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ESMO 2025 Preview
An Expert’s Guide to ESMO 2025: A Preview of the Top Abstracts

Released: October 16, 2025

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During the 2025 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress, exciting and important results from many clinical trials will be reported. In this commentary, oncology experts highlight the abstracts they are most looking forward to seeing presented at the meeting. We will cover these abstracts in more detail as part of Clinical Care Options’ (CCO) Independent Conference Coverage of ESMO 2025. As the meeting unfolds, remember to check the CCO website for downloadable slidesets, including the data from these highlighted studies. After the conference, review the CME-certified expert analyses text modules with perspectives and clinical implications of these new data.

Top Picks: Breast Cancer
In breast cancer, Cristina Saura Manich, MD, PhD, and Paolo Tarantino, MD, PhD, identified several studies with the potential to change practice, including the following.

  • DESTINY-Breast05: A preplanned interim analysis of invasive disease– free survival with adjuvant trastuzumab deruxtecan vs trastuzumab emtansine for patients with high-risk HER2-positive early breast cancer and residual disease following neoadjuvant therapy (Abstract LBA1)
  • DESTINY-Breast11: Phase III trial of neoadjuvant trastuzumab deruxtecan alone or followed by docetaxel/trastuzumab/pertuzumab (THP) vs standard of care (dose-dense doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide followed by THP) in patients with high-risk locally advanced HER2-positive early-stage breast cancer (Abstract 291O)
  • monarchE: Primary overall survival analysis of adjuvant abemaciclib plus endocrine therapy for the treatment of patients with high-risk hormone receptor (HR)–positive/HER2-negative early breast cancer (Abstract LBA13)
  • ASCENT-03: Phase III trial of first-line sacituzumab govitecan vs chemotherapy for patients with advanced triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) who are not candidates for PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors (Abstract LBA20)
  • TROPION-Breast02: Phase III trial of first-line datopotamab deruxtecan vs chemotherapy for patients with advanced TNBC who are not candidates for PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors (Abstract LBA21)
  • evERA BC: Primary analysis of giredestrant, an oral selective estrogen receptor degrader, plus everolimus in patients with advanced estrogen receptor–positive/HER2-negative breast cancer previously treated with a CDK4/6 inhibitor (Abstract LBA16)

Additional Abstracts of Interest in Breast Cancer

  • ASCENT-04/KEYNOTE-D19: Patient-reported outcomes from the phase III trial of first-line sacituzumab govitecan plus pembrolizumab vs chemotherapy plus pembrolizumab in patients with advanced TNBC (Abstract LBA22)
  • VIKTORIA-1: Phase III trial of gedatolisib, a novel intravenously administered pan-PI3K/mTOR inhibitor, plus fulvestrant with or without palbociclib vs fulvestrant in patients with HR-positive/HER2-negative, wild-type PIK3CA advanced breast cancer with progression following CDK4/6 inhibitor and an aromatase inhibitor (Abstract LBA17)

Top Picks: Lung Cancer
Abstracts of interest selected by David Planchard, MD, PhD, and Luis Paz-Ares, MD, PhD, for the treatment of patients with lung cancers include:

  • FLAURA2: Exploratory analysis of overall survival with first-line osimertinib with or without platinum-based doublet chemotherapy in patients with advanced EGFR-mutated non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and poorer prognostic features (Abstract LBA77)
  • HARMONI-6: Phase III trial of first-line ivonescimab, a bispecific antibody to PD-1 and VEGF, plus chemotherapy vs tislelizumab plus chemotherapy for patients with advanced squamous NSCLC (Abstract LBA4)
  • OptiTROP-Lung04: Phase III trial of sacituzumab tirumotecan vs platinum-based chemotherapy for patients with advanced EGFR-mutated NSCLC and progression following EGFR TKI therapy (Abstract LBA5)
  • SOHO-01: Phase I/II trial of sevabertinib for patients with HER2-mutated advanced NSCLC (Abstract LBA75)
  • Beamion LUNG 1: Phase I trial of first-line zongertinib for patients with HER2-mutated advanced NSCLC (Abstract LBA74)
  • MDT-BRIDGE: Phase II trial of neoadjuvant durvalumab plus chemotherapy followed by surgery plus adjuvant durvalumab or chemoradiotherapy with durvalumab consolidation for patients with resectable stage IIB-IIIC NSCLC (Abstract LBA65)
  • DeLLphi-303: First-line standard-of-care chemoimmunotherapy plus tarlatamab for patients with extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (Abstract 2757O)

Additional Studies of Interest in Other Malignancies

  • MATTERHORN: Final overall survival analysis of perioperative fluorouracil/leucovorin/oxaliplatin/docetaxel with or without durvalumab in patients with resectable gastric/gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma (Abstract LBA81)
  • FORTITUDE-101: Phase III trial of bemarituzumab, an FGFR2b monoclonal antibody, plus modified leucovorin/fluorouracil/oxaliplatin (mFOLFOX-6) vs mFOLFOX-6 alone for patients with previously untreated advanced gastric/gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma with FGFR2b overexpression (Abstract LBA10)
  • EDGE-Gastric: Updated results with the combination of domvanalimab, zimberelimab, and FOLFOX as first-line therapy for advanced gastric/gastroesophageal junction and esophageal adenocarcinoma (Abstract 2112MO)
  • First-in-human phase I trial of INCB161734, a novel noncovalent KRAS G12D inhibitor, in patients with previously treated solid tumors and a KRAS G12D mutation (Abstract 916O)
  • First-in-human phase I trial of HRS-4642, a novel noncovalent KRAS G12D inhibitor, in patients with previously treated solid tumors and a KRAS G12D mutation (Abstract 915O)
  • AGITG-DYNAMIC III: De-escalation of adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with stage III colon cancer and negative circulating tumor DNA assessment (Abstract LBA9)

Remember to Check the CCO Website Often During and After ESMO!
Downloadable slideset summaries of these key studies will be available on the CCO website as the data are released. After ESMO, comprehensive analyses by our expert faculty will explore the clinical implications of the data in CME-certified, text-based modules

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Which of the following clinical trial results are you most looking forward to seeing presented at the 2025 ESMO Congress?

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