Dr Ravin Ratan on Advancing Sarcoma Care at ASCO 2024

The 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting (ASCO) is set to take place May 31 through June 4, once again at McCormick Place in Chicago and online. The Sarcoma Oral Abstract Session scheduled for Monday, June 3, will see 9 abstract presentations covering study results (phase 3 MOTION, phase 1 StrateGIST 1, phase 2/3 JCOG0304, phase 2 SU2C-SARC03, phase 2 ImmunoSarc II, phase 2 ARTEMIS-002, phase 2 SARC037, first-line treatment of metastatic/unresectable soft tissue sarcoma) and efficacy findings on olverembatinib (HQP1351).¹

In this interview with The American Journal of Managed Care^® ahead of ASCO, Ravin Ratan, MD, MEd, associate professor and medical oncologist, Department of Sarcoma Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, who has been with the Sarcoma and Orthopaedic Center since 2015, discusses study data he is excited to hear more about. In particular, the combination of trabectedin and low-dose irinotecan for relapsed/refractory Ewing sarcoma.

Transcript

Why are you looking forward to ASCO this year?

One thing that caught my eye, because of what I do, is there’s been a study ongoing of a combination of trabectedin and irinotecan in Ewing sarcoma.² It’s an ongoing study that’s been out for a while, and I think their preliminary data readouts at other conferences have been positive. They look really good. This is another one of these drugs where it’s 2 drugs that have been around for a while, but it seems like combining them does something that we’re just starting to see might be better than the sum of the parts.³

And so that’s one of the [oral presentations] at the sarcoma oral session. And I’m excited to see that. I don’t know if it’s the final readout for the study or not. I hope that it is, because I think that that's a combination that we may be interested in using in patients in the future for clinical trials. So that's one.

I have to go back and look at some of the others. But that's the one that I sort of am most excited about among the abstracts so far.

References

1. Sarcoma, oral abstract session. Presented at: ASCO 2024; May 31-June 4, 2024; Chicago, IL. https://meetings.asco.org/2024-asco-annual-meeting/15797?presentation=231574#231574

2. SARC037: a phase I/II study to evaluate the safety of trabectedin in combination with irinotecan in Ewing sarcoma patients. ClinicalTrials.gov. Updated December 21, 1023. Accessed May 29, 2024. https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04067115

3. Grohar PJ, Ballman KV, Heise R, et al. SARC037: phase II results of trabectedin given as a 1-hour (h) infusion in combination with low dose irinotecan in patients (pts) with relapsed/refractory Ewing sarcoma (ES). Presented at: ASCO 2024; May 31-June 4, 2024; Chicago, IL.