Asco 2020 starts to take shape

The biggest cancer conference of the year – this time coming via your computer screen – is four weeks away, and its contents are starting to emerge. Asco released thousands of abstract titles overnight, and Evaluate Vantage has scoured for some of the highest-profile releases. The highlight of the plenary session is likely to be the Adaura study of Astrazeneca’s lung cancer drug Tagrisso; the maintenance setting trial was stopped much earlier than expected for “overwhelming efficacy”. The Javelin Bladder 100 data on Pfizer and Merck KGaA’s also-ran PD-(L)1 checkpoint inhibitor will also be a draw: Bavencio scored a surprise hit in bladder cancer, albeit a maintenance setting, earlier this year. Also of interest will be results from the investigator-sponsored front-line multiple myeloma trial of Amgen’s Kyprolis, Endurance. The drug failed in another newly diagnosed patient study, Clarion, a few years back, albeit as part of a different combination; the fact that no topline results have been reported is probably not encouraging. Outside the plenary, data on Roche’s anti-Tigit project will attract much attention, as will sessions examining the impact of Covid-19 on patients with cancer.