ASCO 2019: What we learned

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Editor's Note

The American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting provides a stage for cancer's largest clinical studies. This year, one of the smallest stole the show.

Across 10 patients with advanced lung cancer, a drug from Amgen shrunk tumors in five. What's so noteworthy is Amgen's study enrolled patients whose cancers were spurred by mutations in an oncogene called KRAS, considered the "holy grail" of cancer R&D.

Taking aim at mutations like KRAS has become a foundational approach to treating many cancers, and some of the top-selling drugs are targeted therapies. Putting KRAS in reach would cap decades of research advances that have led to drugs like Loxo Oncology's Vitrakvi.

"Targeted therapies move the bar so high for some subsets," said Alice Shaw, director of thoracic oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. "It's great to see that extending to other patients as well."

That's only part of the story, though. "Targeting any single mutation almost all the time results in disease relapse and you have to find another drug," James Allison, noted cancer researcher and recent Nobel Prize winner, told ASCO attendees Monday. "Immunotherapy's different."

Allison has an interest in that take, having made discoveries that resulted in Bristol-Myers Squibb's Yervoy, but his comments illustrate why drugmakers are spending billions in immuno-oncology research. This year's ASCO is another reminder of how both approaches are needed.

Overheard at the show

Event coverage

Parting thought