Hear from our oncology experts across Inizio ahead of the 2024 ASCO? Annual Meeting

We caught up with leading experts in oncology across Inizio, including Shawn Jordan, Scientific Strategy Director, Nazaré, Inizio Engage and Reena Khurana, Research Consulting Senior Director, Putnam, Inizio Advisory?

In your opinion what are the key market drivers in oncology?

Shawn: Without a doubt, a key market driver in oncology is Artificial Intelligence. The pace of development in AI is positioning the oncology sector for a boom of innovation. This is being felt already in R&D, where AI brings unprecedented efficiencies to the development and deployment of more effective treatments. And we're seeing AI increasingly infused into healthcare settings, equipping both patients and providers with new technologies promising to reshape treatment experiences.

The potential in this moment feels immense, and yet classic challenges will persist without collective effort. Inequities in health care access and treatment experiences are an ongoing challenge for providers, and these technologies have the potential to perpetuate biases and harm if not sufficiently kept in check.

The oncology setting can also feel quite noisy, and this boom will certainly turn up the noise. Already, there's no dearth of data and discussion, and this makes it difficult to navigate through that noise and find meaningful insights. Nevertheless, we're seeing a clear progression toward an era of personalization unlike anything we've experienced previously in health care. For patients, this will mean increasingly tailored medicines and treatment approaches. And for physicians, more purposeful connections with the people they serve.

What are some of the key themes that you are most looking forward to at this years Annual Meeting?

Reena: We are excited about the cure component in the ASCO theme this year. We've seen a plethora of drugs approved in the recent few years in the adjuvant and the neoadjuvant settings, which primarily cater to the early or the locally advanced disease. PD-1 Inhibitors have been approved in breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, gastric oesophageal, cervical ca, melanoma and more, and targeted therapies have made inroads into locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer. There are more than 400 abstracts that are presented this year, which will be covering some aspect of treatment in the early stage or the locally advanced settings. More than 70% of these are focused on neoadjuvant settings, building on the key objective oncologists have - curing as many patients as they can with neoadjuvant treatment before a surgery. ?

What are we going to see at the Annual Meeting? Well, besides the data readouts, there is a significant focus on topics such as who should get a neoadjuvant versus an adjuvant, and how can ctDNA be used to drive this decision.

Our team of experts across Inizio will be at booth 37157 to discuss all things oncology. Find out more about our expertise and solutions here.