Oncology Experts Dive Into Top Data From ESMO 2025

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At the 2025 ESMO Congress, leading oncologists reflected on data expected to redefine practice across breast, genitourinary, and gynecologic malignancies.

Paolo Tarantino, MD, PhD, a breast medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, highlighted multiple paradigm-shifting studies across breast cancer subtypes. He pointed to results from the phase 3 DESTINY-Breast11 trial (NCT05113251), in which neoadjuvant fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (Enhertu) plus a taxane, trastuzumab (Herceptin), and pertuzumab (Perjeta; THP) improved pathologic complete response rates and reduced cardiotoxicity vs dose-dense doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide plus THP in patients with early-stage HER2-positive early breast cancer. He also noted findings from the phase 3 TROPION-Breast02 (NCT05374512) and ASCENT-03 (NCT05382299) trials, which showed that datopotamab deruxtecan-dlnk (Datroway) and sacituzumab govitecan-hziy (Trodelvy), respectively, significantly prolonged progression-free survival in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.

Andrea Necchi, MD, an associate professor of oncology at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, Italy, and Andrew W. Hahn, MD, an assistant professor of genitourinary medical oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, discussed key advances in genitourinary cancers. Necchi highlighted the perioperative findings from the phase 3 KEYNOTE-905/EV-303 trial (NCT03924895) of enfortumab vedotin-ejfv (Padcev) plus pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in muscle-invasive bladder cancer and the phase 3 RC48-C016 study (NCT05302284) evaluating disitamab vedotin (PF-08046051) plus toripalimab (Loqtorzi) vs chemotherapy in HER2-expressing locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma. Hahn pointed to the phase 2 OPTIC RCC (NCT05361720) and phase 1b/2 KEYMAKER-U03 (NCT04626479) substudy 03A studies in renal cell carcinoma, emphasizing the growing role of biomarker-driven therapy selection and the potential for triplet regimens in future frontline management.

Dana M. Chase, MD, a professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at UCLA, highlighted several gynecologic oncology trials presented at the meeting, including the phase 3 KEYNOTE-B96 trial (NCT05116189) of pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy in recurrent platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, which demonstrated an overall survival benefit in a difficult-to-treat population. She also underscored emerging data for next-generation antibody-drug conjugates targeting CLDN6, HER2, and folate receptor α, which continue to show durable efficacy and improved tolerability in ovarian and endometrial cancers.

Nicoletta Colombo, MD, PhD, director of the Gynecologic Oncology Program at the European Institute of Oncology IRCCS in Milan, Italy, highlighted several noteworthy presentations at the 2025 ESMO Congress, including updates in ovarian cancer and emerging data in cervical and endometrial malignancies. She noted particular interest in studies evaluating chemotherapy-free regimens in the frontline treatment of cervical cancer and additional analyses in endometrial cancer that, while not practice changing, provide valuable insights to refine therapeutic strategies and expand the treatment armamentarium for patients with gynecologic cancers.

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