ESMO Media Releases

LUGANO/SINGAPORE, 16 December 2015 – ESMO, the leading professional organisation for medical oncology, is pleased to announce the inaugural ESMO Asia 2015 Congress in Singapore. A premier scientific and educational platform for oncologists and other stakeholders in cancer care, the Asian edition of ESMO’s annual congress aims to facilitate information exchange between researchers, clinicians and patients across disciplines to find the most effective treatment solutions.

CheckMate 017 clearly showed that the checkpoint inhibitor improves the overall health status in patients with advanced squamous non-small-cell lung cancer

Two drugs are changing the current landscape for the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma

Cancer is distressing for patients and families, and supportive care is today an important part of therapy

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most aggressive oncologic diseases, with a 5 year median survival of 25%. Surgery remains the only curative option, although with a high recurrence rate.

Novel approaches and drugs are showing promising results in solid cancers.

A small study presented at ECC2015 shows positive responses in patients with Merkel cell carcinoma after few weeks of treatment with checkpoint inhibitors

The genomic landscape of lung cancer is becoming clearer as new mutations are identified in different types of cancers. Two studies presented at the European Cancer Congress (ECC) 2015 in Vienna report new insights into this expanding area.

Loss of fertility is a primary concern for some breast cancer patients as 10% of breast cancers occur in women younger than 40 years of age. Chemotherapy destroys rapidly dividing cells and the ovaries can be sensitive to this.

Preliminary safety results from the PERUSE study presented at the European Cancer Congress 2015 (ECC 2015) in Vienna, Austria, open the door for the taxanes nab-paclitaxel and paclitaxel to be used in HER2-positive patients with metastatic breast cancer

Atezolizumab is set to substantially change treatment strategies for patients with refractory lung cancer, according to Dr Martin Reck, Chief Oncology Physician in the Department of Thoracic Oncology, Hospital Grosshansdorf, Germany. Reck’s comments came as the results from the POPLAR and BIRCH studies showing the first results of efficacy with atezolizumab across lines were presented at the European Cancer Congress 2015 (ECC 2015) in Vienna, Austria.

Access to quality cancer care is still a big issue in Europe, and there is great heterogeneity in the availability of drugs, screening programmes and resources among countries. Neglected cancer populations exist with lower rates of early diagnosis and treatment compliance