Issue 14 – The Cancer Letter

Using a robot to perform mastectomies, a New Jersey surgeon sets off a firestorm over surgical outcomes
How much rigor should be required when surgeons innovate? FDA’s advisory asks for long-term cancer-related data.
Last August, Stephen A. Chagares, a breast surgeon, made an announcement that startled some of his colleagues at New Jersey’s Monmouth Medical Center.
At internal meetings and in a press release, Chagares declared that he would perform a robotic mastectomy—a new and relatively untested minimally invasive surgical procedure. According to the press release, his first patient, Yvonne Zucco, 56, was being treated for stage IIa breast cancer.
Conversation with The Cancer Letter
MSK’s Kirstein: Robotic mastectomy not demonstrated to be safe for treatment or prevention of breast cancer
The Breast Surgical Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has decided not to adopt—or study—robotic surgical devices in mastectomies, said Laurie Kirstein, a breast surgical oncologist at MSK.
Conversation with The Cancer Letter
MD Anderson’s Hunt and Selber: We will study immediate and long-term outcomes of robotic mastectomy in a prospective trial
Robotic mastectomy deserves to be studied, because the procedure may improve cancer-related outcomes, surgeons at MD Anderson Cancer Center say.
Both robotic and open procedures allow the surgeon to follow oncologic principles, said Jesse Selber, professor and director of clinical research at the Department of Plastic Surgery at MD Anderson.
Conversation with The Cancer Letter
Penn’s Brooks: Surgeons should study oncologic endpoints for years, not just 30-day outcomes
The University of Pennsylvania was planning a short-term trial for robotic mastectomies, but after an FDA advisory, investigators decided to revise that protocol to include assessment of cancer-related outcomes, said Ari Brooks, director of endocrine and oncologic surgery, director of the Integrated Breast Center at the University of Pennsylvania Health System, and professor of clinical surgery at Penn Medicine.
In Brief
- Amy Abernethy appointed FDA acting chief information officer
- Zihai Li named director of Ohio State Institute for Immuno-Oncology
- Eberlein, Tempero, Hoppe, Kolodziej, Burns win NCCN awards
- Jonas Bergh wins first ESMO Breast Cancer Award
- Cornelis Melief wins 2019 AACR-CRI Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology
- Rosen, Querfeld awarded $7.5M to develop better treatment for CTCL
- Olivera Finn receives Richard V. Smalley Memorial Award and Lectureship
- Feng Yue named director for cancer genomics at Lurie Cancer Center
- ACS awards research and training grants
Clinical Roundup
- SU2C-supported trials seek to extend CAR T-cell therapy to solid tumors
- Imvax announce positive results from clinical trial of IGV-001 vaccine in glioblastoma
- ADMIRAL trial data Shows Xospata prolongs OS in adults with leukiemia
- Single agent umbralisib effective for relapsed slow-growing lymphoma
- Study names six risk factors linked to esophageal cancer
- Probiotics linked to poorer response to cancer immunotherapy in skin cancer
- Rucaparib maintenance therapy shows clinical responses in pancreatic cancer
Drugs & Targets
- Varian ARIA Oncology Information System awarded CancerLinQ certification
- FDA expands use of metastatic breast cancer treatment to include male patients
- FDA issues warning letter to genomics lab for marketing genetic test that claims to predict patients’ responses to specific medications
- Nanobiotix receives European approval for Hensify therapy for sarcoma
- Opdivo shows long-term survival results in NSCLC
- Findings from ASCO TAPUR trial presented at AACR meeting