CONGRESS NEWS

Highlights of the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium 2025

SUMMARY

This year’s conference was organised in San Francisco from 23 till 25 January 2025, again as a hybrid event. Pan-RAS inhibition shows early, deep molecular responses in RAS-mutant pancreatic adenocarcinoma and looks very promising regarding PFS and OS in a phase 1 study. Adjuvant treatment with aspirin daily for three years reduced the recurrence rate in colorectal cancer patients with somatic alterations in the PI3K signalling pathway. Two other top stories of ASCO GI 2025 are nivolumab + ipilimumab beating nivolumab monotherapy across treatment lines in MSI-high/deficient mismatch repair (MMR) metastatic colorectal cancer and encorafenib + cetuximab + mFOLFOX6 as the new standard of care for first-line treatment of BRAF V600E-mutant colorectal cancer. The prognostic role of circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) in colorectal cancer stage II-III is consistent between different trials and under active investigation in randomised trials. The combination of everolimus and lanreotide significantly prolonged progression-free survival compared to everolimus monotherapy as first-line treatment for grade 1 or 2 gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours with poor prognostic features. In this report, the most important headlines will be discussed, with comments on the clinical relevance of the different studies.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2025;19(3): 114–128)

SABCS 2024: Highlights of new data on systemic therapy for breast cancer

SUMMARY

As a yearly tradition, the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium provided us with important updates regarding the systemic treatment approaches of breast cancer. In the early breast cancer landscape, probably the most awaited data release at SABCS 2024 was the primary analysis of GeparDouze investigating atezolizumab in early triple-negative breast cancer. In the advanced breast cancer, results from EMBER-3 investigating imlunestrant as a single agent and in combination with abemaciclib were eagerly awaited. In addition, the PATINA trial provided an unexpected late-breaking abstract reporting on the addition of palbociclib to maintenance treatment with endocrine and anti-HER2 therapy in advanced hormone receptor positive/HER2-positive breast cancer. Next to many systemic therapy updates, important data has been presented on local therapy for breast cancer and will be discussed in another issue, mostly focusing on de-escalation concepts such as surgery deferral for ductal carcinoma in situ, abstinence of sentinel lymph node procedure in low-risk disease or postmastectomy radiotherapy in pN0/pN1 disease. On the intersection between radiotherapy and systemic therapy, the innovative EUROPA trial reported an early interim analysis of a study investigating either radiotherapy or endocrine therapy as a single modality for stage 1 hormone receptor positive, HER2-negative breast cancer in patients aged ≥70 years.² Without ipsilateral breast tumour recurrences (IBTR) at the data cut-off, further follow-up is required for comparative efficacy analysis as defined by five-year IBTR. However, the presented co-primary endpoint of health-related quality-of-life at two years showed a significant reduction in quality-of-life associated with endocrine therapy compared to baseline and to patients receiving only radiation therapy during the first two years of treatment, with at least 22.5% of patients requiring a switch of endocrine therapy and 12.4% discontinuing endocrine therapy during the follow-up. These data are very encouraging and can gradually be implemented in clinical practice in selection based on life expectancy, patient preference and further study follow-up. Below, we summarise the most important data releases regarding systemic breast cancer treatment presented at SABCS 2024.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2025;19(3):129–136)

ESMO NET (Neuroendocrine Tumours) Report 2024: Two breakthrough studies changing the future treatment algorithm of NET

SUMMARY

During the ESMO Conference in Barcelona in 2024, two important phase 3 studies in the field of neuro-endocrine tumours (NET) that were presented earlier this year were updated and also published subsequently. The NETTER-2 trial is shifting [177Lu]Lu-DOTATATE Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT) to the first-line treatment setting of patients with advanced, well-differentiated grade 2 and grade 3 gastro-enteropancreatic (GEP) NET; the CABINET trial is adding cabozantinib as targeted systemic therapy for previously treated, progressive advanced extrapancreatic and pancreatic NET.

In this report, these two practice-changing NET trials will be discussed in depth, with comments on the clinical relevance and the outstanding questions.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2025;19(2):78–82)

Oncological highlights from the World Conference on Lung Cancer 2024

SUMMARY

The annual World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) once again brought together the latest information for the field of lung cancer in September 2024. Research into non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was of special interest at this meeting, with various treatment regimens having being trialled. Here, some of the highlights of NSCLC from this meeting are summarised.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2024;18(7):282–286)

Highlights of the 21^st annual European Neuroendocrine Tumour Society (ENETS) Conference

SUMMARY

During the ENETS Conference, the NETTER-2 trial was again in the spotlight and is shifting [177Lu]Lu-DOTATATE PRRT to the first-line treatment setting of patients with advanced, well-differentiated grade 2 and grade 3 gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (NET). Nuclear medicine treatment for NET is now intensively focusing on alpha-emitting peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT). Adding immunotherapy to angiogenesis inhibition for NET is again a disappointing story, and all eyes are now set on the CAR T-cell technology to stimulate anti-tumour immune responses. Delta-like ligand 3 is an inhibitory Notch ligand selectively and highly expressed on the cell surface of small cell lung cancer and neuroendocrine carcinoma, and appears to be a promising target for bispecific T-cell engager therapy. In this report, the most important headlines will be discussed, with comments on the clinical relevance of the different studies.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2024;18(4):164–75)

Highlights of the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium 2024

SUMMARY

This year’s conference was organised in San Francisco from 18–20^th January 2024, again as a hybrid event. It was an excellent meeting, with TIGIT as new immune checkpoint target in oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Tinengotinib is a new fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) inhibitor that enriches the armentarium for cholangiocarcinoma. Considering metastasis-directed therapy in oligometastatic pancreatic cancer is worth the effort. Shifting immunotherapy + angiogenesis inhibition to the transarterial chemoembolisation setting is the way forward in hepatocellular carcinoma. Nivolumab + ipilimumab is the second immunotherapy scheme that shows promising results in the first-line treatment of MSI-high/deficient mismatch repair (MMR) metastatic colorectal cancer. The prognostic role of circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) in colorectal cancer stage II-III is highly consistent between studies, but its predictive role and how and which chemotherapy to use in case of ctDNA-positivity is more variable/immature at this moment and under active investigation. Top story of ASCO GI 2024 is peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) entering the first-line treatment algorithm of high grade 2 and grade 3 gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours. In this report, the most important headlines will be discussed, with comments on the clinical relevance of the different studies.

(Belg J Med Oncol 2024;18(3):95–108)

Highlights from ASCO GU 2024

SUMMARY

From January 25^th until the 27^th of January, San Francisco once again formed the background for the yearly high mass in urological cancer. During the 2024 ASCO Genitourinary cancers symposium, the latest clinical and scientific advances in the management of urothelial, prostate, and renal cell cancer were presented. This report will provide a brief overview of the key presentation at this years’ meeting.

(Belg J Med Oncol 2024;18(3):109–14)