The Governing Council of the University of Toronto

Franco, a clinical trial participant, faces organ inflammation from experimental medication, highlighting issues in Canada's clinical trial industry where participants, often economically desperate, are incentivized to lie about side effects to complete studies for full payment. Canada leads G7 nations in clinical trials per capita but lacks robust oversight, fostering a subculture of deception among participants. Health Canada aims to align with international best practices by 2025, but current oversight is limited, with only a fraction of trials inspected annually. Participants like Franco, lured by high compensation, often conceal health issues and side effects, risking their health and compromising study data integrity.

The CCRG HE1 trial, led by Laura A. Dawson, showed that adding single-fraction palliative radiotherapy to best supportive care significantly reduced pain in patients with hepatic cancer, with a notable reduction in opioid use in the radiotherapy group. The study, funded by the Canadian Cancer Society, suggests this could be a standard palliative treatment.

AMG 193, an MTA-cooperative PRMT5 inhibitor, showed responses in patients with MTAP-deleted solid tumors, with an acceptable safety profile. The phase 1 trial results, presented at the 2024 ESMO Congress, revealed partial responses and stable disease across various tumor types, including NSCLC, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, biliary tract cancer, and esophageal/gastric cancer. AMG 193 targets MTAP-deleted tumors selectively, avoiding normal cells, and preliminary data suggest potential for delayed responses and clinical benefit beyond partial responses.

TRUST-II trial data showed robust overall and intracranial responses with taletrectinib in ROS1-positive NSCLC patients, regardless of prior tyrosine kinase inhibitor exposure or geographic region. The trial included 55 tyrosine kinase inhibitor–naive and 50 –pretreated patients, with 61.8% and 44.0% from Asia, respectively. The confirmed overall objective response rates were 85.2% and 61.7% in the naive and pretreated cohorts, with intracranial rates of 66.7% and 56.3%. Safety findings included common gastrointestinal and neurologic toxicities, mostly grade 1, with no treatment-related deaths.

The Chris Hugh Sharp Cancer Centre in Ontario offers comprehensive cancer care, including detection, treatment, and research. Specialized in head and neck, breast, sarcomas, gastrointestinal, and peritoneal surface malignancies, it provides patient-centred support and advanced treatments like HIPEC. Affiliated with the University of Toronto and Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, it also trains future cancer care leaders.

Radiant Biotherapeutics, a Toronto-Philadelphia biotech startup, secured $35M in Series A funding to advance its Multabody platform, based on science from SickKids and U of T, targeting cancer, inflammation, immunology, and HIV. The round, co-led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Amplitude Ventures, values Radiant at $65M.

Taletrectinib, a ROS1 tyrosine kinase inhibitor, showed high overall and intracranial responses, durable responses, and favorable safety in ROS1+ NSCLC patients, both TKI-naive and TKI-pretreated, as presented by Dr. Geoffrey Liu at the IASLC 2024 WCLC.

Taletrectinib showed high overall and intracranial response rates, durable responses, and activity against the G2032R acquired resistance mutation in ROS1+ NSCLC patients, with a favorable safety profile and low neurologic AE incidence in both TKI-naive and TKI-pretreated patients, according to Dr. Geoffrey Liu's presentation at the IASLC 2024 WCLC.

Article lists affiliations and authors from various institutions including Nuffield Council on Bioethics, Stanford University, McGill University, National Institutes of Health, and more, across multiple countries.

Rashid Sayyid and Zachary Klaassen discuss 2024 NCCN prostate cancer guideline updates for systemic therapy in metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC), emphasizing treatment stratification by disease volume and timing. They cover clinical trials supporting triplet therapy for high-volume synchronous disease, like ARASENS and PEACE-1, and different treatment approaches for various patient subgroups. The role of prostate radiotherapy in low-volume synchronous mHSPC is reviewed, along with the expanding use of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for oligometastatic disease. The discussion concludes with a personalized treatment paradigm considering both disease volume and timing in mHSPC management.