The American Society of Clinical Oncology will host its annual conference from May 29 to June 2 at Chicago’s McCormick Place Convention Center, bringing together approximately 40,000 attendees to discuss the latest developments in cancer care.
The 2026 meeting will feature more than 7,000 abstracts and several plenary sessions focused on innovations for hard-to-treat cancers. Allyson Ocean, a medical oncologist at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine, said in an email that “ASCO 2026 is shaping up to be one of the most exciting meetings in years for gastrointestinal oncology.” She added that for pancreatic cancer specifically, “there is a palpable sense at this year’s ASCO that we may be entering a fundamentally different era.”
A major focus will be on Revolution Medicines’ Phase III RASolute 302 trial evaluating daraxonrasib against chemotherapy in previously treated patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. According to Revolution’s press release, daraxonrasib nearly doubled overall survival compared to chemotherapy. Meredith Pelster, associate director of Gastrointestinal Cancer Research at Sarah Cannon Research Institute and investigator on the RASolute trial, said, “This is a huge moment in pancreas cancer. You can feel the excitement.” Pelster also highlighted the need for further information about side effects so clinicians can counsel patients appropriately.
Other highly anticipated presentations include studies using circulating tumor DNA blood tests to guide adjuvant treatment decisions in colon cancer and trials exploring therapies such as Pfizer’s Braftovi plus cetuximab and Shanghai KeChow Pharma’s Tunlametinib plus vemurafenib in colorectal cancer.
Bispecific antibodies are another area of focus. Daina Graybosch, senior managing director of immuno-oncology at Leerink Partners, said her attention is on Summit Therapeutics’ ivonescimab. The HARMONi-6 trial puts ivonescimab plus chemotherapy up against BeOne Medicines’ Tevimbra plus chemotherapy as first-line treatment for advanced squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Graybosch said, “For me, it’s: How much better than Keytruda is it going to be? Then, what does that mean in terms of who is going to have sustainable revenues from a bispecific?”
Additional plenary session slots will examine Johnson & Johnson’s ERLEADA before and after surgery for high-risk localized prostate cancer; Eli Lilly's Retevmo in stage IB-IIIA RET fusion-positive NSCLC; Lilly's Verzenio for dedifferentiated liposarcoma; Incyte's Monjuvi/Minjuvi with lenalidomide and R-CHOP versus standard care in diffuse large B cell lymphoma; and Regeneron data on Ordspono plus chemotherapy for frontline DLBCL. Andres Sirulnik of Regeneron said, “We are hoping that this also will translate to better outcomes.”
