ASCO 2021 Solid Tumors – Roberto Pazo-Cid

Roberto Pazo-Cid outlines recent insights gained in terms of anti-PD-1 treatment in the setting of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, talks about the practice-changing results obtained in the CheckMate 649 trial and the impact of PD-1 inhibition on the real-world prognosis of patients with gastric and esophageal adenocarcinoma as well as further developments regarding immune checkpoint inhibition.

Here is the full ASCO 2021 Solid Tumors report.

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Early insights for CPI combinations in solid tumors

mmunotherapy using anti-PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitors (CPIs), which is a major therapeutic option in oncology, can potentially achieve synergistic effects once combined with targeted therapies. Drugs targeting proangiogenic factors, such as VEGF and angiopoietin 2 (ANG2), can improve therapeutic responsiveness through their immunosuppressive activity in the tumor environment.

Anti-PD-1 compounds targeting MSI-H/dMMR tumors

Accurate and timely repair of DNA is essential for maintaining genetic stability. Microsatellites are repetitive DNA sequences and particularly prone to replication errors that are normally repaired by the mismatch repair system. Mismatch repair-deficient tumors (dMMR) harbor many mutations in microsatellites, resulting in high levels of microsatellite instability (MSI-H).

PARP- and anti-PD-1-based strategies in breast and cervical cancer

Breast cancer (BC) is the most diagnosed cancer in women and the leading cause of cancer death in females. It has been recently shown that approximately 38 % of female patients younger than 40 years presenting with triple-negative breast carcinomas (TNBC) harbored a germline mutation in breast cancer (BC) susceptibility genes 1 or 2 (gBRCA1/2m).

Checkpoint inhibition: predictors, resistance and immunogenomic features

Immune checkpoints, such as cytotoxic T-lymphocyte associated protein-4 (CTLA-4) or programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), downregulate T-cell responses and are crucial for self-tolerance, which protects the body against attacking cells indiscriminately. Tumor cells hijack this mechanism to evade the immune system through the activation of immune checkpoints and inhibition of the T-cell response.

Novel approaches in gastric cancer

With more than 1 million newly diagnosed cases in 2020, gastric cancer was at the fifth place (5.6 %) of the most frequent malignant diseases and accounted for nearly 8 % of cancer deaths worldwide.  The multicohort, non-randomized, open-label, phase II LEAP-005 study (NCT03797326) was designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a combination – the anti-angiogenic multikinase inhibitor lenvatinib plus the anti-PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab – in patients with previously treated advanced solid tumors.

Preface ASCO Solid Tumor 2021

Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s ASCO scientific meeting took place for the second time virtually from Friday, June 04, through Monday, June 08. During these five-day world’s largest oncology conference, approximately 30,000 professionals attended online at least one of the 150 on-demand and broadcast sessions featuring over almost 5,000 abstracts, more than 2,000 poster presentations, 19 oral and 16 educational sessions, as well as opening and plenary sessions, award lectures, cancer-specific highlights sessions, and several clinical cancer symposia.