The ASCO Moment

Every year, the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting marks a moment during the year where I think about the progress, promise, and challenges before us as an oncology community.?

This year’s ASCO brings with it special meaning and some undercurrents. Many of us will be attending in person for the first time in a few years as we still recover from a global pandemic, contend with a challenging geopolitical environment, and work to address the reality of a diversity gap in cancer research.

Despite these complex times, when stepping back to consider the global innovation landscape, I am full of optimism. I believe that our pace of innovation is accelerating, and this gives us a growing opportunity to improve people’s lives in the future. Every year brings new innovation, and we clearly see many such examples today.

Here are a few areas I am especially excited about:

·??????Multi targeted biologics that address complex biology in novel ways. As we go beyond CD3 redirectors, we will be exploiting advances in antibody technology to modulate the immune synapse. This will be a major advance that I believe will deliver transformational therapies.

·??????Novel engineering approaches to cell therapy. While CARTs have already delivered remarkable results in the clinic, the evolution of cell therapy is moving rapidly.?We now have an opportunity to truly engineer cells using advanced editing and inducible pluripotent stem cells.

·??????Novel approaches to antibody drug conjugates (ADCs). While ADCs have been around for a long time, new approaches will get us closer to the vision of killing tumor cells with a toxin while avoiding toxicity.

I’ve never been more optimistic about getting in front of cancer, driving toward cures and working together to improve representation and diversity in cancer research. I see these principles as priorities for innovation coming out of ASCO.

Hope to see you in Chicago!

#ASCO22 #cancerresearch #diversityequityandinclusion #innovation #optimism #collaboration