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Forward05/26/2026 - Medical Grand Rounds: Circulating Tumor DNA- Directed Treatment Strategies in Colorectal Cancer
Please join us for our next Medicine Grand Rounds featuring our guest speaker, Jeanne Tie, MBChB, FRACP, MD, from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
Since oxaliplatin became standard of care two decades ago, eight large adjuvant trials have tried to improve on it in colon cancer, but none have succeeded. The issue is not that we have run out of good drugs; it's that we have been giving them to the wrong patients.
A blood test (circulating tumor DNA) that detects traces of tumor DNA is changing how we think about this. In this talk, Dr. Tie draws on her work leading the DYNAMIC trials to show how using that test to guide treatment decisions – treating only patients with detectable residual disease – can cut chemotherapy use in half without affecting survival outcomes. She will also discuss what happened when the same approach was applied to more advanced disease and why intensifying chemotherapy in that setting did not work the way we hoped.
Join us to see where the field is heading, and whether a patient's response on this blood test could one day be used by regulators to approve new drugs faster.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:
- Apply ctDNA-guided strategies to optimize adjuvant treatment decision-making, including de-escalation for low-risk patients and escalation considerations for high-risk disease.
- Analyze the prognostic and predictive role of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in colorectal cancer to differentiate patient risk for recurrence following definitive treatment.
- Evaluate emerging clinical trial designs and evidence supporting minimal residual disease (MRD)-directed treatment approaches, including their impact on patient outcomes and therapeutic development.
Jeanne Tie, MBChB, FRACP, MD — Medical Oncologist, Lower GI Research Lead, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Senior Research Fellow, Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Dr. Tie discloses she is a member of the CE Speakers’ Bureau for Pierre Faber, Merck Serono, MSD, and Takeda. A consultant for Haystack Oncology. A research/grant recipient from Grail, Valar, and Haystack oncology.
Disclosures:
No other members of the planning committee, speakers, presenters, authors, content reviewers and/or anyone else in a position to control the content of this education activity have relevant financial relationships with any companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
Accreditation Statement
In support of improving patient care, the University of Pittsburgh is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
The University of Pittsburgh designates enduring material activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit[s]™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Other health care professionals will receive a certificate of attendance confirming the number of contact hours commensurate with the extent of participation in this activity.
Available Credit
- 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
- 1.00 Attendance