The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2012 Annual Meeting will be held in Chicago from June 1-5. We have assembled a pre-meeting planner listing relevant talks and posters based on presentation titles that were released on April 25. Some key presentations at this year’s meeting include:

• Zytiga (JNJ) for prostate cancer. Rapid changes in prostate cancer therapy were a focus of last year’s ASCO meeting and will continue to be a focus at this meeting. Zytiga (abiraterone) is already approved for post-chemotherapy treatment of mCRPC, but the first detailed efficacy data of Zytiga in the larger pre-chemotherapy setting from the COU-AA-302 study will be presented (#LBA4518). An early unblinding of the study in March suggests that the data will be positive, but it will be important to evaluate the size of any survival benefit.
• Cabozantinib (EXEL) for thyroid cancer. Updated data will be reported from the pivotal EXAM study for Exelixis’ lead compound (#5508). Initial data were released in October 2011 indicating an impressive PFS benefit. While an OS benefit will likely not be required for approval, survival numbers and safety data may be presented at ASCO. Ultimately, these results will be important for the expanded development of cabozantinib into larger target indications including prostate cancer.
• Tivozanib (AVEO) for renal cell cancer. Updated data from the pivotal Phase III TIVO-1 study will be presented (#CRA4501) evaluating tivozanib against the approved therapy, sorafenib (ONXX). Initial data were released in January 2012 indicating an approximately 3-month PFS advantage over sorafenib which was positive but failed to meet the high expectations after strong Phase II results. The ASCO presentation should provide more details including characteristics of the treatment population that could help define the competitive profile of tivozanib.
• Ponatinib (ARIA) for CML/AML. Ariad recently confirmed that the company plans to file for approval based on the single-arm PACE study which posted initial data at the 2011 ASH meeting. Those molecular and cytogenetic response data were largely positive, but it was unclear if they would be sufficient for accelerated approval. Updated data from PACE are expected at ASCO (#6503) and could include details on the duration of response as well as early survival data.
• Tivantinib (ARQL) for HCC. Preliminary results released in January 2012 indicated that the Phase II – 215 study met its primary endpoint of time-to-progression (TTP) with an acceptable AE profile, but few other details were disclosed. Updated results from this study will be presented (#4006) which may include PFS and OS data.

Additionally, we will be publishing our Pre-ASCO Report on the night of May 16th after abstracts are released which will include our analysis of the data from the abstracts. During the meeting, we will also be reporting on events from the conference daily and will issue a Post-ASCO Report after the conclusion of the meeting.

If there are any additional talks, posters or topics you would like us to follow please inform your sales representative and we will add them to our list. Additionally, if you would like a copy of the schedule in Excel, please contact your sales representative at clientservices@pharmaintel.informa.com.

For the full report, please download the PDF version at the top of this page.

For our disclosures, please read the BioMedTracker Research Standards.