Caroline Helwick

The treatment landscape for advanced pancreatic cancer is experiencing a tectonic shift. The common RAS mutation is now targetable and the race for the most effective inhibitor is heating up.

Despite compelling prognostic associations across multiple retrospective data sets, no interventional trial has demonstrated that acting on circulating tumor DNA testing results in early breast cancer improves patient outcomes. Clinicians should therefore proceed with caution until such evidence emerges, according to Heather A. Parsons, MD, MPH, Program Head of Breast Oncology, Associate Professor and Maudslien Endowed Chair in Breast Cancer Precision Oncology Research at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center and University of Washington, Seattle.

In the management of stage I testicular cancer, a persistent clinical dilemma is the identification of patients who truly need adjuvant treatment after orchiectomy rather than active surveillance alone. Interim results from the CLIMATE study found post-orchiectomy Plasma miR-371a-3p (miR-371), a measure of measurable residual disease (MRD), to be superior to existing biomarkers of recurrence. The prospective cohort trial enrolled 200 patients across Australia and New Zealand, and the findings were presented at the 2026 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium. 1

With recent data that RAS inhibition can improve survival in metastatic pancreatic cancer, 1 the optimization of these agents has become a research priority. Minh Than, MD, PhD, a clinical and research fellow in Hematology-Oncology at Penn Medicine and colleagues have proposed an unorthodox approach: giving these drugs before cancer develops—a concept called “interception.”

Median Overall survival was nearly doubled among patients with previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer who received the multiselective RAS(ON) inhibitor daraxonrasib in the phase III RASolute 302 trial, the results of which were presented at the Plenary Session of the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting by Brian M. Wolpin, MD, MPH

Among the high-quality abstract presentations at ASCO and the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), a few always stand out as particularly meritorious. The ASCO Post asked its Senior Deputy Editor, breast cancer specialist Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, to offer his selection and thoughts on some the impactful studies presented at the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting and at SABCS this past December. Dr. Abraham is the Enterprise Chair of the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology and Professor of Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine.

In patients newly diagnosed with high-risk large B-cell lymphoma, the addition of the CD19 monoclonal antibody tafasitamab plus the immunomodulatory drug lenalidomide (Tafa/Len) to standard therapy led to a 25% reduction in the risk of death or progression in the phase III frontMIND trial. Importantly, the experimental regimen provided benefit regardless of molecular cell-of-origin subtype, researchers reported at the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting. 1 The study was simultaneously published in The Lancet. 2

Results of the phase III EMERALD-3 trial showed that combining transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) with the immunotherapy-based STRIDE regimen, (single tremelimumab[an anti-cytotoxic T lymphocyte–associated antigen 4] plus regular interval durvalumab [anti–PD-L1]) with or without lenvatinib (oral multikinase VEGF and FGF inhibitor), slowed disease progression and prolonged survival in patients with embolization-eligible, unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma. The findings were presented at the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting by Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, JD, MBA, PhD (hc), FASCO, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Weill Medical College at Cornell University, New York, USA, and Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.

The plasma cell dyscrasia oral abstract session at the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting featured several pivotal trials that advanced the field, including those highlighted here. Coverage of new treatments for amyloidosis will appear in a separate article.

Results of the phase III EMERALD-3 trial showed that combining transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) with the immunotherapy-based STRIDE regimen, (single tremelimumab[an anti-cytotoxic T lymphocyte–a...