CHICAGO – When it comes to the tradition of waiting only for phase III randomized trial data to guide cancer treatment, it’s time to accept that things have changed, according to Dr. Maurie Markman.
“We don’t need a randomized trial to answer every question. That era is over, and we’ve got to get over it,” Dr. Markman of Cancer Treatment Centers of American in Boca Raton, Fla., said in a video interview at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
The new era is one of “big data,” and it requires a collective effort across the specialty to help guide treatment; ASCO’s CancerLinQ project is a good example, he said.
Dr. Markman tackled the topic of “Challenging Established Paradigms” as the invited discussant for four abstracts presented during a gynecologic cancer abstract session at the meeting, addressing phase II findings from the OV21/PETROC study of intraperitoneal (IP) versus intravenous chemotherapy after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and optimal debulking surgery in epithelial ovarian cancer, a phase II study of IP carboplatin plus intravenous dose-dense paclitaxel in patients with suboptimally debulked epithelial ovarian or primary peritoneal carcinoma, the phase III MITO8 study looking at prolonging the platinum-free interval in certain patients with ovarian cancer, and a phase II study of everolimus, letrozole, and metformin in women with advanced/recurrent endometrial cancer.
In a video interview he provides a brief summary of the “important and incredibly provocative” study findings, along with his take on their value for current practice, and he offers a vision for how new paradigms can change practice going forward.
Dr. Markman is a consultant or adviser for Amgen, BIND Biosciences, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, Eisai, Genentech, and Hana BioSciences.