CONGRESS NEWS

Highlights in thoracic oncology

ESMO 2017 featured the presentation of several practice changing studies in the field of lung cancer. With respect to immunotherapy, durvalumab showed a benefit for patients with Stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) when taken after chemotherapy-radiation. This represents the first major study showing an immunotherapy benefit for patients with lung cancer that is not Stage IV.¹ A second key immunotherapy study showed that stage IV NSCLC patients who continued to take nivolumab beyond 1 year had a significantly longer progression-free survival (PFS) than patients who took the drug for 1 year.²

Also in the field of targeted therapy, ESMO 2017 may have induced a paradigm shift. In the phase III FLAURA study, the third-generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) osimertinib, which is already approved for recurrent NSCLC patients harboring an EGFR^T790M mutation, was associated with a superior PFS to the current standard of care EGFR-targeted drugs. This was especially the case for patients with brain metastases.³ More positive data in NSCLC patients with brain involvement came from the ALUR trial and from a secondary analysis of the ALEX study, showing that alectinib can significantly decrease central nervous system (CNS) progression of NSCLC, both in the first-line and in the second-line setting.^4,5

In addition to this, the combination of the BRAF inhibitor dabrafenib and the MEK inhibitor trametinib was shown to be an effective first treatment for BRAF^V600E mutated NSCLC.⁶

A final study worth mentioning in this introduction consists of the IFCT-0302 trial which demonstrated that frequent CT scans after surgery for early-stage lung cancer surgery did not improve survival. This should inform follow-up recommendations and should give patients some peace of mind that they don’t necessarily need CT scans every six months.⁷

(BELG J ONCOL 2017;11(7):317–325)

Highlights in breast cancer

In this article, the most important new studies presented at ESMO 2017 in Madrid in early (EBC) and metastatic breast cancer (MBC) are summarised. In EBC, 5 topics are highlighted: integration of PI3K and CDK4/6 inhibition in the neoadjuvant treatment of oestrogen receptor positive (ER+) EBC, dual endocrine blockade as adjuvant treatment in ER+ EBC, escalated adjuvant treatment in human epidermal growth factor receptor positive (HER2+) EBC and small tumours that can also show an aggressive course. In MBC, 4 topics are discussed: predicting immunogenicity in MBC, abscopal effect in MBC, confirmed benefit of PARP inhibitors in BRCA mutated MBC and CDK4/6 inhibition in first-line MBC.

(BELG J ONCOL 2017;11(7):309–314)

Highlights in gynaecological cancer

With more than 24,000 attendees, ESMO 2017 was the biggest oncology meeting ever organised in Europe. In the gynaecological cancer domain, there were some potentially practice-changing presentations in ovarian and cervical cancer, whereas new data in endometrial cancer were very sparse.

(BELG J ONCOL 2017;11(7):301–308)

Highlights in gastrointestinal cancers

The 53^rd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) took place once more in Chicago from June 2 to 6, bringing together more than 30,000 oncology professionals from around the world. This year’s meeting theme is “Making a Difference in Cancer Care with You.” Studies spanning the spectrum of GI cancer prevention and care, from new standards of care to immunotherapy and precision medicine, will be highlighted.

Highlights in genitourinary cancers

From June 2^nd till June 6^th, Chicago was host for the 53^rd ASCO annual meeting. The theme for this year’s venue was ‘Making a Difference in Cancer Care WITH YOU’. With over 35,000 registered attendees from over 100 countries worldwide and almost 6,000 submitted abstracts, this year’s meeting was a great success. This report will highlight 7 key studies concerning genitourinary cancers presented during the meeting.

Highlights in melanoma

The melanoma abstracts discussed in this highlights report will focus on three main themes. First, three abstracts will be discussed addressing adjuvant therapy in patients with high-risk melanoma. Secondly, long-term data were presented of a phase III study assessing pembrolizumab in ipilimumab-naïve advanced melanoma patients, followed by the 5-year overall survival (OS) data of a study with dabrafenib and trametinib in BRAF^V600 mutant metastatic melanoma. The third and last part of this summary will discuss the data of three clinical studies looking into the treatment of melanoma patients with brain metastasis. For a more complete overview of melanoma data presented at ASCO 2017 we would like to refer to the official congress website (www.am.asco.org).

Highlights in respiratory oncology

At ASCO 2017, 195 abstracts in the feld of respiratory oncology were presented (169 in 2016): 22 oral presentations (including 4 in a clinical science symposium), 24 poster discussion items, and 149 posters. In this summary, most attention will go to phase III randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and innovative data that are, or may become, relevant for the practicing clinician. As this report is only the “extract of the abstracts”, the reader is referred to the respective abstracts published in J Clin Oncol volume 35 Suppl 15, 2017 (abstracts #8500–8586 and #9000–9107 and available on-line at https://meetinglibrary.asco.org/