ASCO has published their annual report on progress against cancer – the report highlights the most important clinical research advances of the past year and identifies priority areas where ASCO believes research efforts should focus moving forward.
this year the American Society for Clinical Oncology [ASCO] has selected refinement of surgical treatment of cancer as the advance of the year noting that novel systemic treatments is significantly changing the role of cancer surgery. recent strides have been seen in the effectiveness of this treatment approach in reducing the amount of surgery, and even the need for it, while increasing the number of patients who can undergo surgery when needed.
additional major advancements highlighted in the report include the use of vaccines against the human papillomavirus (HPV) in reducing cervical cancer risk in real world settings, biomarker driven treatment approaches in metastatic pancreatic cancer care, combinations of different therapy types that extends and survival without increasing toxicity and the growing number of targeted therapies that are offering more hope for patients with hard to treat cancers