ESMO Congress: European Society for Medical Oncology

The phase 2 PICCOLO trial demonstrated that mirvetuximab soravtansine (Elahere; AbbVie) is effective and tolerable in heavily pre-treated patients with folate receptor alpha-positive (FRα+), platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer.

Multiple sessions at ESMO Congress 2024 covered antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), which are an emerging therapy that holds great promise in cancer but comes with challenges.

The phase 1/2 SAINT study is currently investigating intravenous trabectedin plus ipilimumab and nivolumab in the first line for advanced soft tissue sarcoma.

The first overall survival analysis of the KEYNOTE-522 trial showed positive outcomes with neoadjuvant pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy followed by adjuvant pembrolizumab monotherapy vs neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone in high-risk early-stage triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).

Nicolas Girard, MD, head of the Curie-Montsouris Thorax Institute, discusses patient-reported outcomes (PROs) from the phase 2 LUMINOSITY trial of telisotuzumab vedotin (Teliso-V) in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

The evolving landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) use in cancer care requires evaluation of algorithms before implementation and continual monitoring after, explained Amy Abernethy, MD, cofounder of Highlander Health and former FDA official.

At ESMO Congress 2024, Shuji Ogino, MD, PhD, MS, explained that the rising incidence of young-onset cancer may be due to generational risk factors such as lifestyle, diet, and environmental changes, emphasizing the need for long-term research and follow up to understand early-life influences on cancer development.

Lowered costs and incremental effectiveness could improve when using biomarker-guided selection for treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer using first-line nivolumab.

Clinical research presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress 2024 highlights the significant survival benefits of perioperative and neoadjuvant immunotherapy with nivolumab and nivolumab plus ipilimumab, while emphasizing the role of biomarkers, such as circulating tumor DNA and KRAS mutations, in guiding treatment decisions.

Mirvetuximab soravtansine showed high evidence of efficacy in heavily pretreated FRα-positive, platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer, which is a challenging patient population to treat, Angeles Alvarez Secord, MD, MHSc, gynecologic oncologist at Duke Health, said.

While neoadjuvant therapy in stage III or greater melanoma is already the standard of care, new research presented at European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2024 shows that what therapy is used is important for outcomes.

Enfortumab vedotin showed a robust disease control rate in patients with urothelial cancer outside of a clinical trial, and its efficacy was not inferior in patients with diabetes and/or neuropathy.

Sheela Rao, MBBS, FRCP, MD, consultant medical oncologist at the Royal Marsden Hospital, discussed the findings of the POD1UM-303/InterAACT2 trial of retifanlimab plus chemotherapy for squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal (SCAC).

Jonathan Riess, MD, MS, director of thoracic medicine at UC Davis Health, gave insight into the rationale and efficacy data for combining cancer vaccine IO102-IO103 with pembrolizumab in advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.

Deepened, persistent responses were seen in the long term among patients with advanced melanoma treated with fianlimab and cemiplimab, Meredith McKean, MD, MPH, director of melanoma and skin cancer research for Sarah Cannon Research Institute, explained.

Using real-world data, researchers compared 2 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies with a bispecific antibody, teclistamab, in multiple myeloma (MM).

Trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) was effective in patients with HER2-positive (HER2+) metastatic breast cancer, with no new safety profiles observed.

Disparities continue in younger patients, raising the need for novel interventions to mitigate challenges associated with younger age at diagnosis.

During ESMO Congress 2024, sessions will focus on hot topics in therapeutic areas, such as antibody-drug conjugates; the latest trial data; health policy; and advances in technology.

Our most-read coverage from the 2023 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress included potentially practice-changing findings across a range of cancer types, including lung cancer, breast cancer, and urothelial carcinoma.

For patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), regardless of PD-L1 status, cemiplimab plus chemotherapy had favorable survival benefits and patient-reported outcomes over chemotherapy alone.

Neoadjuvant cemiplimab followed by surgery resulted in favorable survival outcomes for patients with resectable stage II to IV cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC), addressing an area of unmet need, explained Neil D. Gross, MD, FACS, of MD Anderson.

MARIPOSA demonstrated the combination reduced risk of progression or death by 30% compared with osimertinib. MARIPOSA-2 found amivantamab plus chemotherapy and amivantamab plus chemotherapy and lazertinib also improved progression-free survival (PFS) over chemotherapy after progression on osimertinib.

Helen Shih, MD, MS, MPH, FASTRO, Massachusetts General Hospital, weighs the risks and benefits of treating or postponing treatment of low-grade gliomas.

Tina Cascone, MD, PhD, of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the impact of the CheckMate 77T study on the treatment approach for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Datopotamab deruxtecan not only demonstrated a statistically significant improvement over chemotherapy for breast cancer and docetaxel for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but the intervention therapy had less toxicity.

Thomas Powles, MD, MBBS, MRCP, from Barts Cancer Centre, shares insights from the EV-302/KEYNOTE-A39 trial and its implications for the future of enfortumab vedotin and pembrolizumab (EV+P) combination therapy for urothelial carcinoma.

Enfortumab vedotin plus pembrolizumab not only beat chemotherapy in the first-line setting for locally advanced metastatic urothelial cancer for the first time in decades, but it nearly doubled progression-free survival and overall survival vs chemotherapy.

Regardless of presence of brain metastases, patients with HER2-mutant (HER2m) non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) showed systemic responses to trastuzumab deruxtecan. In addition, the therapy showed intracranial efficacy to reduce the size of brain metastases.

The results of CheckMate 77T showcase the improved event-free survival for patients with resectable non–small cell lung cancer who receive nivolumab in both the neoadjuvant and adjuvant setting and may have practice-changing implications.