CONGRESS HIGHLIGHTS

Highlights in head and neck cancer

Highlights in gastrointestinal oncology

ESMO 2017 featured the presentation of several practice changing data in the field of gastrointestinal (GI) cancer. The first part of this report will summarize the key data presented in the field of gastric cancer, gastroesophageal junction (GEJ), biliary, gallbladder, biliary, pancreatic and hepatocellular cancer. In the second part, the focus is turned to colorectal cancer.

(BELG J ONCOL 2017;11(7):340–348)

Highlights in melanoma

During this year’s ESMO congress a lot of promising new data were presented with regard to melanoma care. We have selected 13 abstracts to discuss here.

(BELG J ONCOL 2017;11(7):334–337)

Highlights in genitourinary cancers

From the 8^th till the 12^th of September, Madrid was the host city for the 2017 ESMO Congress. The central theme of the congress was ‘Integrating science into oncology for a better patient outcome’, as it is crucial that researchers and clinicians exchange knowledge in an era of deep understanding of the molecular biology underlying the development of cancer. ESMO 2017 was attended by almost 24,000 registered attendees. This report will highlight eleven key studies concerning genitourinary cancers presented during the meeting.

(BELG J ONCOL 2017;11(7):326–333)

Highlights in thoracic oncology

ESMO 2017 featured the presentation of several practice changing studies in the field of lung cancer. With respect to immunotherapy, durvalumab showed a benefit for patients with Stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) when taken after chemotherapy-radiation. This represents the first major study showing an immunotherapy benefit for patients with lung cancer that is not Stage IV.¹ A second key immunotherapy study showed that stage IV NSCLC patients who continued to take nivolumab beyond 1 year had a significantly longer progression-free survival (PFS) than patients who took the drug for 1 year.²

Also in the field of targeted therapy, ESMO 2017 may have induced a paradigm shift. In the phase III FLAURA study, the third-generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) osimertinib, which is already approved for recurrent NSCLC patients harboring an EGFR^T790M mutation, was associated with a superior PFS to the current standard of care EGFR-targeted drugs. This was especially the case for patients with brain metastases.³ More positive data in NSCLC patients with brain involvement came from the ALUR trial and from a secondary analysis of the ALEX study, showing that alectinib can significantly decrease central nervous system (CNS) progression of NSCLC, both in the first-line and in the second-line setting.^4,5

In addition to this, the combination of the BRAF inhibitor dabrafenib and the MEK inhibitor trametinib was shown to be an effective first treatment for BRAF^V600E mutated NSCLC.⁶

A final study worth mentioning in this introduction consists of the IFCT-0302 trial which demonstrated that frequent CT scans after surgery for early-stage lung cancer surgery did not improve survival. This should inform follow-up recommendations and should give patients some peace of mind that they don’t necessarily need CT scans every six months.⁷

(BELG J ONCOL 2017;11(7):317–325)

Highlights in breast cancer

In this article, the most important new studies presented at ESMO 2017 in Madrid in early (EBC) and metastatic breast cancer (MBC) are summarised. In EBC, 5 topics are highlighted: integration of PI3K and CDK4/6 inhibition in the neoadjuvant treatment of oestrogen receptor positive (ER+) EBC, dual endocrine blockade as adjuvant treatment in ER+ EBC, escalated adjuvant treatment in human epidermal growth factor receptor positive (HER2+) EBC and small tumours that can also show an aggressive course. In MBC, 4 topics are discussed: predicting immunogenicity in MBC, abscopal effect in MBC, confirmed benefit of PARP inhibitors in BRCA mutated MBC and CDK4/6 inhibition in first-line MBC.

(BELG J ONCOL 2017;11(7):309–314)

Highlights in gynaecological cancer

With more than 24,000 attendees, ESMO 2017 was the biggest oncology meeting ever organised in Europe. In the gynaecological cancer domain, there were some potentially practice-changing presentations in ovarian and cervical cancer, whereas new data in endometrial cancer were very sparse.

(BELG J ONCOL 2017;11(7):301–308)