For cancer researchers across the globe, the first weekend in June can mean only thing: the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting.
It’s the largest cancer conference in the world, with more than 30,000 oncologists, scientists and researchers attending the five-day event.
Given that cancer is something that will likely affect all of us at some point, the latest breakthroughs and advances in the treatment of the disease always receive a lot of attention.
There are dozens of presentations over the course of the event, but here’s a shortlist of some of the more interesting pieces of research this week.
AstraZeneca’s PARP inhibitor breast cancer treatment
First up is AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN), which was the talk of Chicago – where the event is being held – after it had some decent success in its OlympiAD phase III breast cancer trial.
The Anglo-Swedish giant revealed that its novel cancer drug, Lynparza, boosted the survival prospects of patients with an aggressive form of breast cancer, known as HER2-negative.
The medicine is part of a new class of cancer treatments called PARP inhibitors which work by trying to stop cancer cells from repairing themselves.
Importantly, this is the first phase III trial in which a PARP inhibitor has shown a significant benefit for patients outside of ovarian cancer.
“Powerful results” from prostate cancer trials
Another drug making waves at this year’s ASCO meeting was abiraterone; a prostate cancer candidate which was tested as an additional treatment.
Unlike chemotherapy which kills the cancerous cells, Zytiga – as abiraterone is also known – stops more testosterone from reaching the prostate gland to slow the tumour's growth.
Half of the 2,000 men were given the drug on its own, while the other half were treated with abiraterone and standard hormone therapy.
The trial found that there were 184 deaths in the combination group, while there were 262 in those given hormone therapy alone.
“These are the most powerful results I've seen from a prostate cancer trial - it's a once-in-a-career feeling,” said Professor Nicholas James, from the University of Birmingham, who led the research.
“Abiraterone not only prolonged life, but also lowered the chance of relapse by 70% and reduced the chance of serious bone complications by 50%.”
Promising ovarian cancer results
At these kind of events, bold claims are often made about the potential of a new drug and ovarian cancer treatment ONX-0801 was no different this time around.
Trial doctors hailed the study of the experimental drug as “the biggest breakthrough in ten years”.
That might be jumping the gun a little bit given that it was only a phase I trial, but the data has been pretty promising, with seven out fifteen women who were given the trial drug experiencing significant tumour shrinkage.
ONX-0801 is what’s called an alpha-folate (aFR) receptor. It binds on to tumour cells which typically have a much higher aFR expression compared to healthy cells.
It then gets to work by inhibiting both DNA synthesis and cell division, which eventually induces cell apoptosis (i.e. death of the cell).
Further research is needed, but researchers said the initial signs look good for the treatment.