#LCSM Chat 5/22 Preview: Top 10 Key LC Presentations at ASCO 2014
By Howard (Jack) West, MD
Please join us for the next #LCSM chat on Thursday, May 22, 2014, at 8 PM ET (5 PM Pacific). Our topic will be “Top 10 Key LC Presentations at ASCO 2014.” I’ll be moderating.
Every year, many of the key developments in cancer care are presented at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago at the end of May. This year ASCO will highlight several practice-changing results for lung cancer. Impressively, the most important trials this year focus on treating a broad spectrum of patients: first line treatment of patients with an EGFR mutation, acquired resistance in EGFR mutation-positive patients, the MET mutation as a target, squamous NSCLC, general NSCLC that includes squamous and non-squamous NSCLC, one striking finding in stage III resected NSCLC, and even immediately practice-changing results in small cell lung cancer.
A list limited to ten doesn’t allow me to include some notable trials with negative results, particularly those which we’ve already seen in press releases. And while immunotherapies continue to demonstrate their promise, immunotherapy presentations at ASCO this year don’t break significant new ground, and so didn’t make the “top 10” cut (I expect at least one or two on next year’s top 10 list).
For this chat, I’ll post a new chart every 5 minutes, then people can ask questions and comments about it during the chat. Participants can also comment on other attention-worthy presentations not on my list. You can see my top 10 list slideshare presentation on my cancerGRACE.org blog post here. You can find the entire collection of ASCO abstracts here.
I hope you find the top 10 list provocative and interesting. For more information about how to participate in an #LCSM chat, check out our primer. Remember to add the #LCSM hashtag to your tweets; it’s usually easier to follow or participate if you use http://www.tchat.io/rooms/lcsm or a similar application.
Hope you’ll join us on Twitter Thursday!
#LCSM 
Sherman, the type of presentation you describe is likely to result from more fundamental basic science research, and that’s not what ASCO typically attracts. As a rule most major fields of medicine have evolved through different paths towards a similar situation. That is; two major scientific congresses yearly where the members present their latest data in person. One meeting is usually focused on advances that are more clinically orientated and one where it’s more basic science. These are generalizations, but they hold fairly true. In oncology, ASCO is where we generally present our major clinical trial outcomes, where the more basic science advances you refer to are often seen/heard at a meeting held by the American Association for Cancer Research. (AACR).
This kind of conference is always very exciting, and I love how you take a very organized approach in summarizing what you feel are the most salient presentations — there’s always so much at such events that it can be really overwhelming just to try and figure out what to pay attention to. It sounds like ASCO is the kind of venue in which the latest developments on new treatments is presented. I wonder, though, are there ever presentations at ASCO that look at the bigger picture of cancer fundamentals? What I mean is this: I wonder if sometimes we get so focused on the details of various clinical trials and the latest treatments, does anyone ever have time to really step back and question even some of the most fundamental assumptions about what cancer is and why it manifests the way it does in the human population? I’m always on the lookout for that kind of new thinking, and I don’t often find it. I’ve never tuned into the ASCO event before. I’m just wondering if there are ever presentations that get back to basics in new ways. — Sherman Morrison