Bringing Innovation to Cancer Patients! What Awaits Us at the ESMO 2020 Virtual Congress?

Bringing together oncology professionals worldwide, the European Cancer Congress ESMO 2020 will be held virtually this year because of the COVID-19 Pandemic, with the main scientific program beginning on 19 September.

The European Society for Medical Oncology (European Society for Medical Oncology, ESMO) has pursued its mission of supporting cancer research from around the world, particularly Europe, since its establishment in 1975.

Held virtually for the first time this year, the ESMO Congress connects oncology professionals in this COVID-19 era to improve cancer treatment outcomes.

Treatment advances highlighted at ESMO 2020

This year's ESMO 2020 headlines, for tumors of the upper gastrointestinal (stomach-intestine) system and kidney cancer, will feature immunotherapy use and non-small-cell lung cancer (KDHAK) studies of targeted drugs against ALK and EGFR genetic alterations.

Chemotherapy remains the main treatment for advanced gastrointestinal cancers, and there has been little progress in immunotherapy in this area in recent years. This year, in addition to advanced disease, in locally advanced (stage 3) gastrointestinal cancers after surgery, adjuvant (protective) treatment is also expected to yield positive immunotherapy results.

2 noteworthy lung cancer studies will be presented, with results that could change current treatment standards. One compares lorlatinib and crizotinib as first-line therapy in patients with advanced ALK-positive NSCLC in the CROWN phase 3 clinical trial. The other will present the brain metastasis results of adjuvant osimertinib in operated EGFR-mutation-positive NSCLC patients: ADURA, a phase 3 study.

For advanced kidney cancer, noteworthy results are also expected from CheckMate 9ER. This study combined cabozantinib (Cabometyx), a c-Met and VEGFR2 inhibitor, with the immunotherapy nivolumab (Opdivo) and compared it with sunitinib (Sutent).

Last year, in advanced kidney cancer, axitinib (Inlyta) with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) or avelumab (Bavencio) showed exciting results in first-line combination treatment and received FDA approvals, as we witnessed.

This year, studies will present not only survival benefits but also quality-of-life results from many clinical trials. Quality of life in cancer patients is as important as life itself, yet is often overlooked.

Prostate cancer phase 3 research also includes IPATential150, from which noteworthy results are expected. The study enrolled patients with metastatic prostate cancer resistant to hormone suppression and compared abiraterone (Zytiga) plus ipatasertib with abiraterone plus placebo. Ipatasertib, targeting Akt, is a small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor.

Beyond these studies, triple-negative breast cancer results from the ASCENT trial and the effects of COVID-19 on cancer patients will be shared in other noteworthy presentations.

The ESMO 2020 slogan: Bringing innovation to cancer patients!

Indeed, this year's slogan, “Bringing innovation to cancer patients”, emphasizes the urgent need to bring scientific innovations and the latest treatments into clinical practice. We know new drugs receive approval every month, but there can be delays in getting them to patients worldwide and in licensing them through different countries' health authorities. Let us once again emphasize that the easiest way for patients to access new drugs at no cost is through cancer clinical trials.  

T cells take center stage at the Opening Ceremony

Solange Peters, President of ESMO and the 2020 Congress, announced an unmissable Opening Ceremony for oncology professionals. Professor Antoni Ribas from the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center in the United States will explain, at the forefront of cancer science, how T cells trigger cancer regression. A better understanding of these mechanisms will help us understand next-generation immunotherapies (immune checkpoint inhibitors) and the cancer types that do not respond to them.

Cancer and COVID-19

The world's best-known scientist in relation to COVID-19 is the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the United States National Institutes of Health, Dr. Fauci. In a statement last week, Fauci said: “An important aspect of this disease is that approximately 40-45% of infected individuals have no symptoms.” This makes fighting the pandemic very difficult because many people spread the disease without symptoms (silent carriers). Fauci emphasizes that transmission most often occurs through close contact in homes and healthcare settings.

At ESMO 2020, the effect of COVID-19 on cancer treatment will be strongly expressed. In addition, much of the funding for health research shifted to COVID-19 because of the pandemic. This will have both short- and long-term effects.

Unlike other years, valuable contributions to this year's congress are also expected from basic scientists and health informatics specialists, in addition to physicians actively working in clinics.

We will closely follow ESMO 2020 and share developments with you.