Robert C. Stein, PhD, MBBChir, FRCP, on ER-Positive HER2-Negative Early Breast Cancer: Test-Directed Chemotherapy
ASCO 2026
Robert C. Stein, PhD, MBBChir, FRCP, of the National Institute for Health Research University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, discusses the first results from the phase III randomized OPTIMA trial, which is comparing chemotherapy decisions made with the Prosigna (PAM50) gene expression test with standard treatment with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, HER2-negative early breast cancer (Abstract 500).
The ASCO Post Staff
Jason R. Westin, MD, FASCO, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, provides an update on the safety and efficacy data from the phase III SUNMO trial, which compared mosunetuzumab and polatuzumab vedotin vs rituximab, gemcitabine, and oxaliplatin in patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) (Abstract 7007).
The ASCO Post Staff
Veronica Diermayr, PhD, of EDDC and A*STAR, discusses the use of artificial intelligence (AI) driven strategy called H&E 2.0 in gastric and esophageal cancer. Researchers tested the feasibility of training deep-learning models on hematoxylin and eosin images of gastroesophageal carcinomas and their ability to predict EBC-129 antigen expression directly from these images. EBC-129 is an experimental antibody-drug conjugate that targets N256-glycosylated CEACAM5/6, which is highly expressed on solid tumors, including gastroesophageal cancers (Abstract 4018).
The ASCO Post Staff
Mazyar Shadman, MD, of the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, describes the safety and efficacy results of the all-oral first-line combination regimen of sonrotoclax and zanubrutinib for patients with treatment-naive chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL), as well as the doublet’s effect on measurable residual disease (Abstract 7043). He also discusses the phase III BGB-11417-304/CELESTIAL-TNCLL-2 trial; this ongoing study is evaluating sonrotoclax plus zanubrutinib vs venetoclax and acalabrutinib in treatment-naive patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) (Abstract TPS7099).
Daniel A. Ermann, MD, of Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah School of Medicine, reviews data from a retrospective analysis that compared the real-world effectiveness of monotherapy first-line treatment for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) based on overall survival and time to next treatment (Abstract 7045).
The ASCO Post Staff
Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, of Cleveland Clinic, provides an update on the DESTINY-Breast05 trial, which is an ongoing phase III trial investigating postneoadjuvant trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) as compared with trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer with residual invasive disease and node-positive disease at surgery or inoperable disease at diagnosis. Dr. Abraham makes special note of rates of interstitial lung disease seen in the trial and methods of management.
