T. Feys MBA, MSc

Updates in the management of renal cell Carcinoma

The opening session of the 2024 Belgian Multidisciplinary Meeting on Urological Cancers (BMUC) highlighted key advancements in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) management. Prof. Christine Gennigens (ULiège, Liège, Belgium) presented current and future strategies for first-line metastatic RCC treatment, emphasising options such as immunotherapy (IO) dual combinations, IO plus tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) regimens, TKI monotherapy, and triplet therapies. Additionally, Prof. Shankar Siva (Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia) discussed the promising outcomes of stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) in primary RCC, underscoring its advantages over traditional approaches like surgery or thermal ablation.

How to implement PSMA radioligand therapy in Belgium

During the 11^th Belgian Multidisciplinary Meeting on Urological Cancers (BMUC) 2024, Prof. Dr. Karolien Goffin (University Hospitals Leuven), Dr. Carlos Artigas (Institut Jules Bordet, Brussels) and Prof. Dr. Nadia Withofs (CHU de Liège) discussed the current challenges in implementing prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) radioligand therapy in Belgium.

Late-breaking session on uro-oncology

The second day of BMUC 2024 kicked off with the late-breaking session on uro-oncology. During this session, three recent clinical trials with important implications for daily clinical practice were discussed and critically interpreted. First, Prof. Piet Ost (University Hospital Ghent) walked us through the results of the GETUG-AFU18 trial. Thereafter, Dr. Marco Gizzi (Institut Roi Albert II Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc) shared his insights on the potential caveats of the KEYNOTE-564 trial after which Dr. Alexander Giesen (University Hospitals Leuven) closed the session with a presentation on the PREVENT trial.

Supportive care and setting up a trial

During the session entitled “Supportive care and setting up a trial” at BMUC 2024, Prof. Nele Devoogdt (UZ Leuven, Belgium) discussed current strategies to manage lymphoedema following pelvic therapies in cancer patients. Subsequently, Dr. Alastair Lamb (Oxford University, UK) talked about the factors that make clinical trial enrolment appealing to patients. Finally, Dr. Sanne D’hondt walked us through the necessary steps to set up a clinical trial.

Update in gynaecological cancers

During the 2024 BSMO annual meeting, an entire session was dedicated to the recent advances in the treatment of gynaecological cancers. In a first lecture of this session, Prof. Dr. Christine Gennigens (CHU de Liège) gave an overview of the contemporary treatment landscape for patients with cervical cancer, after which Prof. Dr. Hannelore Denys (University Hospital Ghent), summarised the recent treatment advances and clinical updates in the treatment of endometrial cancer. To wrap up the session, Prof. Jean-François Baurain (UCLouvain) took the stage to provide an overview of the latest findings in the management of ovarian cancer.

New oncology reimbursements in Belgium

OVERVIEW OF BELGIAN REIMBURSEMENT NEWS

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2024;18(1):40)

Highlights in HER2-positive breast cancer

The 2023 edition of the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium featured the presentation of long-term follow-up data of the KATHERINE trial, confirming the long-term invasive disease free and overall survival benefit of T-DM1 over trastuzumab in patients with HER2+ breast cancer and residual disease after neoadjuvant therapy. ¹ In advanced HER2-positive breast cancer, HER2CLIMB02 showed that adding tucatinib to T-DM1 delays disease progression in previously treated patients, irrespective of the presence of brain metastases.² In addition, a phase II study showed a progression-free survival benefit for the addition of avelumab to vinorelbine and trastuzumab in heavily pre-treated patients with HER2+ metastatic breast cancer.³ Finally, first-line T-DM1 was found to be less effective than trastuzumab-pertuzumab-docetaxel in older patients with HER2+ advanced breast cancer although it did come with a lower toxicity burden.⁴