John Theurer Cancer Center Investigators Present Pioneering Research at Annual Cancer Meetings

Presentations focus on immunotherapy, genomics and psychosocial disparities in outcome:

Investigators from Hackensack Meridian John Theurer Cancer Center—part of the NCI-designated Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University—and Hackensack University Medical Center are presenting data from 24 studies at the upcoming American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, the largest gathering of cancer professionals. The meeting will be held June 2-6 in Chicago.

Many of the studies focus on innovative therapies for blood cancers and novel immunotherapies. These are areas of expertise for John Theurer Cancer Center, one of the world's leading centers for blood cancer treatment and home to one of the nation's largest stem cell transplantation programs. The findings of these investigations have the potential to change the treatment and understanding of hematologic and other cancers.

In addition, researchers from Hackensack Meridian Children's Health at Joseph M. Sanzari Children's Hospital presented seven studies at the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (ASPHO) meeting in Fort Worth in May. The nationally recognized hospital is home to the only pediatric stem cell transplant program in New Jersey and is one of the few treatment centers in the nation providing CAR T-cell immunotherapy for children and adolescents.

ASCO Annual Meeting Presentations:

John Theurer Cancer Center investigators present research on the next frontier in immunotherapy: building up on T cell engaging therapy CART T cells, bispecific antibodies and vaccines in cancer.

1. A phase II multi-cohort single-arm study of tiragolumab with atezolizumab plus bevacizumab in previously treated advanced non-squamous non–small-cell lung cancer.
2. Interim analysis of a phase II study of nivolumab/ipilimumab plus cabozantinib in patients with unresectable advanced melanoma.
3. Ombipepimut dosing emulsion (ODE) + bevacizumab (bev) vs bev alone in patients (pts) with recurrent or progressive glioblastoma (rGBM).
4. Phase 1 first-in-human study of PF-07257876, a novel CD47/PD-L1 bispecific checkpoint inhibitor, in patients with PD-1/PD-L1-refractory and -naïve advanced solid tumors.
5. A phase 1/2 study of the safety, tolerability, and preliminary efficacy of the anti-GITR monoclonal antibody, INCAGN01876, combined with immunotherapies (IO) in patients (Pts) with advanced cancers.
6. Efficacy and safety of elranatamab in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) and prior B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-directed therapies: A pooled analysis from MagnetisMM studies.
7. Subgroup analyses of primary refractory (refr) vs early relapsed (rel) large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) from the TRANSFORM study of lisocabtagene maraleucel (liso-cel) vs standard of care (SOC) as second-line (2L) therapy.
8. Outcomes among adult recipients of CD19 CAR T-cell therapy for Burkitt lymphoma.

Genomics: Research on machine learning to help characterize tumors beyond cancer cell somatic mutations.

1. Distinguishing between cancer-related mutations and clonal hematopoiesis using cell-free RNA (cfRNA) expression levels in a machine learning model.
2. Using machine learning to characterize lung cancer microenvironment and the development of a model to predict the presence of similar microenvironment in other cancers.
3. Defining the immune microenvironment in myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia using machine learning.

Research related to psychosocial disparities in outcome.

Mortality rate and social disparity trends with tyrosine kinase inhibitory availability in chronic myelogenous leukemia: An analysis in the US from 1999 to 2020.

Associations between psychosocial risk factors and immune checkpoint inhibitor outcomes.