In September 2020, the medical oncology community came together for the annual ESMO congress, although this year they did so virtually. Over 30,000 participants from >150 countries joined the Science Weekend part of this year’s congress, featuring presentations selected from 2,137 abstracts, 87 of which were late-breaking abstracts.
Combinations of ICIs with anti-angiogenic agents are being tested in an increasing number of disease settings; data on this approach were presented in several sessions during the congress. In CheckMate 9ER, patients with advanced-stage clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) were randomly assigned to receive first-line nivolumab plus cabozantinib or sunitinib. The combination led to a significant improvement in OS, although median durations were not reached in either arm (HR 0.60; P < 0.001). PFS and duration of response were also improved with the combination, which had a toxicity profile consistent with the single-agent profiles of its components. In LEAP-004, patients with unresectable stage III–IV melanoma with disease progression after ICIs received lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab, with an overall response rate (ORR) of 21.4%. In LEAP-005, the same combination was associated with encouraging results in patients with any of seven other solid tumour types who had previously received systemic therapy. Other combinations with data presented at the congress included nivolumab or placebo plus carboplatin and bevacizumab, and atezolizumab plus bevacizumab, both in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, as well as cabozantinib plus atezolizumab in patients with ccRCC. Mature data from these trials are eagerly awaited.
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