Suneel Kamath, MD, on Correlation Between Blood and Tissue Tumor Mutation Burden
ASCO 2026
Suneel Kamath, MD, of Cleveland Clinic, discusses a study that found tissue tumor mutation burden (TMB) was a stronger predictor of immunotherapy outcomes than blood-based circulating tumor DNA testing, with high tissue TMB associated with a longer time to treatment failure (Abstract 2580).
Elizabeth Smyth, MD, of Oxford NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Churchill Hospital, discusses three major studies presented at this year’s meeting: the antibody-drug conjugate izalontamab brengitecan in recurrent or metasatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (Abstract 4008); the ATTRACTION-6 study of chemoimmunotherapy in HER2-negative advanced gastric/gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer (Abstract 4006); and an investigational EP4 antagonist in combination with chemoimmunotherapy as a first-line strategy for HER2-negative gastric/GEJ cancer (Abstract 4007).
The ASCO Post Staff
Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, PhD, FASCO, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Medical College at Cornell University, presents efficacy and safety data from the randomized phase III EMERALD-3 trial, which evaluated tremelimumab plus durvalumab with or without lenvatinib combined with transarterial chemoembolization in patients with unresectable embolization-eligible hepatocellular carcinoma (LBA4000).
The ASCO Post Staff
Julie R. Brahmer, MD, FASCO, of the Bloomberg–Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, provides expert commentary on the overall survival results from the phase III HARMONi-6 trial presented in this year’s Plenary Session. The study compared ivonescimab plus chemotherapy vs tislelizumab plus chemotherapy in previously untreated patients with advanced squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (Abstract LBA4).
The ASCO Post Staff
Tony S.K. Mok, MD, FRCPC, FASCO, of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, presents long-term findings from the CROWN trial, which evaluated lorlatinib vs crizotinib in patients with advanced ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). At 5 years, median progression-free survival was not reached with lorlatinib in this population, representing the longest progression-free survival ever reported in advanced NSCLC (Abstract 8502).
The ASCO Post Staff
Elena Elimova, MD, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, discusses the efficacy in PD-L1 subgroups of zanidatamab plus chemotherapy with or without tislelizumab as a first-line regimen for HER2-positive locally advanced or metastatic gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma (Abstract 4010).