Ben Warrick

#ESMO26 is a wrap. A few thoughts. It is a privilege to be an oncologist. To everyone who took the time to meet with me, lend their expertise or mentor me in some way: thank you. I am grateful. Also, to the patients who contributed their time, hope and lives to allow these studies to happen, thank you. This is what allows progress. 1. ESMO absolutely brought incredible advancements. So did China. This was the first global conference where the USA has clearly been dethroned as the de facto biomedical trial leader (5 of the 7 Presidential Symposium late-breakers focused on new drugs were Chinese developed). Chinese patients will be getting access to the latest biomedical advances, first. 2. The molecular era is here for KRAS. Expect it to come to early lines, in every tumor, fast. Expect sexy combos. (I am personally very excited about Genmab + Incyte's LGR5-EGFR + G12D but also think Verastem’s and RevMed’s G12D’s look great.) 3. Some advances look meaningful but are minor. PD1-VEGF beats PD1, but it wasn't compared to PD1 + VEGF. The benefit looks similar to adding bev (duh). 4. Cellular therapy is finally here for solid tumors. Get your systems ready now, it takes years to truly prepare. The 66% response rate for TezR (SL-28) across all-comer solid tumors blew my mind. 5. ADCs will hit CRC/GI quickly, and in a few years there will be many questions about sequencing. Please please please stop using the same payloads. 6. Medical education is more important than ever with how fast the field is moving. If anyone has advice on how @TheGutOncLab can disseminate information better (like the people at @OpenMedicineHQ and @OncoAlert do), please let me know. Here's to next year. Already getting ready for @ASCO GI @TheGutOncLab @Onco_Nexus