Citations

ABSTRACT Objective Total laryngectomy (TL) represents a major operation often performed on medically complex patients. The impact of blood transfusion in TL patients is not well defined. Here, we utilize a national database to characterize these patients and further investigate a potential dose‐dependent relationship between transfusion and postoperative outcomes. Methods The National Surgical Quality Program (NSQIP) was queried for patients who underwent TL with/without neck dissection (CPT 31360, 31365) between 2014 and 2022. Total units of transfused blood were only available for patients between 2020 and 2023. Statistical analysis involved hypothesis testing, multivariate logistic regression, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Results Among 2311 patients, 413 (17.9%) received transfusions. Non‐White race, ASA Class ≥ 3, hypertension, cancer with distant metastases, bleeding disorders, and elevated BUN, WBC, and INR were associated with transfusion ( p < 0.05). Multivariate analysis identified hypertension (OR 1.81), bleeding disorders (OR 2.64), ASA ≥ 3 (OR 2.40), concurrent free flap (OR 3.75) and lower hematocrit (OR 0.85) as predictors. Transfused patients had longer hospital stays (12 vs. 9 days), increased complications (e.g., stroke, DVT), higher reoperation (23.2% vs. 13.9%) and mortality (2.7% vs. 0.8%) ( p < 0.05). ROC analysis suggested transfusion > 2.5 units was associated with adverse outcomes. Conclusion TL remains a major surgical endeavor that can be associated with lengthy and complicated hospital courses. We show that perioperative transfusion may be associated with increased hospital stay, reoperation, and mortality in TL patients, with a potential dose‐dependent effect. Our study reinforces the risks associated with blood transfusion and further supports the thoughtful utilization of blood products in TL patients. Level of Evidence 3.

PURPOSE Despite international medical graduates (IMGs) accounting for up to one third of all practicing oncologists in the United States, and nearly half of fellowship trainees, little is known about their contributions to presentations at international oncology meetings. Therefore, we investigated the representation of IMGs in invited faculty roles at the ASCO Annual Meeting as a representative example. METHODS Presentation data from ASCO 2022 and 2023 Annual Meetings were obtained from program guides. We collected presentation-level and speaker-level variables of invited faculty roles and original research. Speakers were categorized as American medical graduate (AMG), IMG, non–US-based, or non-MD (Doctor of Medicine). Univariable and multivariable analyses assessed factors influencing selection for invited faculty roles. RESULTS A total of 2,590 presentations by 2,109 unique speakers were reviewed, including primary research presenters and invited faculty. Among the 1,352 presentations by AMGs, 30% were primary research and 70% were invited faculty roles. For the 374 presentations by IMGs, 41% were primary research and 59% were invited faculty roles. Notably, first-author IMGs were significantly less likely to receive invited faculty roles relative to their primary research output compared with first-author AMGs (adjusted odds ratio, 0.69 [95% CI, 0.53 to 0.90]; P = .006), even when accounting for academic rank, presumed sex, and year. CONCLUSION Relative to IMGs' original research output, IMGs appear to receive fewer invitations for ASCO Annual Meeting invited faculty roles compared with AMGs. Our findings suggest potential underrepresentation and under-recognition of IMGs in these roles, despite their contributions to the oncology workforce in the United States.

Black patients with metastatic prostate cancer have higher mortality rates compared to non-Hispanic White patients. There are no data on outcomes with [177Lu]Lu-PSMA-617 (LuPSMA) across racial groups. We evaluated the association between race and outcomes with LuPSMA in a multi-institutional cohort of consecutive patients with mCRPC treated with LuPSMA. The primary outcomes were PSA-50 rate, PSA-progression-free survival (PSA-PFS), and overall survival (OS). Statistical models were adjusted for age, number of prior therapies, sites of metastases, and baseline PSA. A total of 654 patients were included; 593 (91%) were White, 45 (7%) were Black and 16 (2%) were another non-Black minority (NBM). There were no statistically significant differences in PSA-50 rates, PSA-PFS and OS between the groups. Black and White patients treated with LuPSMA had similar clinical outcomes; efforts are needed to ensure Black and NBM patients have equal access to life prolonging therapies to narrow disparities in outcomes.

3553 Background: Vilastobart (XTX101) is tumor-activated, high affinity, Fc-enhanced aCTLA-4 designed to focus activity toward the tumor and minimize systemic adverse events. Fc-enhancement augments FcγR co-engagement on antigen presenting cells and has been linked with efficacy of aCTLA-4 combinations in patients (pts) with microsatellite stable (MSS) colorectal cancer (CRC) and other tumors [Fakih ASCO GI 2025]. Vilastobart was generally well-tolerated and demonstrated evidence of anti-tumor activity in pts with immunologically “cold” advanced solid tumors, both as a monotherapy and in combination with atezolizumab [Davar SITC 2024]. Methods: Phase 2 of the NCT04896697 study evaluated the initial recommended Phase 2 dose of vilastobart 100 mg Q6W in combination with atezolizumab 1200 mg Q3W in pts with MSS CRC who had at least 1 prior chemotherapy regimen in the metastatic setting, excluding pts with prior immune checkpoint inhibitors. Pts with (LM) and without liver metastasis (NLM) were eligible. Tumor biopsies were obtained before and during treatment for translational analyses. Results: As of January 13, 2025, 40 pts were dosed in Phase 2. Median age was 55 (25-82) and 70% of pts had 3 or more prior lines of therapy. Of the 24 enrolled NLM pts, 11 were response-evaluable with an available on-treatment scan as of the data cut. In these 11 pts, two confirmed and one unconfirmed partial response (PR) were reported, all accompanied by significant decreases in ctDNA and serum tumor marker CEA and with each pt ongoing on therapy, for a preliminary ORR of 27%. One additional pt (with peritoneal metastasis) had a 24% reduction in target lesions (first scan) and was ongoing on therapy. Of the 16 enrolled LM pts, 7 were response evaluable, with one stable disease and another pt reporting a mixed response with significant serum tumor marker reductions, both ongoing on therapy. Of note, one LM pt in Phase 1C dose escalation treated with vilastobart (150 mg Q6W) combination had a confirmed PR with LM resolution. Six pts (15%) reported G3+ treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs), with two G4 laboratory TRAEs and no G5 TRAEs. Only three pts discontinued therapy for TRAEs. TRAEs occurring in ≥10% (all grade) or ≥5% (G3) of pts are summarized in the Table. Conclusions: The combination of vilastobart, a novel tumor-activated, Fc-enhanced a-CTLA-4, and atezolizumab demonstrated initial evidence of anti-tumor activity in late line, metastatic MSS CRC where immune checkpoint blockade has historically been relatively ineffective. Vilastobart was observed to have a differentiated safety profile distinct from systemically active a-CTLA-4, consistent with tumor-selective activation. Clinical trial information: NCT04896697 . AE term All Graden (%) Grade 3n (%) Fatigue 12 (30%) 0 Diarrhea 8 (20%) 0 Infusion related reactions 5 (13%) 0 Pyrexia 4 (10%) 0 ALT increased 4 (10%) 0 AST increased 4 (10%) 1 (3%) Colitis 2 (5%) 2 (5%)

e19554 Background: Adding daratumumab to standard multiple myeloma (MM) regimens improves response rates and clinical outcomes. Systematic reviews (meta-analyses) allow further evaluation of its effectiveness in MM patients with high-risk cytogenetic factors but are limited by model assumptions. his study addresses these limitations using a novel synthetic individual patient data (SynIPD) generation algorithm to enable a more robust analysis. Methods: Advances in AI have enabled the creation of synthetic data that mimics the statistical properties of real patient data, empowering aggregated analyses of clinical trials. This study focuses on newly diagnosed MM (NDMM) and relapsed/refractory MM (RRMM) patients with high-risk cytogenetic profiles. Six studies were included: ALCYONE, CASSIOPEIA, and MAIA for NDMM, and CANDOR, CASTOR, and POLLUX for RRMM. Large language models extracted clinical evidence, and SynIPD was generated, incorporating cytogenetic profiles. Random-effects meta-analyses were conducted, and results were compared with pooled analyses using synthetic data. Results: Synthetic data were generated for three studies for NDMM (ALCYONE, CASSIOPEIA, MAIA) and three studies for RRMM (CANDOR, CASTOR, POLLUX). The generated hazard ratios (HRs) for each study closely aligned with reported HRs for high-risk patients, with a maximum relative error of less than 2%. By pooling these datasets, we obtained synthetic datasets for NDMM and RRMM patients. Stratified Cox regression analyses yielded HRs (95% confidence interval) of 0.764 (0.529-1.104) for NDMM and 0.431 (0.294-0.613) for RRMM. Random-effects meta-analyses showed HRs (95% confidence interval) of 0.764 (0.529-1.104) for NDMM and 0.425 (0.287-0.621) for RRMM. Compared with traditional meta-analysis techniques, the synthetic data approach provides additional clinical insights that were not available in the original publications. For instance, the clinical results for the three NDMM studies are summarized as KM curves in Figure 1, which were not reported in the original studies. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the addition of daratumumab to standard regimens improves PFS for RRMM patients with high-risk cytogenetic factors, although its benefit for NDMM patients is not statistically significant. Pooling synthetic data enhances the robustness of conventional meta-analysis outcomes. The identification of HRs and corresponding confidence intervals through SynIPD improves the credibility of our proposed method, offering a reliable approach to evaluating the efficacy of daratumumab in high-risk patients. Since SynIPD includes individual covariate information, it provides deep clinical insights beyond merely enhancing meta-analysis. In other words, any statistical results derived from the original IPD can be effectively approximated using SynIPD.

e13656 Background: Evidence-based medicine is crucial for clinical decision-making, yet studies suggest that a significant proportion of treatment decisions do not fully incorporate the latest evidence. Large Language Models (LLMs) show promise in bridging this gap, but their reliability for medical recommendations remains uncertain. Methods: We conducted an evaluation study comparing five LLMs’ recommendations across 50 clinical scenarios related to multiple myeloma diagnosis, staging, treatment, and management. The evaluation included three general-purpose LLMs (OpenAI o1-preview, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Gemini 1.5 Pro), one retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) system (Myelo), and one agentic workflow-based system (HopeAI). General-purpose LLMs generated responses based solely on their internal knowledge, while the RAG system enhanced these capabilities by incorporating external knowledge retrieval. The agentic workflow system extended the RAG approach by implementing multi-step reasoning and coordinating with multiple tools and external systems for complex task execution. Three independent hematologist-oncologists evaluated the LLM-generated responses using standardized scoring criteria developed specifically for this study. Performance assessment encompassed five dimensions: accuracy, relevance, comprehensiveness, hallucination rate, and clinical use readiness. Results: HopeAI demonstrated superior performance across accuracy (82.0%), relevance (85.3%), and comprehensiveness (74.0%), compared to OpenAI o1-preview (64.7%, 57.3%, 36.0%), Claude 3.5 Sonnet (50.0%, 51.3%, 29.3%), Gemini 1.5 Pro (48.0%, 46.0%, 30.0%), and Myelo (58.7%, 56%, 32.7%). Hallucination rates were consistently low across all systems: HopeAI (5.3%), OpenAI o1-preview (3.3%), Claude 3.5 Sonnet (10.0%), Gemini 1.5 Pro (8.0%), and Myelo (5.3%). Clinical use readiness scores were relatively low for all systems: HopeAI (25.3%), OpenAI o1-preview (6.0%), Claude 3.5 Sonnet (2.7%), Gemini 1.5 Pro (4.0%), and Myelo (4.0%). Conclusions: This study demonstrates that while current LLMs show promise in medical decision support, their recommendations require careful clinical supervision to ensure patient safety and optimal care. Further research is needed to improve their clinical use readiness before integration into oncology workflows. These findings provide valuable insights into the capabilities and limitations of LLMs in oncology, guiding future research and development efforts toward integrating AI into clinical workflows.

7547 Background: Minimal residual disease (MRD) has been recently accepted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an endpoint for accelerated approval in Multiple Myeloma. However, emerging data from recent trials were not included in previous analyses. While literature-based meta-analyses on the correlation between MRD and approved clinical outcomes typically require extensive manual review, leveraging AI with expert-in-the-loop validation can efficiently generate reliable evidence from comprehensive clinical studies with up-to-date outcomes. Methods: An AI-assisted framework was developed to identify relevant studies and extract critical information via two independent objectives. The first objective examined trial-level associations, modeling treatment effects on MRD and clinical endpoints across patient populations using weighted least squares, with association strength measured by coefficients of determination (R²) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The second objective analyzed individual-level associations using synthetic individual patient data (SynthIPD) generated from the published Kaplan-Meier plots and summary statistics of patient subgroups. Results: AI-assisted screening identified eligible studies (>50 patients per treatment arm) reporting progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and MRD-negative complete response rates (MRD-CR rate) using multi-parameter next-generation flow cytometry or sequencing methods (sensitivity threshold ≥10⁻⁵), expanding previous analyses from 15 to 20 two-arm studies. Trial-level analysis demonstrated an R² of 0.69 (95% CI 0.50–0.89) for PFS log hazard ratio versus MRD-CR rate log odds ratio. Analysis of synthetic individual data from Kaplan-Meier curves using a novel digitization method yielded a global odds ratio of 7.28 (95% CI 5.60–8.95) for individual-level correlation between MRD-CR rates and PFS outcomes. Conclusions: This study validates MRD-CR rate as an endpoint for accelerated approval in MM through rapid AI-assisted literature review and synthetic individual patient data. The findings demonstrate moderate correlation between MRD-CR rate and median PFS at both trial and individual levels, consistent with previous literature but incorporating additional eligible studies. The novel SynthIPD approach presents an efficient alternative to traditional data-sharing methods while maintaining analytical robustness. These results align with current Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) surrogacy analysis methods and support the utility of MRD assessment in MM clinical trials.

5013 Background: There is no established role for the use of docetaxel with ADT and RT for HRLPC, with mixed results seen in prior RCTs. Prior work from ICECaP (Ravi et al, Eur Urol 2024) has shown that patients (pts) with very high-risk disease (i.e. 2 or 3 risk factors [RFs]: Gleason ≥8, PSA >20, ≥cT3 and/or cN1) have the poorest outcomes with RT+ADT for HRLPC, with 5-year metastasis-free survival (MFS) of ≤80%. We aimed to perform an IPD meta-analysis of the role of docetaxel with ADT+RT for HRLPC and specifically evaluate whether patients with very high-risk disease benefit from the addition of docetaxel. Methods: IPD from RCTs involving pts with HRLPC treated with RT+ADT +/- docetaxel collated by ICECaP were analyzed. “High-risk” disease was defined as presence of 1 RF and “very high-risk” disease as 2-3 RFs and/or cN1 disease. The primary outcomes of interest were MFS and overall survival (OS). Hazard ratios (HR) for MFS and OS were estimated using Cox regression, stratified by year of randomization and adjusted for age at randomization and ECOG performance status. 5-year MFS and OS rates were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Subgroup analyses were performed according to the severity of disease (high- and very high-risk), and p-values for interaction were tested using the likelihood ratio test. Results: 1690 pts treated on 4 RCTs (GETUG-12, DFCI 05-043, STAMPEDE, RTOG-0521) between 2002-2015 were eligible. Median age was 65, median PSA was 23 (IQR 10-48); 154 (9%) pts had cN1 disease and 1444 (85%) received long-term ADT with RT. Median follow-up was 10 years (range: <1-15). Overall, the addition of docetaxel to RT+ADT was not associated with a significant benefit in MFS (HR=0.89 [0.76-1.05], p=0.160) or OS (HR=0.88 [0.74-1.05], p=0.167). Though there was some evidence for favoring docetaxel in pts with very high-risk disease (n=1054; MFS HR=0.86 [0.71-1.05]; OS HR=0.85 [0.68-1.07]) compared to high-risk disease (n=636; MFS HR=0.97 [0.74-1.27]; OS HR=0.95 [0.71-1.28]), there was no evidence of a significant difference in treatment effect by risk group (p-interaction >0.1). 5- and 10-yr MFS and OS in pts with high- and very high-risk disease, stratified by receipt of docetaxel, are shown in the Table. Conclusions: Some HRLPC pts with very high-risk disease may benefit from the addition of docetaxel to RT+ADT. Biomarker evaluation within this group may identify those who are candidates for treatment intensification with docetaxel with RT+ADT (+/- androgen receptor pathway inhibitors) in HRLPC. % (95% CI) High risk Very high-risk RT+ADT RT+ADT+docetaxel RT+ADT RT+ADT+docetaxel 5yr MFS 87 (82-90) 90 (86-93) 74 (71-78) 80 (76-83) 5yr OS 90 (86-93) 93 (90-96) 84 (80-86) 89 (86-92) 10yr MFS 67 (61-72) 71 (65-76) 51 (46-55) 55 (49-60) 10yr OS 74 (69-79) 77 (72-82) 62 (57-67) 67 (62-72)

Abstract Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) offer significant therapeutic potential, but traditional 2D culture on rigid substrates results in progressive cell enlargement and senescence, reducing proliferative capacity and therapeutic potency. This poses a major challenge for widespread clinical application. We explored a novel strategy for placenta-derived MSCs combining 2D expansion with 3D spheroid culture to address these limitations. Our research shows that culturing MSCs as 3D spheroids significantly reduces individual cell size and size distribution compared to 2D culture. Spheroid formation is feasible in chemically defined media with minimal cell death, and is enhanced by extracellular matrix protein supplementation. Although MSCs do not proliferate in 3D suspension, an alternating 2D/3D culture protocol, transitioning cells between 2D flasks and 3D spheroids after each passage, effectively slows MSC enlargement and senescence over long periods. This alternating method also preserves MSC immunomodulatory function, unlike continuous 2D culture which leads to its loss. For scalability, we developed an RGD-functionalized alginate hydrogel tube (AlgTube) system that mimics this alternating environment, supporting both adherent growth and chemically triggered spheroid formation. This alternating 2D/3D culture strategy and the scalable AlgTube platform provide a foundation for developing next-generation MSC manufacturing technologies to meet future clinical demands.