ESMO 2021: Spectacular Scientific Review Despite Pandemic

The ever-widening perform of immunotherapy for ailments no longer customarily associated with these innovative medicines, corresponding to gynecologic and gastrointestinal cancers, will likely be a key characteristic of recent scientific data which can be presented on the drawing shut European Society of Scientific Oncology (ESMO) 2021.

The assembly, that might perchance presumably perchance perchance additionally very effectively be held on-line from September 16 to 21, will also glimpse headlining results from immunotherapy trials in melanoma, lung most cancers, and prostate most cancers, as effectively as learn of the impact of COVID-19 vaccination in most cancers patients.

“Right here’s the 2nd 365 days of the virtual ESMO assembly, and right here is compulsory on memoir of the pandemic and the lockdown possess impacted our scientific practice and learn,” mentioned conference press spokesman Antonio Passaro, MD, PhD, from the Division of Thoracic Oncology on the European Institute of Oncology, in Milan, Italy.

“But whilst you witness on the submitted abstracts and the details which can be presented all the diagram through ESMO, we can glimpse that scientific learn has been ‘resurrected,’ ” he told Medscape Scientific Files.

An good quantity of “top of the vary” data will likely be presented, mentioned Passaro, which is “necessary,” inasmuch as right here is the 2nd 365 days of the pandemic.

He underlined that it’s a long way “principal” to preserve in tips that “the pandemic affected no longer perfect the lives and quality of lifetime of our patients but also healthcare programs and the work and quality of lifetime of healthcare mavens.”

A fine quantity of the recent scientific data to be presented on the assembly will take care of the perform of immune checkpoint inhibitors in various styles of most cancers, Passaro commented. Heaps of these will likely be featured within the three Presidential Symposia which can be held on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

These consist of KEYNOTE-716, a trial comparing the adjuvant convey of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to placebo after full resection of high-likelihood stage II melanoma (abstract LBA3), and an prognosis of the IMpower010 trial that might perchance investigate the sites of relapse and subsequent therapy with atezolizumab (Tecentriq) when when put next with perfect supportive care after adjuvant chemotherapy in stage IB-IIIA non–minute cell lung most cancers (abstract LBA9).

Passaro commented that it’s a long way “lively to cloak” that the immunotherapy data at ESMO 2021 will no longer perfect be in these “classical ailments wherein immunotherapy improves survival” but also in various styles of most cancers, thus “widening the different for our patients” to learn.

There will likely be “necessary results” for immune checkpoint inhibitors for gynecologic cancers, as effectively as colorectal and gastric cancers, “which is a key topic for this ESMO assembly,” he mentioned.

Diversified highlights from the Presidential Symposia consist of the next:

• Outcomes from the section 3 KEYNOTE-826 peep of pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy vs placebo plus chemotherapy for power, recurrent, or metastatic cervical most cancers (abstract LBA2_PR)

• Outcomes from the CheckMate 649 peep, which examined nivolumab (Opdivo) plus chemotherapy or ipilimumab (Yervoy) when when put next with chemotherapy as first-line medication for superior gastric most cancers/gastroesophageal junction most cancers/esophageal adenocarcinoma (abstract LBA7)

• Outcomes from KRYSTAL-1, a section 1/2 trial of the investigational agent adagrasib (MRTX849, Mirati Therapeutics) as monotherapy or mixed with cetuximab for patients with colorectal most cancers harboring a KRASG12C mutation (abstract LBA6)

• Files from FIRSTMAPPP, the first international randomized peep of malignant progressive pheochromocytoma and paragangliomas comparing sunitinib (Sutent) with placebo (abstract 567O_PR)

• A mixed prognosis from the STAMPEDE protocol comparing androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) on my own to abiraterone acetate plus prednisolone, with or without enzalutamide, added to ADT for men with high-likelihood nonmetastatic prostate most cancers (abstract LBA4_PR)

• Outcomes from later-stage illness in men with de novo metastatic castration-sensitive prostate most cancers enrolled in PEACE-1, a section 3 trial investigating total survival with abiraterone acetate plus prednisone (abstract LBA5_PR)

As well, Passaro smartly-known that data will likely be presented on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on most cancers patients, as effectively as “lively results” on the enact of COVID-19 vaccination on patients and their medication, which is “principal for all of us” to understand. As an illustration, the CAPTURE substudy of the TRACERx Renal trial will explore adaptive immunity to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination in most cancers patients (abstract 1557O).

Moreover within the identical session, data will likely be presented from the VOICE peep on vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 in patients receiving chemotherapy, immunotherapy, or chemo-immunotherapy for solid tumors (abstract LBA8).

At a press conference held sooner than the assembly, Pasi A. Jänne, MD, PhD, from the Dana Farber Cancer Heart, Boston, Massachusetts, who’s the scientific co-chair of ESMO 2021, highlighted precision treatment as a key theme of the assembly.

He mentioned that right here is something the oncology neighborhood is “actively implementing worldwide to continue to create progress in most cancers therapies and as such enhance the outcomes of our patients.”

European Society of Scientific Oncology (ESMO) 2021.

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