“Driving Knowledge to Action: Building a Better Future” is the presidential theme for this year’s ASCO Annual Meeting, May 30 to June 3 in Chicago and online. The opening session will include addresses by Robin Zon, ASCO president, Ruth Porat, president and CIO of Alphabet and Google, and author Douglas Abrams, who will speak on mental immunity and borrowing hope in times of crisis.
A record-breaking 7,775 abstracts were submitted; of those, 3,200 were selected for presentation. The top five clinical abstracts, all of late-breaking results from phase 3 randomized clinical trials, will be featured in the Plenary Session. They include results from Alliance A021502 ATOMIC, standard chemotherapy alone or with atezolizumab as adjuvant therapy for stage 3 deficient DNA mismatch repair colon cancer (LBA1); NIVOPOSTOP (GORTEC 2018-01), adjuvant nivolumab added to radio-chemotherapy in resected head and neck squamous cell carcinoma at high risk of relapse (LBA2); VERIFY, rusfertide for treatment of polycythemia vera (LBA3); SERENA-6, a circulating tumor (ct) DNA-guided trial of camizestrant + CDK4/6 inhibitor for emergent ESR1 mutations during first-line endocrine-based therapy and ahead of disease progression in hormone receptor (HR)+/HER2– advanced breast cancer (LBA4); and event-free survival in MATTERHORN, durvalumab plus 5-fluorouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin and docetaxel chemotherapy in resectable gastric/gastroesophageal junction cancer (LBA5).
In addition to LBA4, at least 50 oral abstracts and posters include the use of ctDNA in cancer detection or monitoring treatment response. The role of ctDNA is also addressed in a clinical science symposium and an education session.
Other phase 3 trial results to be presented include INAVO120, final overall survival analysis of first-line inavolisib or placebo + palbociclib + fulvestrant in PIK3CA-mutated, HR+, HER2-negative, endocrine-resistant advanced breast cancer (Abs1003); primary results of ASCENT-04/KEYNOTE-D19, sacituzumab govitecan + pembrolizumab vs chemotherapy + pembrolizumab in previously untreated PD-L1+ advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (LBA109), primary analysis of DESTINY-Gastric04, trastuzumab deruxtecan vs ramucirumab + paclitaxel in second-line treatment of HER2+ unresectable/metastatic gastric cancer or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma (LBA4002), and AMPLITUDE, niraparib and abiraterone acetate plus prednisone for metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer with alterations in homologous recombination repair genes (LBA5006).
The Education Program includes an ASCO/ESMO joint session on integrating molecular diagnostics into clinical care, and an ASCO/AACR joint session on lessons from gene therapy in practice, including a presentation by patient advocate Jimi Olaghere, one of the first patients with sickle cell disease to receive CRISPR-based gene therapy.
ASCO has partnered with the Society of Integrative Oncology (SIO) to produce clinical guidelines for pain, fatigue, anxiety, and depression in patients with cancer. An education session will review real-world implementation of these guidelines. ASCO has also partnered with the Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC), recently releasing guidelines for survivorship care for those affected by advanced or metastatic cancer. An education session will profile the MASCC-ASCO standards and practice recommendations.
In-person attendees will be able to take advantage of multiple Communities of Practice (interest groups), e.g., global oncology, ethics, health policy, LGBTQ+, survivorship, palliative care, adolescent and young adults, and cancer care for veterans.
Dr. Lederman has no conflicts of interest to report.
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