Roswell Park Surgeons Share Insights on Up-Front Immunotherapy for Melanoma, Value in Surgical Cancer Care

BOSTON, MA — Two Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center faculty leaders will give invited talks during symposium sessions as the Society for Surgical Oncology (SSO) gathers this week for the 2023 International Conference on Surgical Cancer Care in Boston, Mass.

Stephen Edge, MD, will share insights on value-based cancer care in surgical oncology in a session he is also co-moderating: Value Based Cancer Care: Where Are We Now? The session runs Thursday, March 23, from 9 to 10 a.m. ET in Ballroom A.

“Value in cancer care is built around a commitment to closely tracking and analyzing indicators of care quality,” says Dr. Edge, a breast cancer surgeon who is Vice President for System Quality and Outcomes at Roswell Park and also Professor of Oncology in the center’s Department of Surgical Oncology. “We look at cost and outcome, but we also explore a number of factors that can impact short- and long-term quality of life. And this session will feature a discussion of many of these dimensions of value in the surgical care of cancer patients.”

Joseph Skitzki, MD, will present “Stage III (Incl PRADO Approach Discussion)” Thursday, March 23, from 9:16 to 9:30 a.m. ET as part of the De-Escalation of Surgery for Melanoma session, and will be part of a panel discussion from 9:45 to 10 a.m. ET — both in Ballroom C of the Sheraton Boston.

“The advent of immunotherapy for melanoma has revolutionized the treatment options available to patients, allowing us to avoid extensive surgery even for many patients whose melanoma has begun to spread to their lymph nodes,” says Dr. Skitzki, Professor of Oncology and Chair of the Melanoma/Sarcoma Disease Site Research Group at Roswell Park. “Patients who until recently would have been candidates for more extensive surgery can now be treated with immunotherapy first, and their response in a single lymph node may be used to guide treatment options — a potentially paradigm-shifting approach being assessed in a major international clinical trial.”

Roswell Park surgeons also led or contributed to these studies being presented as poster abstracts at the meeting:

• E10: Stromal cell-mediated autotaxin signaling enriches the inflammatory milieu in human breast cancer tumor microenvironment
• E102: Perioperative chemotherapy is associated with superior overall survival in patients with colorectal liver metastases
• E13: EIF4EBP1 expression reflects mTOR activity and cancer cell proliferation and is a biomarker for poor prognosis in breast cancer
• E159: Angiogenesis is associated with tumor immunogenicity and immune checkpoint expression in hepatocellular carcinoma
• E175: Expression of spinster homologue 2 (SPNS2) transporter in hepatocellular carcinoma is associated with lymphangiogenesis but decreased cell proliferation and better disease free survival
• E177: High Mesothelin Expression in Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma is Associated with High Cancer Cell Proliferation and Low Immune Response but Enhanced Sensitivity to Chemotherapy
• E209: High MKi67 Expression is Associated with Worse Oncologic Outcomes in Hepatocellular Carcinoma
• E232: A novel lentivirus generates erbb2 (HER2/neu) as a neoantigen target for NK antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity in melanoma
• E281: Clinical and Oncologic Outcomes of Colorectal Cancer in American Indian/Alaska Natives

The International Conference on Surgical Cancer Care is the annual meeting of the SSO, whose mission is to improve multidisciplinary patient care by advancing the science, education and practice of cancer surgery worldwide.

###
 

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is a community united by the drive to eliminate cancer’s grip on humanity by unlocking its secrets through personalized approaches and unleashing the healing power of hope. Founded by Dr. Roswell Park in 1898, it is the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in Upstate New York. Learn more at www.roswellpark.org, or contact us at 1-800-ROSWELL (1-800-767-9355) or ASKRoswell@RoswellPark.org.