The American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting is set to begin in San Diego on April 17, bringing together major pharmaceutical companies such as Merck, Amgen, and Revolution Medicines to share updates that could influence the future of cancer treatment.
The event is significant for the oncology research community because it features preliminary results from important clinical trials and emerging drug modalities. One highlight is Merck's first-in-human study of MK-2010, a PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibody licensed from LaNova Medicines in 2024. This study will provide an early indication of Merck’s ability to compete with other companies developing similar treatments for cancer.
Jia Luo, a medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, said she is particularly interested in presentations about new RAS inhibitors zoldonrasib and elisrasib for KRAS-mutated non-small cell lung cancer. "There will likely be multiple approved targeted treatment options for RAS [mutant] cancers in the coming years," Luo said in an email to BioSpace.
Revolution Medicines will present data on zoldonrasib after reporting a high response rate in a Phase 1 trial last year. Meanwhile, D3 Bio will update its progress on elisrasib following earlier Phase 2 results showing activity in patients who had progressed on other KRAS G12C drugs. Allan Jordan, vice president of oncology drug discovery at Sygnature Discovery, said small molecules continue to play an important role against challenging targets such as intrinsically disordered proteins and mRNA.
Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are also expected to be featured prominently during the meeting. Lillian Siu from Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Timothy Yap from MD Anderson Cancer Center both highlighted ADCs as areas of interest this year. New approaches include dual-payload ADCs and degrader-antibody conjugates (DACs), which aim to improve tolerability or drive protein degradation rather than rely solely on cytotoxic effects. Roche recently signed a partnership worth up to $1 billion with C4 Therapeutics focusing on DACs.
AACR runs through April 22 with further presentations expected on multispecific antibodies, CAR T cell therapy, immunotherapy strategies for precursor malignancies, and novel induced proximity approaches.
