CONGRESS NEWS

Highlights of the European Neuroendocrine Tumour Society (ENETS) Congress

The 17^th Annual European Neuroendocrine Tumour Society (ENETS) Congress took place as a virtual meeting from March 11^th until March 13^th, 2020. This article will provide you with the highlights discussed at the meeting.

Highlights in digestive oncology

Summary

At this years’ virtual annual ASCO meeting, a wide range of interesting studies in the field of gastrointestinal (GI) cancer were presented. The aim of this overview is to discuss the most important of these studies, with a particular focus on data that have the potential to be practice changing. For practical reasons, this report will not follow the traditional subdivision in cancers from the upper and lower GI tract, but will rather focus on three major therapeutic strategies: neoadjuvant therapy, immunotherapy and targeted therapy.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2020;14(5):183-7)

Highlights in breast cancer

Summary

During the 2020 Virtual ASCO meeting, no less than 226 presentations were dedicated to breast cancer. It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss all these abstracts, but instead we try to focus on the data that are most relevant for your daily clinical practice.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2020;14(5):191-200)

Highlights in respiratory oncology

Summary

ASCO 2020 featured the presentation of many interesting studies in the field of lung cancer. For early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), there was a focus on adjuvant targeted therapy while for advanced NSCLC without oncogene addiction much attention went to first-line immunotherapy and to the use of novel antibody-drug conjugates. In addition to this, several trials discussed the potential of EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) combinations, the targeting of MET alterations or RET fusions and the search for EGFR exon 20 mutant selective drugs for patients with advanced NSCLC and oncogene addictions. Finally, this overview will describe important results in the field of non-metastatic and metastatic small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) as well as advances in mesothelioma.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2020;14(5):201-8)

Highlights in melanoma

Summary

Over the last decade, the treatment of advanced melanoma underwent a dramatic improvement. Initially, immune checkpoint inhibitors and targeted agents proved their worth in the treatment of advanced, unresectable melanoma patients. More recently, however, interest grew in combining both these therapeutic approaches in patients with BRAF mutant advanced melanoma. During ASCO 2020, results were presented of two clinical trials evaluating this strategy. Following the initial successes in the unresectable melanoma setting, immune checkpoint inhibition and targeted therapy were also evaluated as adjuvant therapy in patients with resected stage III melanoma. At ASCO 2020, updated results were presented of two pivotal trials in this setting, while other studies looked into the potential benefit of using immune checkpoint inhibitors as neoadjuvant therapies, rather than in the postoperative setting. In addition to this, immunotherapy also proved to have potential in the treatment of patients with mucosal melanoma, or leptomeningeal disease.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2020;14(5):209-15)

Highlights in geriatric oncology

Summary

Cancer is primarily a disease of older adults, and as a result improving the care for older patients with cancer is becoming increasingly important. In this respect, the 2020 virtual ASCO meeting featured a fascinating and very important session entitled “You’re only old once: improving outcomes for older adults with cancer.” In this session, positive results were presented of four randomised controlled trials evaluating whether or not geriatric assessment has the potential to improve treatment outcomes in older patients with cancer. Three of these trials focused on the geriatric management of patients receiving chemotherapy or other cytotoxic agents, while a fourth study evaluated to what extent perioperative oncogeriatric management could improve the outcome of patients undergoing surgery for gastrointestinal cancer. Overall, all these studies indicate that an integrated geriatric oncology assessment provides an important clinical benefit to older cancer patients.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2020;14(5):218-21)

Highlights in head and neck cancer

Summary

During the 2020 annual ASCO meeting, the most recent advances in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck as well as nasopharyngeal carcinoma were discussed. First of all, weekly cisplatin proved to be non-inferior to three-weekly cisplatin in the postoperative setting. Next, several interesting studies in both locoregionally advanced and recurrent/metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck will be addressed. Finally, axitinib was shown to increase the six-month progression-free survival rate in patients with recurrent or metastatic adenoid cystic carcinoma.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2020;14(5):222-6)