Current opinions on how to identify and treat NTRK fusion positive cancer

Dr David S. Hong is a Professor, Deputy Chairman in the Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics (Phase I Program), Clinical Medical Director of the Clinical Translational Research Center (CTRC), and Associate Vice President of Clinical Research at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Dr Hong was instrumental in forming one of the largest and most innovative Phase 1 clinical trial units in the world, with over 1300 patients enrolled in clinical trials in FY2021 and over 400 active ongoing clinical trials.

Dr Hong has been the Principal Investigator of over 120 research protocols that involve a wide range of sponsors, including the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP) at the National Cancer Institute. He has published over 374 publications in Peer-reviewed Journals such as NEJM, Lancet Oncology, JCO and Nature.

He has been involved in the early development of cabozantinib, siltuximab, dabrafenib, trametinib, regorafenib, lenvatinib, larotrectinib, tesotumab vendotin, and sotorasib the first drug to target KRAS that have led to FDA approval.

He has also helped found 2 companies OncoResponse and Telperian.

He is an expert on c-Met, NTRK, KRAS, and adoptive cellular therapy in solid tumors and has led several national trials such as the c-Met amplified, c-Met exon 14 deleted, and NTRK arms of the NCI-MATCH trial. He been awarded the ASCO Young Investigator Award, the Jesse Jones award, Best Boss award at MD Anderson, Irwin Krakoff Award for Clinical Research, and the Gerald P. Bodey award for education and Mentor of the year award in the Division of Cancer Medicine, MD Anderson.

Ezra Cohen, MD, is co‐Director of the San Diego Center for Precision Immunotherapy and an internationally renowned translational researcher. A physician‐scientist, Dr Cohen led an independently funded laboratory interested in mechanisms of action of novel therapeutics. He has made major contributions to targeted and immunotherapy. His research has received peer‐reviewed funding in the study of epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors, cell therapy, and immunotherapy in head and neck cancer. He has made major contributions to the understanding of critical signaling pathways, integration of novel agents into standard of care, and definition of mechanisms to overcome resistance to drug therapy. He has also recently co‐developed a personalized neoantigen vaccine using unique cancer mutations to boost an anti‐tumor immune response. Dr Cohen is Associate Director for Translational Science and leader of the Solid Tumor Therapeutics research program at Moores Cancer Center. He brings his expertise and preeminent reputation in head and neck cancer research and patient care to solid tumor therapeutics. Among other roles, he is chair of the Protocol Review and Monitoring Committee (PRMC) and serves as a member of the Cancer Council, and the Cancer Center’s Executive Committee. Dr Cohen recently served as editor‐in‐chief of Oral Oncology, the highest impact specialty journal in head and neck cancer, and currently serves as senior editor for Clinical Cancer Research. He has been the principal investigator on multiple studies of novel agents in head and neck cancer and other solid tumors in all phases of development including chemoprevention, phase I, II, and III trials. Dr Cohen has authored more than 170 papers and has presented his research at national and international meetings. In addition, he has served as a grant reviewer for the NIH, American Association for Cancer Research, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. Dr Cohen completed residencies in Family Medicine at the University of Toronto and in Internal Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed a Hematology/Oncology fellowship at the University of Chicago where he was named chief fellow. Prior to his arrival in San Diego, Dr Cohen was Co‐Director of the Head and Neck Cancer Program, Associate Director for Education and Program Director for the Hematology/ Oncology Fellowship at the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center. A dedicated educator, Dr Cohen also mentored and developed young faculty in his program.

Frédérique PENAULT-LLORCA, MD, PhD, graduated as a medical specialist in pathology in 1993 and in oncology in 1995. Also, in 1995, she received a PhD from the Université d’Aix-Marseille II in cellular biology and microbiology, on the topic of HER2. Professor PENAULT-LLORCA is currently professor of Pathology at the University of Clermont-Ferrand, CEO of the Comprehensive Regional Cancer Institute Centre Jean PERRIN, deputy director of the research team INSERM 1240 IMoST, and head of the Molecular Biology Plateform at Centre Jean Perrin, Clermont-Ferrand, France, and Vice-President of UNICANCER GROUP. She chairs the Immuno- Oncology group at UNICANCER R&D. She is a member of several pathology and oncology societies (ESMO, ASCO, ECP, AIP, SFP. Her main areas of interest as a pathology being female cancers. Professor PENAULT-LLORCA has conducted various biomarkers-based research studies in breast, ovarian, colorectal, gastric, and lung cancer in relation to response to targeted therapies and immunotherapies. She also acts as a coordinating pathologist for various oncology trials. Professor PENAULT-LLORCA has written more than 440 peer-reviewed publications and several books on female cancers and biomarker testing methods and issues.