CONGRESS NEWS

Highlights in digestive oncology

At ASCO 2019, several clinical trials regarding upper and lower gastro-intestinal tumors were presented.

Highlights in gynaecological cancers

The highlights in gynecologic cancers from ASCO 2019 include data on the outcome of chemotherapy or PARP inhibitors as monotherapy or combination therapy in (elderly) patients with ovarian cancer, as well as results of immune checkpoint blockade in patients with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer with or without a mismatch repair deficiency. Novel findings in (early-stage) cervical cancer include the efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery vs. chemoradiation, and of minimally invasive hysterectomy compared to open radical hysterectomy.

Highlights of the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium 2019

SUMMARY

At the background of the Golden Gate Bridge with a view on the Pacific Ocean, the annual Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium was held from 17–19 January 2019 in the Moscone Congress Center in San Francisco, California. The meeting further underlined the invasion of immunotherapy in the treatment landscape of gastrointestinal tumours, both in the upper and lower digestive tract. In addition to immunotherapy, lots of efforts were made in the molecular profiling of gastrointestinal cancers in every possible tumour location, which will hopefully fuel more biomarker-driven medicine in this setting in the near future. In this report, the most important headlines will be discussed, with comments on the clinical relevance of the different studies.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2019;13(4):142–149)

Highlights of the Post-ASCO Genitourinary regional tour 2019

SUMMARY

The 2019 annual American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Genitourinary Cancers Symposium was held from February 14-16 in San Francisco. The Belgian Multidisciplinary Meeting on Urological Cancers (BMUC) organised a post-ASCO GU regional tour during which the highlights of the 2019 ASCO GU meeting were discussed. This tour featured four different meetings in four locations in Belgium: Namur, Ghent, Nivelles and Paal. This summary will specifically report on the meeting held in Ghent during which prof. dr Piet Ost (Ghent University Hospital) and prof. dr Sylvie Rottey (Ghent University Hospital) gave a summary of the most important advances in the treatment of prostate, bladder and renal cancer.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2019;13(3):109–114)

Should we apply PSMA PET: yes or no?

Summary

PSMA is a type II transmembrane glycoprotein that is highly expressed in almost all prostate cancer (PCa) cells, with only 5–10% of primary PCa not having PSMA expression. The recent development of radiotracers directed against PSMA has taken things to a new level. There is now a solid body of evidence for the performance of ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT in secondary staging (i.e. at PSA rise after primary treatment), with an ability to accurately detect small volume disease at far lower serum PSA levels than with bone scan or even choline PET/CT. As a result, the use of ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT as a diagnostic adjunct is becoming increasingly mainstream. In addition to this, radioligand therapy is emerging as a new therapeutic strategy in PCa. In the final presentation of the 2019 annual BMUC meeting, dr. Carlos Artigas discussed the potential of PSMA-PET in staging and assessing biochemical recurrence in prostate cancer (PCa) patients after which dr. Piet Dirix listed up some critical notes with respect to the use of PSMA in the evaluation of biochemical recurrence.

New evolutions in the treatment of prostate cancer

Summary

Over the last decade, the prostate cancer (PCa) treatment landscape changed dramatically. During her second lecture at BMUC 2019, Prof. dr. Silke Gillessen summarized the recent evolutions regarding systemic therapy across the PCa disease spectrum.

Congress highlights in uro-oncology

Summary

In line with the tradition, the BMUC scientific committee asked a urologist, a radiation oncologist and a medical oncologist to summarize the top stories that were presented during the large urology and oncology meetings of the past year.