BJMO - 2024, issue Special, december 2024
T. Feys MBA, MSc
The advent of precision medicine, led by the discovery of druggable genes and informed by next-generation sequencing, has drastically changed the therapeutic landscape in oncology. These evolutions revealed a spectrum of actionable genetic alterations shared across a broad spectrum of tumour types, which fuelled the hope for cancer drugs that are capable to interfere with these oncogenic pathways irrespective of the organ of origin of the tumour. In recent years, several of these tumour-agnostic drug targets have been approved by regulatory agencies and it is to be expected that more will follow in the years to come. This article briefly explains the rationale for tumour-agnostic approvals followed by an overview of the currently approved and emerging pan-tumour targets. In addition, the paper addresses a new tool that was developed by the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) to assess the tumour-agnostic potential of new drugs (ECTA-S) and inform the clinical development of potentially tumour-agnostic drugs.
Read moreBJMO - 2024, issue Special, march 2024
A. Enguita PhD, T. Feys MBA, MSc
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.
Read moreBJMO - 2024, issue Special, march 2024
A. Enguita PhD
During the 2024 BMUC meeting, an entire session was dedicated to the management of patients with recurrent prostate cancer. In this session, Dr. Alastair Lamb (University of Oxford, UK) highlighted the concept and assessment of biochemical relapse (BCR) post-prostatectomy, stressing the importance of risk stratification. Subsequently, Prof. Bertrand Tombal (Cliniques Universitaires Saint Luc, Belgium) discussed strategies to optimise the systemic therapy for patients at both low and high risk after which Prof. Piet Ost (Ghent University, Belgium) discussed the integration of metastasis-directed therapy with systemic approaches in patients with metachronous metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer.
Read moreBJMO - 2024, issue Special, march 2024
J. Collins PhD, T. Feys MBA, MSc
During the 11th 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.
Read moreBJMO - 2024, issue Special, march 2024
J. Blokken PhD, PharmD, T. Feys MBA, MSc
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.
Read moreBJMO - 2024, issue Special, march 2024
A. Enguita PhD, T. Feys MBA, MSc
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.
Read moreBJMO - 2024, issue Special, march 2024
A. Enguita PhD
During the bladder cancer session at BMUC 2024; Prof. Ananya Choudhury (The University of Manchester, Manchester) underscored the necessity of reevaluating radiotherapy as a treatment for localised non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), underscoring its efficacy and safety also in elderly patients. Prof. Evanguelos Xylinas (Hôpital Bichat-Claude Bernard – APHP Nord, Paris) focused on emerging therapies for high-risk NMIBC patients unresponsive to Bacillus Calmette-Guérin treatment, such as intravesical gene therapy or immunotherapy. Finally, Prof. Sylvie Rottey (University Hospital Ghent, Ghent) discussed the pivotal Check-Mate-901 and EV-302 trials, which have transformed the first-line treatment of metastatic urothelial carcinoma.
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