ESMO Media Releases

Although randomised clinical trials (RCTs) remain the gold standard for evaluating the benefit/risk of cancer drugs, single-arm trials (SATs) can provide invaluable opportunities to speed up cancer drug development and approval

Greater patient selection may be needed for first line nivolumab to improve progression-free survival over chemotherapy in advanced lung cancer as the CheckMate 026 trial gave negative results in a broad group of patients expressing PD-L1 in their tumour cells. The findings were presented at the ESMO 2016 Congress in Copenhagen.

Nivolumab maintains function and reduces symptoms in treatment of relapsed metastatic head and neck cancer, according to results from the CheckMate 141 trial presented at the ESMO 2016 Congress in Copenhagen and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Ceritinib provides longer progression-free survival than chemotherapy in crizotinib-pre-treated patients with non-small-cell lung cancer harbouring an ALK rearrangement, according to results of the phase III ASCEND-5 study presented today at the ESMO 2016 Congress in Copenhagen.

The addition of PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab to standard first-line chemotherapy for treatment-naïve advanced non-small-cell lung cancer significantly improves response rates and progression-free survival, researchers reported at the ESMO 2016 Congress in Copenhagen today.

The first phase III study of PD-L1 inhibitor atezolizumab in previously-treated non-small-cell lung cancer has seen significant improvements in survival compared to standard chemotherapy, researchers reported today at the ESMO 2016 Congress in Copenhagen.

Pembrolizumab is set to become a new option for first line treatment of patients with advanced lung cancer and high PD-L1 expression, according to the results of the phase III KEYNOTE-024 trial presented at the ESMO 2016 Congress in Copenhagen and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Nintedanib improves progression-free survival but not overall survival in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who are not responding to standard therapies, according to results of the phase III LUME-colon 1 trial presented at the ESMO 2016 Congress in Copenhagen

A nationwide study of head and neck cancers in France has revealed that the true burden of the disease is underestimated by at least one-third, and that head and neck cancers carry a very high risk of secondary primary cancers

Immunotherapy has shown promising results in first and second line treatment of metastatic bladder cancer in two phase II trials presented at the ESMO 2016 Congress in Copenhagen.

The PARP inhibitor niraparib significantly improves the outcome of platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer, according to full data from the ENGOT-OV16/NOVA trial presented for the first time at the ESMO 2016 Congress in Copenhagen and published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). The trial met its primary endpoint, with niraparib considerably prolonging progression-free survival compared to placebo.

The addition of the CDK4/6 inhibitor ribociclib to letrozole therapy significantly improves progression-free survival in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive advanced breast cancer, researchers reported today at the ESMO 2016 Congress in Copenhagen.