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The studies to be discussed at the Best of ASCO meetings include practice-changing research in breast, lung, gastrointestinal, and genitourinary cancers; hematologic malignancies; and cancer prevention. The abstracts include key late-breaking abstracts and other select presentations from the plenary sessions and oral abstract sessions. In addition, a new feature of this year’s Best of ASCO meetings is the Tumor Board, which provides an informal forum for participants to discuss challenging cases from their own practices. Meeting faculty will provide expert opinion as they lead the discussion at these one-hour sessions.

The abstracts on breast cancer to be presented at the Best of ASCO meetings include trials of adjuvant endocrine therapy, a study on the role of dietary fat reduction, research on adjuvant chemotherapy for node-positive disease and high-risk node-negative disease, and a study on predicting response to chemotherapy. The session on breast cancer will also feature highlights from the outstanding Annual Meeting session on advances in monoclonal antibody therapy.

Among the lung cancer abstracts are studies on surgery alone compared with surgery plus preoperative chemotherapy for early stage non-small cell lung cancer, the use of bevacizumab for advanced disease, and a comparison of surgery and thoracic radiation after induction chemotherapy. In addition, the session will include an update on the correlation of molecular markers with clinical outcomes in advanced disease treated with gefitinib, chemotherapy, or chemotherapy and gefitinib in the IDEAL and INTACT clinical trials.

The gastrointestinal cancer abstracts focus on comparisons of various chemotherapy regimens for colorectal cancer and the latest findings from research on the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Prostate cancer and renal cell cancer will be discussed in the genitourinary cancer session, and the use of statins to reduce the risk of breast and lung cancers will be addressed in the cancer prevention session. Treatments for multiple myeloma and Hodgkin’s disease, as well as response to therapy for myelodysplatic syndrome and chronic myeloid leukemia, are topics of the abstracts in the hematologic malignancies session.

The Best of ASCO Meeting program was established as a way to give oncology professionals access to the most cutting-edge, practice-changing research presented at the Annual Meeting in a responsible, peer-reviewed manner. The success of the first meeting, held in September 2003, led to expansion of the program to two meetings in 2004. This year, the earlier offering of the meetings means that oncologists can learn about key research only a month after its presentation at the Annual Meeting.