Are you up to speed on all things oncology?

By Robert L. Coleman, MD, chief scientific officer, The US Oncology Research

Read Time: 3 minutes

Following two years of virtual meetings, tens of thousands who share an interest in oncology gathered at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting recently to hear the latest in oncology research and innovation. If you missed the conference, I’ve pulled together five key updates.

Breast Cancer

AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s ENHERTU™ presented practice-changing data in HER2-low tumors in the DESTINY-04 study. Reporters turned to Dr. Debra Patt for her expert perspective on this data. Dr. Patt underscored the value for patient care and how treatment could be influenced by this data in clinical practice immediately following the conference.

Lung Cancer

Experts are moving toward a new ‘way of thinking’ with DESTINY-04, which could benefit lung cancer research in the overall knowledge of biomarkers and ways to target other tumor types. Key data in the lung cancer space focused on non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and central nervous system (CNS) metastases as well as the Lung-Map: Master Protocol for Lung Cancer study.

There was much interest in data from the MYLUNG Consortium™ as well as Dr. Alexander Spira’s late-breaking presentation on the phase 2 KRYSTAL-1 trial. This trial found that 43% of patients with NSCLC, whose lung cancers harbored a specific KRAS mutation, responded to the experimental drug adagrasib, which also showed activity against lesions in the brain that metastasized from the lung tumors.

Ovarian Cancer

Considered a key, “don’t miss” session at ASCO was Dr. Bradley Monk’s presentation of new results from the phase III ATHENA-MONO trial, which brings robust data on PARPi therapy for newly diagnosed ovarian cancer patients. Results from the trial found that maintenance rucaparib after first-line chemotherapy may improve clinical outcomes among patients with ovarian cancer. These results were simultaneously reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

CAR-T Therapies

Pivoting from the near-exclusive emphasis in past years on cancer immunotherapies, ASCO 2022 featured CAR-T therapies as powerful new treatment options for blood cancers, like lymphoma and multiple myeloma, by genetically modifying immune cells and infusing them back into patients to attack cancers.

Additional focus on bispecific antibodies has shown promise in some of the same blood cancers addressed by CAR-T therapies, with some ASCO attendees pointing to this data as some of the most exciting conference news this year. Of particular note in this area was Roche’s data which showed treatment led to responses in half of patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma who were treated in the study, with nearly 40% going into remission.

Multiple Myeloma

Eye-catching data was presented in the treatment for multiple myeloma from Arcellx’s CART-ddBCMA and Legend’s CARVYKTI, which both saw response rates between 70-90% and less than 10% rates of severe neurotoxic events.

McKesson’s Ecosystem of Oncology Businesses

Among the potentially practice-changing learnings presented this year were research study results from US Oncology Research, The US Oncology Network and Ontada as well as presentations on topics including lung and ovarian cancers, value-based care and the use of health technologies.

To learn more about McKesson’s unparalleled suite of oncology solutions, visit McKesson.com/Oncology-Ecosystem.