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.

In LITESPARK-011, belzutifan plus lenvatinib held advanced clear-cell kidney cancer in check for about four months longer than cabozantinib in people whose cancer had grown after immunotherapy, but at the interim look it had not been shown to help them live longer; a final survival analysis is still to come.

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

MATRix/IELSG43 settled how to consolidate remission in lymphoma of the brain: after MATRix chemotherapy, a high-dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplant kept 78 percent of patients free of progression at three years against 51 percent with conventional consolidation chemotherapy, and also lengthened survival, so transplant is now the preferred consolidation for fit patients.

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.

This phase 3 trial showed that a daily injection which turns the brain's fullness signal back on cut body-mass index by about a sixth, and reduced hunger, in children and adults whose weight gain followed damage to the hypothalamus from a tumour or its treatment, while people on placebo gained weight; it supported the March 2026 US approval of Imcivree for that use.

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.

The Chinese randomised trial in which Claudin 18.2 CAR-T cells delayed progression compared with the doctor's choice of later-line drugs in stomach cancer, the first randomised trial of CAR-T cells in a solid tumour.

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.

POD1UM-303 showed that adding the immunotherapy retifanlimab to the standard carboplatin-paclitaxel chemotherapy for advanced anal cancer delayed progression by about two months in median terms and reduced the risk of progression by 37 percent, making it the first immunotherapy to improve first-line treatment of this cancer.

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.

The study behind the second approved blood test for bowel cancer screening: the test found about four in five cancers and kept false alarms low, but like Shield it missed most advanced polyps, which is why guidelines still rank blood tests below colonoscopy and stool tests.

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.