Thirty-one abstracts that included an investigator from a practice affiliated with OneOncology were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (ASCO) annual meeting in June.

Collectively, the research evidences the important role community practices have in advancing innovative cancer care and bringing cutting-edge therapies to patients who otherwise might not have the resources or availability to travel long distances to participate in a trial.

Investigators from Astera Cancer Care, Cancer & Hematology Centers of Western Michigan/START Midwest, Eastern Connecticut Oncology & Hematology, Los Angeles Cancer Network, New York Cancer & Blood Specialists, Piedmont Cancer Institute, Tennessee Oncology and West Cancer Center & Research Institute participated in studies that advance the goal of matching patients with the right therapy or trial at the right time in the right setting. The clinical research conducted at OneOncology partner practices addressed several research advancements including in biomarker testing, cellular therapies, checkpoint inhibitors, monoclonal therapies and other innovative therapeutic advancements to diagnose and treat different types of cancers including lung, colorectal, prostate and lymphoma, as well as other malignancies.

Biomarker Testing
Building on a previous OneOncology study, an abstract presented utilizing OneOncology data demonstrates that biomarker testing, which has advanced from single gene to next-generation sequencing, is the standard of care at our community-based oncology practices. The physician uptake of biomarker testing at OneOncology practices was significantly higher than what is typically seen in the community setting. As previous analysis showed, the OneOncology biomarker testing uptake is possibly “related to their network-wide strategy recommending NGS testing at diagnosis of advanced disease.”

CAR T
Several abstracts published at ASCO revealed trial data for novel immunotherapies, including CAR T cells. This data, coming from community practices and other trial sites, shows immense promise for using cellular therapies to treat different types of cancers including lung, colorectal, prostate, lymphoma and others.

Astera Cancer Care physicians were the only community-based oncology authors to present data from a PILOT study demonstrating that a CAR-T product, lisocabtagene maraleucel or liso-cel, is effective as second-line treatment for adults with relapsed large B-cell lymphoma who are not candidates for stem cell transplantation.

Novel Agents
Research conducted at Piedmont Cancer Institute in Fayetteville, Georgia was presented at ASCO demonstrating the benefits of plinabulin, a novel immune-enhancing small molecule, in the treatment of lung cancer. Plinabulin enhances dendritic cell maturation and T-cell proliferation, which improves a patient’s immune response. When used in combination with the chemotherapy drug docetaxel, plinabulin improved the quality of life of patients more than docetaxel alone. The plinabulin/docetaxel combination had superior efficacy, safety and QTWiST and is shown to be a viable treatment for non-small cell metastatic lung cancer.

Astera Cancer Care also utilized a novel agent, 177Lu-PSMA-617, to test its effectiveness against metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Patients who received 177Lu-PSMA-617 plus the best standard of care therapy had a 38% reduction in risk of death and a 60% reduction in the risk of radiographic disease progression compared to best standard of care alone.

Phase I Studies
Several OneOncology practices conduct Phase I studies, including first-in-human trials, which are often only available at academic centers. These trials are the first step in figuring out if drugs will work and at what doses they are most effective/least harmful. START Midwest and the Cancer and Hematology Centers of Western Michigan presented findings from several Phase I studies evaluating promising new treatments for patients who have limited treatment options post standard of care therapy.

OneR: Increasing Trials in Community Practices
OneOncology and our practice partners are deeply committed to scientific advancement and clinical trial access for the patients we serve. Our contributions­­--both as individual practices and affiliate members of the OneOncology Research Network, OneR--help to accelerate the pace of discovery for new, more effective treatments and ensure a more diverse, real-world patient population is included in the clinical trials we support. OneOncology and our partners will continue to pursue these research opportunities and to present our findings to the greater oncology community.