An upcoming global oncology meeting will highlight many of the promising advances being made in lung cancer treatments, writes Michael McHale ‘T he Art and Science of Cancer Care: From Comfort to Cure’ is the theme of the 2024 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). More than 40,000 oncology professionals are expected to travel to Chicago in the United States for the three-day event, taking place this year from May 31 to June 4. Treatment advances involving targeted therapies, immunotherapy, and new uses of technology, as well as research on improving patient quality-of-life and outcomes will be highlighted across the five days, with more than 5,000 research abstracts being presented or published.
In the area of lung cancer, research investigating new therapies at all stages of the disease will be showcased and discussed. Educational sessions will focus on topics ranging from how immunotherapy can be integrated into early-stage lung cancer, to survivorship in advanced disease. An area of research that has engendered a lot of hope in recent years has been the emergence of neoadjuvant immunotherapies in the battle to raise survival rates post lung cancer surgery.
Among the drugs to show promise is Nivolumab, thanks in large part to research led by Irishman Prof Patrick Forde , who is director of the thoracic oncology clinical research program in the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Centre in the US. In 2022 his research team published significant trial findi.