®! I’m your host today, Ashling Wahner.

®, which provides oncology professionals with the resources and information they need to provide the best patient care. In both digital and print formats, 

 covers every angle of oncology practice, from new technology to treatment advances to important regulatory decisions.

In today’s episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with Tarita Thomas, MD, PhD, MBA, and Rimas Lukas, MD, about abstracts presented during a brain cancer­–focused clinical science symposium at the 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting. Dr Thomas is an associate professor of radiation oncology and Dr Lukas is an associate professor of neurology (neuro-oncology; hospital neurology) at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. 

In our exclusive interview, Drs Thomas and Lukas discussed the results of 4 abstracts presented during the symposium. In particular, their discussion highlighted findings with ST101 in window-of-opportunity cohorts of patients with recurrent glioblastoma (GBM), the prognostic utility of cerebrospinal fluid circulating tumor DNA in recurrent high-grade glioma, the genomic drivers of GBM, and preclinical data with navtemadlin (KRT-232) in 

That’s all we have for today! Thank you for listening to this episode of 

. Check back on Mondays and Thursdays for exclusive interviews with leading experts in the oncology field.

For more updates in oncology, be sure to visit www.OncLive.com and sign up for our e-newsletters.

 is also on social media. On X, follow us at @OncLive. On Facebook, like us at OncLive, and follow our OncLive page on LinkedIn.

, please consider subscribing to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and many of your other favorite podcast platforms,* so you get a notification every time a new episode is posted. While you are there, please take a moment to rate us

*OncLive On Air is available on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audacy, CastBox, Deezer, iHeart, JioSaavn, Listen Notes, Player FM, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, RadioPublic, and TuneIn.

Podcasts

Drs Thomas and Lukas discusses highlights in brain cancer research from the 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Thomas and Lukas Highlight Updates in Brain Cancer from the 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting

Rimas V. Lukas, MD, associate professor of Neurology, director, Medical Neuro-Oncology, University of Chicago Medicine, discusses some of the exciting advances recently seen with immunotherapy in the treatment of patients with glioblastoma.

Nivolumab (Opdivo) has been recently evaluated in this setting in multiple clinical trials. One such ongoing study will randomize patients to one of 2 treatment arms. One arm will receive nivolumab monotherapy until surgical resection, while the other will receive nivolumab with dendritic cell (DC) vaccine therapy until surgical resection. During resection, blood and tumor samples will be assessed and compared. Following surgery, patients in both treatment arms will continue to receive DC vaccines and nivolumab until confirmed disease progression. Primary outcome measures of this study include the safety of administering DC vaccines with nivolumab, as measured by the percentage of patients who experience unacceptable toxicity during combination treatment.

Another area of interest, Lukas notes, is targeting IDO inhibition. One ongoing phase I/II study is currently examining the efficacy of indoximod, an IDO inhibitor, and temozolomide (Temodar) as a treatment for patients with glioblastoma. The overall goal of this trial is to provide a foundation for future studies with indoximod tested in newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients with radiation and temozolomide, or in combination with vaccine therapies.

According to Lukas, many oncologists are also interested in the utilization of not just blocking one checkpoint, but multiple checkpoints, and finding the best combination therapies, as well as using checkpoint blockade in conjunction with either traditional cytotoxic chemotherapies or antiangiogenic therapies.

Videos

Rimas V. Lukas, MD, associate professor of Neurology, director, Medical Neuro-Oncology, University of Chicago Medicine, discusses some of the exciting advances recently seen with immunotherapy in the treatment of patients with glioblastoma

Rimas V. Lukas, MD

Articles

Thomas and Lukas Highlight Updates in Brain Cancer from the 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting

Dr. Lukas on Immunotherapy in Glioblastoma