This year's annual American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting will be held in Chicago, Illinois on June 1 through June 5. Continuing the trend seen in the last few years, targeted therapies are again the main focus at this year's meeting. While many of these presentations add incremental data that will help firmly establish these drugs in already approved indications, many others will provide new information in other disease settings that can potentially expand their use. Also of special interest this year are newer cancer drugs with novel mechanisms of action that are in early clinical development. Although the data to be presented on these drugs are only preliminary, they are important proof-of-concept data that can support their uses in the clinic. SUMMARY

• Erbitux in front-line metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC): PFS data from CRYSTAL phase III study in front-line mCRC. These results are likely to determine the uptake of Erbitux in front-line mCRC and how well the drug will compete with Avastin. While the study met its primary endpoint, we believe that the Erbitux data will not be superior to previous Avastin results.
• Avastin in front-line renal cell cancer (RCC): PFS results from the AVOREN phase III study in front-line RCC will determine how Avastin will compete with Sutent in this setting.
• Nexavar in hepatocellular cancer (HCC): survival data from the SHARP phase III study in HCC. Nexavar will be the first agent to show a survival benefit in HCC and these results should support a wide adoption of the drug in this indication.
• Nexavar in front-line metastatic melanoma: updated positive results from the phase II study of Nexavar in combination with DTIC will likely create excitement in the field since these results may expand treatment options for these patients.
• Omnitarg in metastatic breast cancer: phase II data in combination with Herceptin will provide information on whether the combination of the two HER-2 antibodies can provide better disease control than either drug given alone (and perhaps save the Omnitarg program).
• Satraplatin in second-line hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC): though the data has been previously presented, data to be presented at this year’s meeting may shed more insight as to why the FDA convened an ODAC advisory meeting to discuss whether the drug should be approved.
• Trisenox in front-line acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL): Trisenox is currently only approved for second-line APL. Data at the meeting may expand the use of Trisenox to the front-line setting.
• Sprycel in front-line chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML): similarly, Sprycel is only approved for second-line CML. Though only preliminary data will be presented at the meeting, it may help determine whether Sprycel should be considered as a front-line therapy.
• Aranesp and Procrit: safety likely to be topic of high interest given recent FDA and CMS events. No major data presentations are currently scheduled, though there will be a number of posters on the drugs, and we expect controversy over the proposed changes.
• Interesting data on newer generation VEGF inhibitors as well as drugs with novel mechanisms of actions including inhibitors of c-Met and IGF-1R: though preliminary, these results will provide valuable insights on the anti-tumor activity and tolerability of these drugs.

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