In this episode, Dr. Doug Blayney, oncologist, former President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and the Chief Medical Officer of Manta Cares, discusses the latest advancements in breast cancer treatments presented at ASCO’s 2024 Annual Meeting. He highlights the significant progress in antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), which are engineered to specifically target cancer cells, offering new hope in cancer treatment. The Manta Cares team also attended the ASCO conference, presenting an abstract for a personal treatment management tool designed to assist cancer patients and survivors (and their families!) in navigating their next steps – Manta Maps!

Manta Maps are coming! Step-by-step subway maps that guide you through the entire cancer experience. Learn more here!

Key Highlights:

1. Advancements in breast cancer treatment were highlighted at the ASCO Annual Meeting this year, including alternatives to chemotherapy and the emergence of antibody drug conjugates (ADCs).

2. Checkpoint inhibitors help the immune system recognize and attack cancer cells by removing the "brakes" that prevent the immune system from targeting the cancer.

3. Personalized approaches to treatment based on patient age, co-morbidities, and cancer type, were highlighted, leading to more effective and tailored treatments. 

About our guest:

Dr. Doug Blayney is an oncology physician who specializes in breast cancer. His research focuses on quality improvement in cancer care systems, new drug development, and patient experience improvement. At the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), he was founding Editor-in-Chief of its flagship practice journal, and as President, started the ASCO Quality Symposium and began planning for ASCO’s CancerLinq. He was a founding member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Growth Factor Guideline panel, and is a past member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Oncology Drugs Advisory Committee and the NCCN Board of Directors. Dr. Blayney leads the Manta Cares Scientific Advisory Board as the Chief Medical Officer.

Key Moments:

At 1:05 "As a doctor who treats breast cancer, I thought it was important that we have a lot of alternatives to chemotherapy. So even though some of the studies were portrayed as negative because they didn't improve overall survival, I think pushing out the time a patient gets chemotherapy and its associated toxicities is a major advance.”

At 21:14 "We need better assays to predict who's going to respond to these ADCs (Antibody Drug Conjugates). We're learning that they're here to stay and they're a great benefit to many with breast cancer and other cancers." 

At 35:20 “It's thought that you and people without known cancer, develop one or two cancers a day, small little bitty ones and our body's immune system recognizes that as foreign and eats them up and the cancer doesn't grow and proliferate. One of the ways cancer grows, especially in adults, is immune escape. So somehow the brakes are put on the immune system at some point when that cancer develops. The IO checkpoint inhibitors are thought to work by taking off those brakes.”

Visit the Manta Cares website 

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