Welcome to our special issue on highlights from the 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology's (ASCO) Annual Meeting, which was ASCO's second virtual meeting. Taking place from June 4 to 8, 2021, the ASCO Annual Meeting connected around 42,700 attendees from 138 countries to discuss the latest developments in cancer research. These included advances in the treatment of prostate, breast, lung, and renal cancers as well as screening, prevention, access to care, immunotherapy, and precision medicine.
Nearly 4,900 abstracts were available to view. Of note, these included the phase III OlympiA trial investigating the use of adjuvant olaparib after (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with germline BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations and high risk HER2-negative primary breast cancer (Abstract LBA1); primary phase III results from RELATIVITY-047 evaluating combination treatment with two immunotherapies (relatlimab plus nivolumab) vs. nivolumab in first-line treatment for patients with advanced melanoma (Abstract 9503), and results from the phase III VISION trial studying lutetium-177-PSMA-617 in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (Abstract LBA4).
In this special issue of JADPRO, you'll find coverage of important abstracts, including the aforementioned, along with insightful commentary from advanced practitioners in those specialties. These commentaries aim to contextualize the study findings and explain how they impact the care that advanced practitioners and health-care teams provide.
Health Equity in Cancer Care
The theme of this year's ASCO meeting was Equity: Every Patient. Every Day. Everywhere. Discussions during the meeting helped identify ways to ensure that all patients have access to and benefit from the latest cancer advances and high-quality cancer care. 2020 to 2021 ASCO President Lori J. Pierce, MD, FASTRO, FASCO, reflected on this theme in her presidential address on eliminating racial and socioeconomic disparities in cancer outcomes. Dr. Pierce highlighted that inequities that plague the health-care system have been even more pronounced with the pandemic, as COVID-19 has disproportionately affected people of color.
In the first conference report of this issue, you'll find commentaries by Amy Pierre, MSN, ANP-BC, of Flatiron Health and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, as she considers the data on disparities in health care; in particular, the lack of minority representation in clinical trials, and possible solutions to encourage clinical trial participation with our patients. Clinical trials are critical to test new methods of screening, prevention, diagnosis, and/or treatment of a disease. As oncology advanced practitioners, we are critical to equity in design, recruitment, and clinical trial completion. Our commitment to education and communication can help our patients with cancer make informed decisions about enrolling in clinical trials.
I hope you find the coverage in this issue to be of value for you and your patients. l