NCRI at ASCO 2018

by Rachel Laurence

NCRI were at the 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting this year, an opportunity to represent UK collaborative working and forge connections. Hear from Laura Chambers, NCRI’s Clinical Research Groups Manager, about her experience: the people she met and the great research that the NCRI has helped to accelerate.

This was my first time at ASCO, and I have to say it was epic – in terms of the breadth of cancer research and in terms of people – there were 39000! Still, I did see many familiar faces and heard about some great research that the NCRI have helped to accelerate. Here are a few:

  • PRECISION-panc is an ambitious programme of research that seeks to uncover the molecular profile of individual patients with pancreatic cancer and it was wonderful to see NCRI Clinical Studies Group (CSG) members, Janet Graham and Juan Valle, along with David Chang, presenting their poster on PRIMUS-001, which is part of the PRECISION-panc programme.
  • PERSEPHONE trial which showed that HER2+ breast cancer can be treated effectively with a shorter treatment regimen, therefore enabling patients to benefit from treatment reduction and associated toxicities. Great to see Helena Earl, former member of the NCRI Breast Cancer CSG, present and proud that the NCRI was involved in the development of this trial – bringing the right people together at the right time to accelerate cancer research for the benefit of patients.
  • Also good to see Peter Hillmen, Chair of the NCRI Haem Onc Group. He presented on MURANO; a trial developed by the NCRI Chronic Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (CLL) Subgroup , investigating combined treatment in patients with CLL.
  • Interesting to browse the poster session on Patient and Survivor Care – I recognised many names as the NCRI is also working with researchers on NCRI’s Living With and Beyond Cancer initiative, which seeks to develop research proposals for addressing the most relevant priorities in this area.

Looking forward to my next conference fix at the 2018 NCRI Cancer Conference in November.

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