trials

ASCERTAIN-V is the study behind the first all-oral AML regimen, approved in May 2026.

AZUR-1 is the registrational trial of the 'no surgery, no radiation, no chemo' approach for mismatch-repair-deficient rectal cancer, built on the MSK study where every patient had a complete response.

The first phase 3 win for a bispecific ADC, in triple-negative breast cancer, announced February 2026.

The first ADC against Claudin 18.2 to prove it extends life, announced July 2026, giving stomach cancer its first ADC beyond HER2.

Tests whether adding the DLL3 T-cell engager to first-line maintenance can push median survival in extensive-stage disease past two years, as the phase 1b hinted.

In 2026 a dual-immunotherapy regimen plus lenvatinib added to TACE cut the risk of progression by about 30%; whether it extends life is not yet known.

In FOURLIGHT-1, a CDK4-only inhibitor designed to avoid the low blood counts of current CDK4/6 drugs improved progression-free survival in second line.

A two-armed HER2 antibody beat Herceptin head-to-head as first-line treatment for HER2-positive stomach cancer, the first such win since 2010.

INTerpath-001 was the first positive phase 3 trial of a personalised cancer vaccine, announced 19 August 2026.

The first head-to-head trial among KRAS drugs: Roche's divarasib beat the two approved pills on progression and survival.

Adding the HIF-2α pill to a year of adjuvant pembrolizumab further reduced recurrence, and became the first adjuvant combination approved in kidney cancer.

Adding low-cost oral metronomic tablets to standard paclitaxel-carboplatin doubled median survival from 5 to 10 months in a randomised trial run in Varanasi.

The first bispecific ADC to extend both progression-free and overall survival in oesophageal cancer, for patients whose immunotherapy has stopped working.

The trial that nearly doubled survival in previously treated pancreatic cancer, presented in the ASCO 2026 plenary. The biggest result in the disease's history.

A randomised phase 2 found that adding the GSK-3 inhibitor elraglusib to standard chemotherapy lengthened survival in metastatic pancreatic cancer; a phase 3 is needed to confirm it.

A Nordic trial showing that three years of low-dose aspirin roughly halves recurrence in bowel cancers carrying a particular set of mutations, a biomarker-directed use of a drug that costs pennies.

The registrational study of a fourth-generation ALK pill designed to work after lorlatinib and to spare the brain-related side effects.

An alpha-emitting radioligand met all its primary endpoints, with responses in more than half of patients new to radioligand therapy.

Moved Trodelvy into first-line use for triple-negative patients who cannot receive immunotherapy.

Showed that pairing an ADC with immunotherapy beats chemotherapy plus immunotherapy in first-line PD-L1-positive TNBC.

Adding a year of immunotherapy to chemotherapy after surgery halved recurrences in stage III colon cancers with a broken DNA spell-checker.

Beamion LUNG-1 showed that zongertinib, a pill that blocks mutant HER2 while sparing EGFR, shrinks about seven in ten HER2-mutant lung cancers after chemotherapy, and it became the first oral HER2 drug approved for lung cancer.

Doubled survival, from about 15 to about 30 months, in the worst-prognosis genetic subtype of bowel cancer by adding two targeted drugs to first-line chemotherapy.

CAPItello-281 delivered the first AKT inhibitor success in prostate cancer, for the ~25% of men whose tumours have lost PTEN.

The first randomised trial to show that a coached exercise programme after cancer treatment reduces recurrence and death, in colon cancer.

The first head-to-head trial of a radioligand against a targeted pill in neuroendocrine tumours; the radioligand won on progression-free survival.

DeLLphi-304 was the first trial in which a T-cell engager improved survival in a common solid tumour.

Enhertu cut recurrence or death by more than half compared with Kadcyla in women with cancer left after pre-surgery treatment, replacing the KATHERINE standard.

Showed Enhertu plus pertuzumab beats the decade-old first-line standard for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

DESTINY-Breast11 brought Enhertu into pre-surgery treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer, replacing anthracyclines.

The first randomised proof that a HER2 drug beats standard chemotherapy in second-line stomach cancer: Enhertu added about three months of life.

Curium's PSMA radioligand met its progression endpoint; survival data and an FDA filing are pending.

For patients who cannot have cisplatin, the ADC-immunotherapy pair around surgery cut the risk of recurrence or death by 60% and the risk of death by half.

The trial that could replace chemotherapy before bladder removal in fit patients with an ADC plus immunotherapy.

In evERA, pairing an oral SERD with everolimus after CDK4/6 failure delayed progression by more than three months, and by four and a half months in ESR1-mutant tumours.

The first frontline regimen to beat R-CHOP in high-risk large B-cell lymphoma since rituximab, by adding a CD19 antibody and lenalidomide.

In HER2CLIMB-05, adding the brain-penetrant pill tucatinib to maintenance antibodies after first-line chemotherapy delayed progression by more than eight months.

A Chinese HER2 ADC cut the risk of progression by nearly 80% versus a pill-plus-chemotherapy standard, matching the scale of Enhertu's results.

IMforte produced the first maintenance treatment ever approved for extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer, adding lurbinectedin to the immunotherapy that continues after chemotherapy.

iMMagine-1 is the pivotal study behind anito-cel's BLA, with responses in nearly every patient.

The first trial to use a blood test for leftover cancer to decide who gets immunotherapy, and it worked.

The UK trial confirming that low-risk thyroid cancer patients can safely avoid radioactive iodine, published in 2025.

The first new treatment for curable head and neck cancer in six years: immunotherapy around surgery doubled the time patients stayed free of events.

After a decade of failures, the first immunotherapy trial to extend survival in ovarian cancer, leading to the first checkpoint-inhibitor approval in the disease.

KOMET-001 was the registration trial for ziftomenib: a quarter of heavily pretreated patients with NPM1-mutated AML reached complete remission on a once-daily pill.

The first oral SERD to reduce recurrence after surgery, by about 30%, compared with today's hormone pills.

A bispecific plus daratumumab cut the risk of progression by more than 80% versus standard doublets, bringing bispecifics to second line.

Adding immunotherapy before and after surgery cut deaths in early stomach cancer; nearly seven in ten patients were alive at three years.

NIVOPOSTOP showed that adding the immunotherapy nivolumab to chemoradiation after surgery for high-risk head and neck cancer kept about one in ten more patients free of relapse at three years, the first improvement in post-operative treatment in two decades.

PANOVA-3 is the trial behind the 2026 approval of a wearable electric-field device for pancreatic cancer, the first new approval in locally advanced disease in decades.

Adding a year of durvalumab to standard BCG bladder instillations cut the risk of recurrence or progression by about a third, the first systemic immunotherapy approved in early bladder cancer.

PSMAddition moved the radioligand Pluvicto into the first treatment of metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, given alongside hormone therapy, and the FDA approved this use on 31 July 2026. It delayed progression on scans, but severe side effects were more common and whether it lengthens life is not yet known.

Blocking cortisol signalling in tumour cells made chemotherapy work better and extended life in resistant ovarian cancer.

The first trial to change treatment because of a blood test rather than a scan: switching to camizestrant when an ESR1 mutation appeared in the blood delayed progression by seven months.

SOHO-01 is the study behind the second oral HER2 pill for lung cancer, approved in November 2025.

A chemotherapy-free bispecific plus ADC doublet beat salvage chemotherapy in relapsed large B-cell lymphoma.

The trial behind India's first CAR-T approval: about three in four heavily pretreated patients with lymphoma or leukaemia responded to a therapy made in Mumbai.

The first trial to show an overall survival benefit for a first-line ADC in triple-negative breast cancer.

VERIFY showed that weekly rusfertide, a hepcidin mimetic, freed most PV patients from phlebotomy and improved their symptoms, leading to the drug's approval in 2026.

A site-specifically conjugated HER2 ADC beat lapatinib-capecitabine on progression-free survival in China.

ADRIATIC brought the first improvement in curative-intent small-cell lung cancer treatment in 30 years: a year or two of immunotherapy after chemoradiation lengthens life.

AMPLIFY is the trial behind the first all-oral, fixed-duration CLL regimen approved in the US (February 2026): 14 cycles of two pills, then stop.

The trial that turned menin inhibition from an idea into the first approved drug for KMT2A-rearranged leukaemia.

The study behind Cologuard Plus: the new stool test caught 94% of bowel cancers and produced fewer false alarms than the original.

A cancer-killing virus instilled into the bladder produced complete responses in three quarters of patients whose BCG had failed, with almost no serious side effects.

The randomised trial that confirmed pirtobrutinib works after other BTK inhibitors fail, leading to full approval in December 2025.

Cabozantinib tripled the time without progression in neuroendocrine tumours that had outgrown other treatments, leading to a 2025 approval.

CEPHEUS extended the quadruplet advantage to patients who do not have a transplant.

Showed that a two-drug immunotherapy combination controls mismatch-repair-deficient bowel cancer for over four years on average, and beats immunotherapy alone.

Dual immune checkpoint blockade gave the longest median survival yet seen in a first-line liver cancer trial.

In children with average-risk leukaemia, adding blinatumomab pushed three-year disease-free survival from 88% to 96%, one of the largest gains in decades.

A two-headed antibody that blocks two immune brakes at once extended survival in advanced cervical cancer regardless of PD-L1 status.

CUPISCO was the first randomised test of precision medicine in cancer of unknown primary, where doctors cannot see where the cancer started. After three rounds of chemotherapy, switching to a drug chosen from the tumour's genetic profile held the cancer back for longer than carrying on with chemotherapy.

Moved Enhertu ahead of chemotherapy in hormone-positive breast cancer and extended it to 'ultralow' HER2.

Enhertu shrank brain metastases in most patients, including those with untreated lesions, answering a question its earlier trials had excluded.

The trial that brought the withdrawn myeloma ADC back, beating a daratumumab-based standard on progression and survival.

DREAMM-8 is the second confirmatory win for belantamab, in lenalidomide-exposed patients.

The study behind the first approved blood test for bowel cancer screening: it found 83% of cancers but only 13% of advanced polyps.

Proved that adding the immunotherapy blinatumomab to standard treatment saves lives even in patients whose leukaemia was already undetectable.

An oral SERD that works alone in ESR1-mutant tumours and, combined with abemaciclib, doubles progression-free time in everyone regardless of mutation.

The trial that showed a gentler CAR-T design could treat adult ALL with a fraction of the severe side effects.

The single-arm trial that won eque-cel its approval in China, with almost every patient responding and most reaching deep remissions.

A new brentuximab-based intensive regimen matched Europe's most effective (and most toxic) chemotherapy with far fewer side effects.

The first head-to-head trial in which a new drug beat Keytruda, in China; a survival benefit followed in 2026.

The first phase 3 win for ivonescimab, in lung cancer that has stopped responding to EGFR pills, and the basis of its first approval in China.

IELSG37 showed that people with primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma whose scan is clear after chemotherapy do not need radiotherapy to the chest, sparing young patients decades of heart and breast cancer risk.

IGNYTE-ESO was the pivotal study for the second sarcoma TCR-T, with responses in 42% of patients with two rare sarcomas.

In IMROZ, isatuximab added to VRd cut progression by 40% in older patients not having a transplant.

Confirmed that the KRAS pill adagrasib beats chemotherapy after first-line treatment, though the gain is modest.

For stage III lung cancers with an EGFR mutation, a targeted pill after chemoradiation cut progression by more than 80%.

LINKER-MM1 is the pivotal study for linvoseltamab, with 45% complete responses.

The single-arm study behind the first c-Met-directed antibody-drug conjugate approval in lung cancer: tumours shrank in about a third of patients whose cancers carried high c-Met protein, with eye and nerve side effects to watch.

The Chinese trial behind zevor-cel's approval for multiple myeloma, showing deep and lasting responses with a fully human BCMA CAR-T.

MOTION randomised 123 patients with symptomatic tenosynovial giant cell tumour not suitable for surgery to the CSF1R inhibitor vimseltinib or placebo. Tumours shrank in 40% on vimseltinib versus none on placebo, with better joint movement, pain and function, leading to approval in February 2025; whether responses last after stopping is unknown.

Giving the immunotherapy doublet before surgery, instead of nivolumab after, cut the risk of recurrence by about two thirds and let most patients skip further treatment.

The first immunotherapy shown to improve survival when given around bladder-removal surgery.

PACE-B showed that five stereotactic treatments control low- and intermediate-risk prostate cancer as well as four to eight weeks of conventional radiotherapy, with similar side effects at five years.

Head to head, the third-generation TKI ponatinib doubled the rate of deep, undetectable remission over imatinib in newly diagnosed Ph-positive ALL.

Using an early PET scan to spot responders let a third of women be cured of HER2-positive breast cancer without any chemotherapy.

The first drug to hit the hormone behind cancer wasting: patients on the highest dose gained nearly 3 kg more than placebo in 12 weeks and reported better appetite and more activity.