Cutting Edge Science Merits Cutting Edge Technology

When I wrote about survey results from our spring group meeting, I hinted at changes to come with our next meeting agenda book. Our primary change to the book is this: we will no longer print it. Skipping the paper copies will save us many thousands of dollars each year and, of course, spare a few thousand trees over the long term.

The book, with all of its great content, will still be available online in PDF form (you can print pages as needed), and our website will continue to host the meeting information you need (most of it is there now, in fact). We will also roll out a new mobile app soon, which you can use to plan your week and direct your steps, once you’re at the Hyatt in Chicago.

This new app will:

• let you create your schedule, annotate sessions, and add them directly to your calendar
• provide a directory of presenters and session leaders (and attendees who have opted in!)
• offer an easy route for claiming continuing medical education (CME) credits for sessions you attend
• give you access to most of the same key resources you’ve come to expect in the agenda book, such as floor plans and exhibitor information
• include a link to the agenda book PDF

Because paper is still awfully handy, however, printed copies of our pocket-sized “agenda card” will still be available (redesigned for improved readability).

Our mobile app is still in production and will be linked from the group meeting website when it’s ready. If you don’t get a chance to install the app before arriving in Chicago, you’ll be able to point your phone at a QR code to download it when you pick up your badge. And if you would rather not install another app, you can access the same content through a web browser.

Additional benefits of the new technology include a speakers’ portal for those presenting or leading sessions. This will be launched soon and will serve as a one-stop shop at which speakers can:

• access all travel and lodging information, links, and reimbursement forms
• submit required conflict of interest disclosure information
• download presentation templates
• upload slides and handouts for their talk (and a bio and photo, if they’d like)

These new tools should also make it easier for you to claim CME credits for sessions you’ve attended, and they will definitely make it easier for staff to process those claims. CME credits are available for 26 sessions this fall – look for the “[CME]” indicator next to session names in the schedule.

Using your phone or tablet rather than a paperback book to plot your path through a conference is something you’ve probably been doing at other meetings for some time now. Look for SWOG’s new venture into the game – the meeting app – soon. I hope to see you, app in hand, in Chicago!

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Trial of the Week

S2012: Randomized Phase II/III Trial of First Line Platinum/Etoposide with or without Atezolizumab in Patients with Advanced or Metastatic Poorly Differentiated Extrapulmonary Neuroendocrine Carcinomas 

S2012 is the first prospective NCTN study in extrapulmonary neuroendocrine carcinoma, a rare and aggressive cancer.

The study is a randomized three-arm trial that tests adding atezolizumab immunotherapy to standard chemotherapy with a platinum drug plus etoposide. A third trial arm follows the platinum-plus-etoposide-plus-atezolizumab treatment with up to one year of atezolizumab maintenance therapy. The primary endpoint being compared is overall survival.

The study was activated in December of 2021, but a revision at the end of 2022 broadened the eligibility criteria, which was formerly limited to patients with small cell disease. It now enrolls both small cell and large cell subtypes of extrapulmonary, poorly differentiated neuroendocrine carcinomas.

Since that amendment, the pace of accrual to the trial has increased markedly. Though the study has enrolled only 22 patients in 20 months, 16 of those patients have been enrolled in the eight months since the protocol was revised. Nevertheless, with an enrollment goal of 189 patients, we still have a long way to go.

The study is now open at 129 sites throughout the NCTN. If your site is not one of those 129, I encourage you to revisit the protocol and consider opening it. David B. Zhen, MD, of the University of Washington, is study chair.

Learn more at the SWOG S2012 page or the CTSU S2012 page.