OncLive® On Air

Welcome to OncLive On Air®! I’m your host today, Riley Kandel.

OncLive On Air is a podcast from OncLive®, which provides oncology professionals with the resources and information they need to provide the best patient care. In both digital and print formats, OncLive covers every angle of oncology practice, from new technology to treatment advances to important regulatory decisions.
During Esophageal Cancer Awareness Month, OncLive® sat down with Peter Enzinger, MD, to discuss evolving standards and ongoing areas of uncertainty in the diagnosis and management of esophageal cancer. 
In the exclusive interview, Enzinger highlighted common diagnostic and staging pitfalls in newly diagnosed disease; outlined the evolving role of surgery, chemoradiation, and multidisciplinary care; and reviewed emerging targeted therapeutic strategies shaping treatment decisions in esophageal and gastroesophageal cancers. He also discussed ongoing clinical trials of interest, including studies evaluating zanidatamab-hrii (Ziihera), pembrolizumab (Keytruda)–based nonoperative approaches, and novel combinations incorporating Claudin 18.2–targeted therapy.
Enzinger serves as director of the Center for Esophageal and Gastric Cancer, institute physician, and medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, as well as an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. 
_____
That’s all we have for today! Thank you for listening to this episode of OncLive On Air. Check back throughout the week for exclusive interviews with leading experts in the oncology field.
For more updates in oncology, be sure to visit www.OncLive.com and sign up for our e-newsletters.
OncLive is also on social media. On X and BlueSky, follow us at @OncLive. On Facebook, like us at OncLive, and follow our OncLive page on LinkedIn.
If you liked today’s episode of OncLive On Air, please consider subscribing to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and many of your other favorite podcast platforms,* so you get a notification every time a new episode is posted. While you are there, please take a moment to rate us!
Thanks again for listening to OncLive On Air.
*OncLive On Air is available on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, CastBox, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, RadioPublic, and TuneIn.

In today’s episode, we welcomed Luhua (Michael) Wang, MD, to discuss the implications of the full FDA approval of brexucabtagene autoleucel (Tecartus; brexu-cel) for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). Dr Wang is a professor in the Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma in the Division of Cancer Medicine, as well as a professor in the Department of Stem Cell Transplantation at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
On April 2, 2026, the FDA granted traditional approval to brexu-cel based on data from the phase 2 ZUMA-2 trial (cohorts 1 and 2, NCT02601313; cohort 3, NCT04880434), with confirmatory data from cohort 3 showing that patients naive to a BTK inhibitor experienced an overall response rate (ORR) of 91% (95% CI, 82.5%-95.9%), a complete response (CR) rate of 79% (95% CI, 69.0%-87.1%), and a median duration of response (DOR) that was not reached (NR; 95% CI, 26.2 months-not evaluable).
Dr Wang detailed the evolution of therapies in the MCL treatment paradigm, leading up to the approval of brexu-cel and the integration of CAR T-cell therapy. Along with highlighting the evolution of MCL management, Dr Wang explained how data from cohort 3 of ZUMA-2 add further context to the role of CAR T-cell therapy in the treatment paradigm and how it may affect treatment sequencing considerations.

Breast Cancer Briefing, hosted by Sara Nunnery, MD, MSCI, a breast medical oncologist and the director of Breast Cancer Research at Tennessee Oncology in Nashville, is a podcast series that breaks down the latest news in breast cancer research, one conversation at a time.
In this episode, Nunnery sat down with Annie Bond, a breast cancer survivor and patient advocate.
Diagnosed with breast cancer at age 26, Bond shared how her initial concerns about a breast lump were repeatedly dismissed by medical professionals who cited her youth and lack of a family history of breast cancer. It took months of persistence before she received a diagnosis, at which point the cancer had already spread to her liver.
Bond emphasizes the necessity of self-advocacy and the value of seeking second or third medical opinions. Regarding fertility preservation, her first oncologist discouraged her from freezing her eggs, but her third oncologist provided a more personalized approach, using CDK4/6 inhibitors rather than immediate chemotherapy based on her luminal A disease subtype.
A significant portion of the conversation focused on the mental health toll of cancer. Bond discusses the "warrior" stereotype, the guilt and shame she felt, and her struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder. She says she found critical support in community and support groups, which helped normalize her feelings and provided a sense of belonging.
Regarding physical adverse effects, Bond detailed the challenges of medical menopause, including "menopause brain" and joint pain, which she manages through walking and stretching. She expressed frustration with health education that focuses on diet or alcohol as "blame" factors, noting that cancer can often develop regardless of lifestyle.
Bond explained how she advocates for metastatic breast cancer research funding and the use of artificial intelligence risk assessment models to account for factors like breast density. Her mission is to increase early detection and ensure patients with metastatic disease are viewed with hope.

Welcome to OncLive On Air®! I’m your host today, Courtney Flaherty.
OncLive On Air is a podcast from OncLive®, which provides oncology professionals with the resources and information they need to provide the best patient care. In both digital and print formats, OncLive covers every angle of oncology practice, from new technology to treatment advances to important regulatory decisions. 
In today’s episode, Michael J. Pishvaian, MD, PhD, sat down to discuss the evolving role of biomarker-directed strategies in gastrointestinal (GI) oncology, as well as the importance of early comprehensive testing to identify molecular drivers and resistance mechanisms when approaching frontline treatment selection and sequencing. 
Pishvaian serves as director of the Gastrointestinal, Developmental Therapeutics, and Clinical Research Programs for the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in the National Capital Region.
Pishvaian began the discussion by highlighting the shift from a disease-site-specific approach to a molecularly defined paradigm, noting that microsatellite instability–high status and NTRK fusions now dictate therapy regardless of tumor origin. He reviewed the transformational data from the phase 3 HERIZON-GE-01 trial (NCT04276493), positing that zanidatamab (Ziihera) could become the new standard of care for HER2-positive upper GI cancers due to unprecedented survival outcomes. He also emphasized the emergence of Claudin 18.2-directed therapies, noting that data from the phase 2 ILUSTRO study (NCT03505320) demonstrates remarkable progression-free survival when adding zolbetuximab (Vyloy) to mFOLFOX6 and nivolumab (Opdivo) for high-expressing subgroups.
The conversation then shifted to colorectal cancer, where Dr. Pishvaian detailed how data from the phase 3 BREAKWATER trial (NCT03845036) has "locked in" a paradigm requiring frontline testing for BRAF V600E mutations to guide the use of encorafenib (Braftovi) plus cetuximab (Erbitux). He also discussed the "care revolution" in KRAS inhibition, spotlighting the significant survival benefits seen with daraxonrasib in pancreatic cancer and the potential for novel allele-specific inhibitors to combat disease resistance.
Finally, Pishvaian addressed the practicalities of implementation, noting that testing rates in the community remain low. He advocated for prioritizing testing, including liquid biopsies and ctDNA, at the time of initial diagnosis to ensure no patient is left behind.
This content is a production of OncLive; this OncLive On Air podcast episode is supported by funding, however, content is produced and independently developed by OncLive.

In this podcast, experts Sanja Dacic, MD, PhD; Isabel Preeshagul, DO, MBS; and Soo-Ryum (Stewart) Yang, MD, discuss cases of patients with non–small cell lung cancer harboring actionable alterations.