Spotlight on ESMO

20 Sep 2021

The unit had a great presence at EMSO this year with STAMPEDE, FOCUS4 and TRISST all showcasing new results over the weekend. Pulling everything together for these major results is what we are all about and it wouldn’t be possible without the fantastic efforts from the trial teams. Congratulations to everyone from STAMPEDE, FOCUS4 and TRISST.

Prostate cancer

STAMPEDE completed a meta-analysis of two of its comparisons to assess the efficacy of Androgen Receptor therapies (abiraterone with or without enzalutamide) in men with high-risk, non-metastatic prostate cancer and this is the first time conclusive results have been reported for these therapies in this setting. The results were presented by Professor Gert Attard during a presidential symposium on Sunday and demonstrated very strong improvements in both disease control and overall survival and we expect them to change the standard of care, again! A manuscript has been submitted for fast-track publication.

Details can be found here: ESMO presentation abstract

Bowel cancer

FOCUS4 reported findings from the last two comparisons within its stratified medicine programme exploring targeted therapies in metastatic colorectal cancer. FOCUS4-C was presented by Dr Jenny Seligmann on Saturday with results showing promising findings for adavosertib (a WEE1 inhibitor) in patients with two specific cancer mutations (RAS and TP53). FOCUS4-N, which was also presented by Professor Richard Adams at ASCO in June, provided further support for the use of treatment breaks in metastatic colorectal cancer. Even though patients having a treatment break did see their cancer coming back sooner, this had no impact on survival and the evidence for these breaks is now strong, allowing patients and clinicians to have a more informed discussion about how they want to manage their cancer.

Both trials have been reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology with a great editorial supporting the results.

Details can be found here:

TRISST presented its primary results earlier this year but further analyses exploring risk factors for stratifying men to optimise their follow-up has shown interesting results that could help management for men with testicular cancer. Details can be found here: ESMO abstract