For this edition of The Onco'Zine Brief, recorded during 59th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology held December 9 to 12, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia, Peter Hofland and Sonia Portillo, the team behind show, sat down with Steven E. Benner, M.D., Senior Vice President and Therapeutic Area Head for Oncology at Astellas Pharma.

In this interview Hofland and Portillo asks Benner about the many changes at Astellas, the company’s focus and some of the greatest challenges the company faces. They also talk about the definition of personalized medicine, precision medicine and targeted therapies – and the differences of these approaches beyond the typical ‘buzz words’ – and how personalized medicine, is changing the drug development process.

Hofland and Portillo also ask Benner to share his own impression of this years annual meeting ('Real dramatic progress in the development of novel therapeutic drugs designed to maximize the patient benefit...') and what he thinks is the most exciting clinical news presented.

And, finally, Hofland and Portillo talk with Benner about the results of a poster his company presented about the “Economic Burden of Treatment Episodes in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Patients in the U.S.” Which includes new information about the major drivers of economic burden for Acute Myeloid Leukemia Patients and therapeutic strategies needed to deal with this burden.