
March Toward More Tailored Treatments Continues at ASCO 2025
Key Takeaways
- The American Society of Clinical Oncology 2025 annual meeting will focus on artificial intelligence’s (AI) role in cancer care, emphasizing biomarker-driven therapeutics and precision medicine advancements.
- Key studies include AI's role in identifying HER2 protein levels and the efficacy of antibody-drug conjugates combined with immunotherapy in breast cancer.
ASCO 2025 will showcase cutting-edge advancements in precision medicine, artificial intelligence, and biomarker-driven therapies, revolutionizing cancer treatment and diagnostics.
The term “precision medicine” is hardly new. But this year’s annual gathering of the
Up to 40,000 people will descend on Chicago, Illinois, to attend ASCO 2025, which runs May 30 to June 3 with the theme, “Driving Knowledge to Action: Building a Better Future.”
“My theme is based on two very strong beliefs I have to improve cancer care: knowledge and action. First, when you universally apply the power of knowledge, you can drive positive change. Knowledge is not only going to help us solve our problems, but also help us make better informed decisions,” Zon told The ASCO Post
Zon will cochair a session on
Meeting organizers report that abstract submissions again broke records, and more than 5000 of them will be presented during the meeting. The first wave published May 22, with late-breaking abstracts publishing all 5 days of the meeting:
Friday: BREAKWATER and PhALLCON
Data being presented include late-breaking results from BREAKWATER (NCT04607421), involving firstline encorafenib plus cetuximab and chemotherapy in BRAF V600E-mutant metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC). Friday’s lineup includes sessions on use of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) to direct treatment of CRC, use of AI in decision support, and preventing tumor adaptation to immunotherapy.
Faculty from City of Hope, in Duarte, California, will present 2 noteworthy abstracts on Friday. Ibrahim Aldoss, MD, will present a post-hoc analysis minimal residual disease (MRD) negativeity at the end of the phase 3 PhALLCON trial (NCT03589326). Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO, who in April was named director of City of Hope’s
Saturday: Breaking Ground in Breast Cancer
The use of testing will be front and center on the first full day of session, starting with, “The Future of Cancer Detection Is Coming,” which features presentations on blood-based multi-cancer early detection tests.
Late-breaking results will include a pair of groundbreaking breast cancer trials and a study evaluating the use biomarker testing to guide treatment in early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Sara M. Tolaney, MD, MPH, FASCO, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, will present results from the phase 3 ASCENT-04/KEYNOTE-D19 study (NCT05382286).
Erika P. Hamilton, MD, of Sarah Cannon Research Institute, will present the phase 3 VERITAC-2 study (NCT05654623), comparing vepdegestrant, a PROTAC estrogen receptor (ER) degrader, with fulvestrant in ER-positive/HER2–negative advanced breast cancer. Sponsors Pfizer and Arvinas
Also from Sarah Cannon, David R. Spigel, MD, will present results from a prospective randomized trial (NCT01817192) that used a 14-gene assay to identify high-risk patients with stage IA to IIA NSCLC and offer adjuvant chemotherapy.
Saturday will also bring sessions and poster presentations on important policy topics, with ASCO and the American Association for Cancer Research hosting a joint session on access to gene therapy. An afternoon poster session on quality care and health services research will examine questions about withdrawals of FDA accelerated approvals, the likelihood of overtreatment in clinical trials, and the comparative lack of funding from the National Institutes of Health for cancers with the highest mortality rates, among other topics.
Sunday: Plenary Session and Prevention
The plenary session, ASCO’s high point, will feature 2 trials of therapies from AstraZeneca. Company officials previously announced positive results from an interim analysis of
A second phase 3 trial, MATTERHORN (NCT04592913), met its end point of
Sunday will also bring some provocative discussions of use of therapy to prevent cancer; an early morning session will look into possible uses of low-dose endocrine therapy to prevent breast cancer, use of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists in preventing cancers related to obesity, and circumstances for preventive therapy for prostate cancer.
Ian Flinn, MD, PhD, chief scientific officer for OneOncology will present interim findings from the phase 2 MorningSun study, which is examining fixed duration subcutaneous (SC) mosunetuzumab for newly diagnosed patients with follicular lymphoma and high tumor burden; this abstract has been honored with a “
Monday: DESTINY-Breast09, Updates in Blood Cancers
Tolaney will present the most anticipated results for Monday with DESTINY-Breast09 (NCT04784715), which compares T-DXd with or without pertuzumab (Perjeta) against a taxane chemotherapy, trastuzumab, and pertuzumab for firstline treatment of patients with HER2-positive advanced/metastatic breast cancer. In a statement on topline results in April, AstraZeneca described the findings as “the first trial in more than a decade to demonstrate superior efficacy across a broad HER2-positive metastatic patient population versus current firstline standard of care.”
The hematological malignancies session will feature the first results of LINKER-MM2 (NCT03761108), evaluating linvoseltamab and bortezomib in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. Saad Z. Usmani, MD, MBA, FRCP, FASCO, will present a subgroup analysis of newly diagnosed, transplant ineligible patients in the phase 3 CEPHEUS trial (NCT03652064) treated with the anti-CD38 agent daratumumab (Darzalex Faspro).
Tuesday: A Look Ahead to Trispecifics
Coming on the final day is the phase 3 AMPLITUDE trial (NCT04497844), which studies the PARP inhibitor niraparib (Zejula) with abiraterone acetate, an androgen deprivation therapy, and prednisone in patients with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer patients with alterations in homologous recombination repair genes.
A noteworthy abstract in a session on hematologic malignancies Tuesday will be the first-in-human results for JNJ-79635322,
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