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October was quite an active month for us! Please email brian.shkabari@queensu.ca if you need full access to any of our publications.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
- Our mentored fellows, Samuel Stevens and Laure-Anne Teuwen, published a high-impact paper in The Lancet Oncology highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the FDA’s guidance to overall survival assessment in cancer drug trials.
- BG, along with collaborators from India including Drs. Soumitra Shankar Datta and Bhawna Sirohi, published a seminal qualitative study paper in BMJ Oncology studying how Indian oncologists incorporate FDA approval decisions and international, national and local cancer care guidelines into their practice. Shocker: resource-stratified guidelines didn’t receive positive comments! This work complements our earlier work published in ESMO Open studying oncologists’ perceptions of endpoints, magnitude of benefit, and the price of drugs. Both of these papers are open access!
- We are also hosting a webinar to discuss these topics on December 2nd.
- I am sure you all are aware of the CSO Checklist for the design and interpretation of cancer drug RCTs by now. In October, Omar Abdihamid, one of the first CSO fellows co-mentored by Bishal Gyawali and Ian Tannock, published this research article in the European Journal of Cancer investigating what percentage of contemporary cancer drug RCTs published in major journals adhere to the CSO framework. The results may (or not) surprise you. Brian Shkabari, another lab member, is a co-author.
Media
- BG spoke with CBC Radio and CBC News about Ontario’s new FAST program to fast-track access to cancer drugs. Read more about this here.
- BG posted a video on his Skills Lab page at Medscape dissecting the difference between intention-to-treat and per-protocol analyses in RCTs and how they may mislead readers.
- BG posted another video on the Skills Lab page explaining in lay terms what P-values actually mean.
- Back in July when BG was in Sydney for ANZUP Annual meeting, he spoke with Prof. Declan Murphy for the GU Onc Podcast discussing communication, trial designs, and common sense oncology. This is now live – watch it here!
- BG published his annual ESMO highlights video in ecancer, marking the 10th anniversary of BG recording these highlights videos. Since launching 2 weeks ago it has already garnered 1500 views. If you want to see BG’s first ESMO round-up video back in 2016, here is the link!
Talks, Presentations, and Meetings
- Brian Shkabari gave a mini-oral presentation at Queen’s Health Sciences Research Day presenting on the FDA cancer drug approval landscape (ongoing work at our lab).
- Nicole Vorko gave a poster presentation at Queen’s Health Sciences Research Day presenting on the Health Canada cancer drug approval landscape (ongoing work at our lab), and won the best poster award! Congrats Nicole!
- Nitesh Kumar Karna, recipient of the 2025 Anita Gyawali-Ganesh Gyawali Health Research Award, presented his research findings at the ESMO 2025 Annual Meeting. He expressed gratefulness for receiving this award which supported his participation at ESMO 2025.
Future Events
- Sign up for our first BG Lab webinar in collaboration with Tata Medical Center Kolkata and BALCO Medical, Raipur, where we discuss how oncologists integrate approvals, guidelines, endpoints, magnitude of benefit, and drug prices into treatment decisions. Register today to secure your seat!
- BG is attending the Advanced Breast Cancer Meeting in Lisbon next week. If you are there, say Hello! He is giving a talk on Friday on endpoints in breast cancer trials.
- BG will be a panelist for a Patient Advocacy session at the 11th Annual Canadian Conference on Epigenetics in Banff, Canada.
Thank you for reading and stay tuned for next month’s update!
Dr. Bishal Gyawali 