Conference Reports
45th American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting
Orlando, FL, 29th May - 2nd June 2009
The world-famous city of Orlando situated in the heart of Florida, the 'Sunshine State', played host to this year's American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting. Over 26,000 attendees converged on the vast Orange County Convention Centre, which provided the perfect setting for the presentation and discussion of the latest developments in oncology. 'Personalizing Cancer Care' was the theme of the meeting - now in its 45th year - where more than 4,000 scientific and educational abstracts were presented. In his opening speech, ASCO President Richard Schilsky emphasised the value of tailoring treatments to individual patients and cancer types, thus avoiding ineffective medication in certain patient populations and dramatically reducing costs associated with cancer treatment.
Some of the most promising results reported at this year's ASCO meeting concerned the use of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors in the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer. The PARP enzyme is known to be involved in the repair of DNA, including the repair of DNA in chemotherapy-damaged cancer cells. In patients with mutations in the BRCA1/2 genes, PARP is required for DNA repair in the cancerous cells. Consequently, it is believed that PARP inhibitors could be used to make chemotherapy more effective in these patients. BiPar Sciences (a wholly owned subsidiary of Sanofi-Aventis) reported results from a randomized Phase II trial of its PARP1 inhibitor (BSI-201) in combination with gemcitabine/carboplatin (G/C) in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. Preliminary analyses from the first 86 patients enrolled showed that those in the G/C group had a median progression free survival of 87 days compared with 211 days in the G/C + BSI-201 group and a median overall survival of 169 days, which increased to >254 days in the G/C + BSI-201 group. These results have established the efficacy of PARP inhibitors in triple-negative breast cancer and will no doubt offer hope to the sufferers of this aggressive form of cancer.
In addition to PARP inhibitors, another class of drug with a strong showing at this year's ASCO were the cancer vaccines, in particular active cellular immunotherapies which work by priming the body's immune system to act against cancerous cells. Positive Phase III trial results of BiovaxID in follicular non-hodgkin's lymphoma were presented at the plenary session. The clinical trial being discussed enrolled 117 patients who had maintained a complete response for >6 months after chemotherapy. These patients were then randomized to receive BioVaxID or a control. Results showed that BiovaxID increased the median time to relapse to 44 months, versus 30 months for the control. Additionally, positive preliminary results were reported for a melanoma cancer vaccine in a Phase III trial. Following the breakthrough announcement earlier this year of the first successful Phase III trial of an active cellular immunotherapy (Dendreon's prostate vaccine sipuleucel-T), these Phase III results provide further optimism for this class of drug making it to market after decades of research and numerous high-profile failures.
Perhaps some of the data presented which best illustrated the 'Personalizing Cancer Care' theme of the meeting was the use of the anti-breast cancer HER2/neu antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin) in advanced gastric cancer based on the rationale that up to 35% of gastric cancers over-express HER2. In a randomized Phase III trial, patients received chemotherapy with Herceptin or chemotherapy alone. It was shown that treatment with Herceptin significantly increased overall survival in patients over-expressing HER2 thereby providing a more effective treatment option.
Although the attendance at the ASCO annual meeting this year was down on 2008, it is clear the quality of the scientific data presented and discussed was as high as ever. Once again it was a great success and hopefully next year's conference will also provide an equally important date in the oncology calendar.
Mohamed Farah
Pharmaprojects Analyst
