, 13:07

ASCO24 Updates – Promising Efficacy in Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer: Insights from Dr. Jenny Liu

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting is one of the largest and most prestigious conferences in the field of oncology. This year, the meeting took place from May 31 to June 4 in Chicago, Illinois. The event gathers oncologists, researchers, and healthcare professionals from around the world to discuss the latest advancements in cancer research, treatment, and patient care. Keynote sessions, research presentations, and panel discussions are typically part of the agenda, providing attendees with valuable insights into emerging trends and innovations in oncology.

This year, OncoDaily was at ASCO 2024 for the first time covering the meeting on-site. We had the pleasure of interviewing researchers who summarized the highlights of their work.

In this video, Dr. Jenny Liu, a medical oncologist at the Kinghorn Cancer Center in Sydney, shares insights on ‘Dendrimer-enhanced (DEP) SN38 (DEP irinotecan) in patients (pts) with advanced solid tumors: A phase 1/2 trial.‘

Hi, my name’s Dr Jenny Liu. I’m a medical oncologist and early phase clinical trialist at the Kinghorn Cancer Center at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney.

By way of disclosure, I’m an investigator on a trial run by Star Pharma and my institution has received research funding from Star Pharma and I have also received travel reimbursement. I’m delighted to be presenting results from the DEB SN38 trial of 114 patients with advanced solid tumours who were treated with Dendrima SN38.

Dendrimas are nanoparticles which can be used to be conjugated against cytotoxic payloads in order to reduce toxicity as well as improve efficacy. Myself and co-investigators demonstrated in a phase 1 trial running across five sites in Australia and in the UK that Dendrima SN38 at the recommended phase 2 dose of 12.5 milligrams per metre squared was very well tolerated. We found that rates of side effects, particularly gastrointestinal toxicities, was very low.

There was less than 1% grade 3 diarrhoea vomiting compared to conventional urinary t-can about 20% and there was also some very promising efficacy signals seen, particularly in colorectal cancer patients where the disease control rate was quite high, about 42% in monotherapy and around 86% in combination with 5-FU.

In addition, in ovarian cancer patients, we found objective responses when given two weekly was 43% which was very promising compared to conventional chemotherapy such as topo-t-can and we look forward to sharing the results with the global community and also exploring potential synergies with PARP inhibitors and checkpoint inhibitors.

More videos and content from ASCO 2024 on OncoDaily.