E-News - October 2025
Spotlight on #ESMO25
ALLIANCE RESEARCH AT ESMO CONGRESS 2025
The Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology and Alliance Foundation Trials, LLC (AFT) will present key findings from four major studies at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2025, taking place October 17–21 in Berlin, Germany. These presentations highlight advancements across prostate, breast, colorectal, and neuroendocrine cancers and demonstrate the Alliance’s continued leadership in practice-defining clinical research.
Take a look.
Among the featured studies is the late-breaking presentation of final results from the Phase III PRESTO trial (AFT‑19), providing insights into the use of intensified androgen blockade in patients with high-risk biochemically relapsed prostate cancer (BRPC). The trial evaluated whether adding apalutamide—with or without abiraterone and prednisone—to standard androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) could improve outcomes compared to ADT alone. The presentation will be delivered by Rahul Aggarwal, MD, during the late-breaking genitourinary cancer session on Sunday, October 19 at 10:42 am CEST / 4:42 am ET / 3:42 am CT.
The PATINA trial (AFT‑38) assessed whether adding the CDK4/6 inhibitor palbociclib to standard anti-HER2 and endocrine therapy improves outcomes after initial chemotherapy in patients with HR+/HER2+ metastatic breast cancer. The trial previously showed a significant improvement in progression-free survival, extending the median by over 15 months. New health-related quality of life (HRQoL) data to be presented at ESMO show that patients also maintained functional and global well-being throughout treatment.
Ines V. Vaz-Luis, MD, PhD, will present these data during the mini-oral session on Monday, October 20 at 10:20 am CEST / 4:20 am ET / 3:20 am CT.
The ATOMIC trial (Alliance A021502) investigates the addition of the immune checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab to standard adjuvant FOLFOX chemotherapy in patients with resected stage III colon cancer and deficient mismatch repair (dMMR). The trial met its primary endpoint, demonstrating a disease-free survival benefit with the addition of atezolizumab. (Sinicrope FA, Ou FS, Arnold D, et al. (2025 ASCO Abstract LBA1) New subgroup analyses reveal that patients with both sporadic and Lynch syndrome–related dMMR tumors derived similar benefit, with no significant interaction by tumor origin—supporting the broad application of chemo-immunotherapy in dMMR colon cancer.
Frank A. Sinicrope, MD, will present these findings on Sunday, October 19.
A subgroup analysis from the CABINET trial (Alliance A021602) highlights outcomes for patients with advanced lung and thymic neuroendocrine tumors—a rare and challenging subtype of extrapancreatic NETs (epNETs)—treated with cabozantinib. The analysis shows that cabozantinib significantly improved progression-free survival compared to placebo in this hard-to-treat subgroup, reinforcing its utility across a broad spectrum of NETs. CABINET had previously demonstrated a progression-free survival benefit in patients with both epNET and pancreatic NET (pNET), as published in The New England Journal of Medicine (2024).
Jennifer Chan, MD, will present these data on Monday, October 20.
