Blog

The wait is almost over. The 2025 ESMO Congress is only days away.

As the global oncology community turns its focus to Berlin, Germany, for the start of the 2025 ESMO Congress on Friday, October 17, the meeting is again primed to deliver practice-changing data across various tumor types and specialties.

With this year’s program shaping up to be one of the most comprehensive yet, OncLive^® is here to help you navigate a crowded agenda featuring key updates and research across the lung, breast, gastrointestinal (GI), genitourinary (GU), gynecologic, and hematologic cancer spaces.

In anticipation of the congress, we gathered insights from experts in their respective fields, and we also invited the oncology community to vote in a series of preview polls highlighting the most-anticipated abstracts and topics in each tumor type.

Before experts from across the field of oncology converge at the 2025 ESMO Congress, there’s still time to prepare and preview some of the biggest presentations and data that shape the next era of oncology care.

Below, take a look at all of our previews for the 2025 ESMO Congress. Be sure to dive in before the congress kicks off on Friday.

Breast Cancer Experts: Key ADC Developments and CDK 4/6 Inhibitor Updates Set to Dominate ESMO 2025

There will be no shortage of anticipated data in the breast cancer space during the 2025 ESMO Congress, with a smattering of late-breaking abstracts and other oral presentations set to dominate the meeting.

“A lot of incredible abstracts and late-breakers will be [presented during] ESMO 2025, [but] there are 2 main categories [of research driving the conversation],” Paolo Tarantino, MD, a research fellow in the Department of Medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, shared with OncLive. “One, as it often happens, is antibody-drug conjugates [ADCs]. The other hot [topic] is new drugs for hormone receptor–positive breast cancer…[including] CDK 4/6 inhibitors combined with PI3K/mTOR inhibitors.”

Our preview featured insights from Tarantino and the following breast cancer experts:

• Kelly McCann, MD, PhD, an associate clinical professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles Health
• Jason A. Mouabbi, MD, an assistant professor in the Department of Medical Breast Oncology in the Division of Cancer Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston
• Erika P. Hamilton, MD, director of Breast Cancer Research at Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville, Tennessee

Inside the Most Anticipated Lung Cancer Abstracts at ESMO 2025

“The 2025 ESMO Congress will feature multiple late-breaking abstracts that could reshape the lung cancer treatment landscape,” Amol Akhade, MD, MBBS, a senior consultant at Fortis Hospitals Mumbai, consultant medical oncologist at Suyog Cancer Clinics in Thane, and the honorary in-charge consultant medical oncologist at Topiwala National Medical College in Mumbai, India, told OncLive. “Among them, the [trials] that stand out as particularly important [are the phase 3] HARMONi-6 [NCT05840016] and OptiTROP-Lung04 [NCT05870319] trials, as well as the [the phase 1] Beamion LUNG-1 trial [NCT04886804] and [the phase 1/2] SOHO-01 trial [NCT05099172] in the HER2-mutant setting.”

Along with Akhade, our preview featured expert insights from:

• Sagus Sampath, MD, a radiation oncologist at City of Hope in Duarte, California.
• Balazs Halmos, MD, a professor in the Department of Oncology (Medical Oncology) and Department of Medicine (Oncology and Hematology) and associate director of clinical science at Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center in the Bronx, New York.
• D. Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, a professor in medicine-medical oncology and director of the Thoracic Oncology Clinical and Clinical Research Programs at the University of Colorado Cancer Center/Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.
• Edward B. Garon, MD, MS, a thoracic medical oncologist and a professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in Los Angeles, California.

Advances in Targeted Therapies and ADCs in Gynecologic Cancer Are Highly Anticipated at ESMO 2025

“[Something] we have to keep track of as we’re hearing the new data is what trials are currently opening up [for enrollment],” Brian Slomovitz, MD, the director of Gynecologic Oncology and cochair of the Cancer Research Committee at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, told OncLive. “We have a whole slew of trials opening up in endometrial cancer, about 9 or 10 randomized, phase 3 trials that were opening up…These are all potentially practice-changing trials. We need to really keep an eye on where the data is going and what the new studies are that are coming out that’ll help us do what’s better for our patients.”

Our expert-led gynecologic cancer preview also featured insights from:

• Premal H. Thaker, MD, MS, the David G. and Lynn Mutch Distinguished Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and director of Gynecological Oncology Clinical Research, and interim chief of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at Siteman Cancer Center in Saint Louis, Missouri
• Dana M. Chase, MD, a professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles

ESMO 2025 Will See Novel Agents Emerge and Standard Strategies Shift in GI Oncology

“We’re all looking forward to data with immuno-oncology [IO] and VEGF [inhibitor] combinations that might be coming out,” Kanwal P. S. Raghav, MBBS, MD, a professor in the Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology in the Division of Cancer Medicine, associate vice president of the Department of Ambulatory Medical Operations, and executive medical director of the Department of Ambulatory Treatment Centers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, told OncLive. “There are data on multiple antibody-drug conjugates with colorectal expansions that are coming forward, [including] data on HER2 and the long-term outcomes for the now FDA-approved fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki [Enhertu] in CRC. It’s going to be an exciting ESMO.”

Along with Raghav, our exclusive expert preview featured insights from:

• Tanios S. Bekaii-Saab, MD, the David F. and Margaret T. Grohne Professor of Novel Therapeutics for Cancer Research I at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, chairman for the Division of Hematology/Medical Oncology at Mayo Clinic, and co-leader of the Advanced Clinical and Translational Science Program and the Disease Group leader for Gastrointestinal Cancers for the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center in Phoenix, Arizona
• Suneel Kamath, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, as well as a gastrointestinal (GI) medical oncologist at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio

Inside the Most Anticipated Genitourinary Cancer Abstracts at ESMO 2025

“[At the 2025 ESMO Congress,] there will be many exciting abstracts in [GU oncology], so it is difficult to pick just a handful. In the frontline settings, we are in need of novel agents to improve the rate of durable responses. Kidney cancer is still in need of predictive and prognostic biomarkers, and there is much interesting work being done in this space,” David A. Braun, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine (medical oncology) and Louis Goodman and Alfred Gilman Yale Scholar at Yale Medical School in New Haven, Connecticut, explained.

For the GU oncology preview, Braun’s insights were accompanied from perspectives from:

• Alan Tan, MD, an associate professor of medicine, Division of Hematology Oncology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
• Axel Merseburger, MD, PhD, a professor and chair of the Department of Urology at University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein in Lübeck, Germany.

Hematologic Oncology Abstracts to Watch at the 2025 ESMO Congress

Although the 2025 ESMO Congress program is driven primarily by data, abstracts, and presentations surrounding solid tumor management, the congress will feature a spread of updates and data emerging from the hematologic oncology landscape.

Read our preview and poll results above to see what hematologic oncology topics made the cut for ESMO 2025 before this field turns its attention to the 2025 ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition in December.

Comprehensive bridging therapy administered prior to anti-BCMA CAR T-cell therapy exhibited safety and tolerability as treatment in a small cohort of patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma from a single institution, according to findings from a retrospective analysis exhibited in a poster presentation at the 2025 American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting.

Data from the trial revealed that among 19 patients treated with bridging radiotherapy prior to CAR T-cell therapy, no grade 3 or higher toxicities were observed related to the use of bridging therapy. Additionally, 2 patients experienced grade 2 cytokine release syndrome (CRS), and 2 had developed grade 2 immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS); no grade 3 CRS or ICANS events were observed.

Additionally, efficacy data revealed that the median progression-free survival (PFS) among all patients treated with bridging therapy was 6.8 months after a median follow-up of 8.2 months. The median overall survival (OS) had not been reached. Furthermore, among those who experienced progression, 60% showed no evidence of bone marrow involvement, and all 10 patients developed distant plasmacytopenias.

Among patients who did not have extramedullary disease (EMD), a statistically significant improvement in PFS was observed: the median PFS was 10.4 months vs 6.6 among patients with EMD (P = .006) in a Kaplan-Meier analysis of PFS for EMD. In patients with EMD who received comprehensive vs focal bridging radiation therapy, a nonsignificant trend for PFS favored those who received comprehensive bridging radiotherapy in a Kaplan-Meier analysis of PFS between both modalities. The median PFS was 6.7 months vs 4.4 months in those who received focal bridging therapy (P = .055).

“[Bridging radiotherapy] prior to anti-BCMA CAR T therapy appears to be a safe and tolerable treatment strategy, with no grade [3 or higher] toxicities,” Preston Perez, BA, of the University of South Florida Morsani School of Medicine and the Moffitt Cancer Center, wrote in the presentation with study coinvestigators. “EMD continues to be associated with inferior clinical outcomes. Comprehensive [bridging radiotherapy] to all sites of EMD prior to CAR T may be associated with improved PFS.”

The retrospective analysis included patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma who received bridging radiation therapy within 90 days of CAR T-cell infusion. PFS and OS outcomes were treated using the Kaplan-Meier method from the time of CAR T infusion.

Local failure was defined as recurrent disease within a previously irradiated site, and comprehensive bridging radiotherapy encompassed radiation to all sites of EMD. Toxicities were graded using CTCAE v.5.0 criteria. ASTCT criteria were used for all CRS and ICANS events.

The most common dose and fractionation was 20 Gy in 5 fractions among 6 patients and 8 Gy in 1 fraction among 8 patients.

The investigators sought to ascertain the role of bridging radiation therapy prior to anti-BCMA CAR T cell-therapy by evaluating its efficacy and safety in that indication. They also assessed the local control of EMD and its impact on survival outcomes.

According to the study authors, a phase 2 single arm trial is ongoing to evaluate comprehensive bridging therapy for patients with multiple myeloma with EMD prior to CAR T-cell therapy. A total of 26 patients have been enrolled, all of whom are receiving bridging therapy to all sites of EMD, with a primary end point of 12-month PFS; specifically, an improvement from 25% to 50%. Bridging radiation therapy will be given at 20 Gy in 5 fractions.

Reference

Perez PE, Nakashima JY, Peterson J, et al. Clinical outcomes following bridging radiotherapy in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma patients prior to chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy. Presented at: 2025 American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting; September 27 – October 1, 2025; San Francisco, CA. Abstract 3705.