With the ambitious goal of advancing the future of cancer care, more than 40,000 physicians, researchers, technologists and health marketers converged on Chicago earlier this month for ASCO 2025. Whether drawn by the rollout of clinical research or the opportunity to network with peers across a range of roles and disciplines, they brought with them a powerful weapon in the war against cancer: a sense of urgency.
All attendees shared a vested interest in the rapidly evolving cancer treatment landscape. Nowhere was the vastness of that landscape more evident than the exhibit hall, in which 526 organisations – pharma companies, of course, but also AI firms, hospital networks and advocacy groups – pitched the part they could play in improving treatment.
The signal this sent? That cancer care is no longer strictly a medical play. Only in concert with colleagues across disciplines and platforms can it be defeated.
Top of mind at this year’s ASCO, as always, was the science. In the 11 years since Keytruda and Opdivo sparked the immuno-oncology revolution, one mystery has endured: why some tumours respond to the treatments and others do not. A session led by Dr Antoni Ribas, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, attempted to shed some light on the discrepancies.
Ribas explored the challenge of turning ‘cold’ tumours into ‘hot’ ones, which would provide a boost to the immune system. He theorised that the cancer cells use collagen and fibrosis to construct a barrier around them and prevent T cells from penetrating the tumour. (This same mechanism was discussed by Dr Judith Varner, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, and co-lead of the solid tumour therapeutics programme at the Moores Cancer Center, during ‘One Step Ahead: Preventing Tumor Adaptation to Immunotherapy’.)
To combat this, researchers are exploring multiple options:
- Bivalent CAR-T therapy in glioblastoma
- Pepinemab to enhance nivolumab/ipilimumab in head and neck cancer
- IBI363 in advanced colorectal cancer
- Imatinib plus pembro in non-small cell lung cancer.
They also see potential in a host of vaccines, discussed in a session surveying the progress of developmental therapeutics.
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