Pancreatic cancer has had a five-year survival rate below 13% for a generation. Most patients die within a year of diagnosis and chemotherapy has barely shifted that picture in two decades. 

On 31 May, a small biotech called Revolution Medicines will stand on the plenary stage at ASCO and present phase III data on an investigational drug called daraxonrasib. Based on the topline figures the company released in April, the result is the kind that makes oncologists put down their coffee. Whether it survives the full dataset is the question the room will be there to answer. The trial is called RASolute 302; it is one of five plenary readouts at this year’s meeting, and one of 10 we think are worth your time. 

ASCO 2026 runs from 29 May to 2 June at McCormick Place in Chicago, with 40,000 oncology professionals expected. They will work through more than 7,000 abstracts, most of those incremental. Here is what to look out for, what is already in the public domain and why each one could matter. 

A note on timing: regular abstracts release on Thursday 21 May. The five plenary late-breakers stay embargoed until Saturday 30 May. Everything in this article is drawn from publicly available pre-ASCO disclosures, sponsor press releases and prior congress data. Full datasets and conclusions remain subject to disclosure at ASCO, peer review and regulatory evaluation.  

1. RASolute 302: a potential new option for pancreatic cancer
Revolution Medicines · Plenary, LBA5 · 31 May

Pancreatic cancer is the setting where drug development keeps coming up short. Revolution Medicines has spent years targeting RAS, a gene mutated in roughly nine in 10 cases. In April, the company released topline data. Based on that topline disclosure, patients on daraxonrasib lived a median of 13.2 months in the trial, versus 6.7 months on chemotherapy. Hazard ratio 0.40. P-value below 0.0001. If those numbers hold up in the full dataset, oncologists will have something to talk about on the flight home. 

The questions ASCO will help answer are whether the result holds in the RAS G12-mutant subgroup specifically, and whether the skin rash safety profile is manageable in practice. If both hold, RASolute 302 may turn out to be one of the more meaningful pancreatic cancer readouts in recent years. Trial details on ClinicalTrials.gov. 

2. PROTEUS: testing prostate cancer treatment earlier
Johnson and Johnson · Plenary, LBA1 · 31 May

Apalutamide is already established in advanced prostate cancer. PROTEUS asks whether it should be used much earlier, around the time of surgery, in patients with high-risk localised or locally advanced disease. 

Around 2,000 patients across 200 sites in 18 countries. Patients received the drug before and after surgery. Two questions. Was the cancer eliminated at surgery? Did it stay away? Data were originally expected in 2024. The wait has not dulled the interest. 

3. SARC041: a long shot in a hard cancer
Sarcoma Alliance for Research Through Collaboration · Plenary, LBA2 · 31 May

Sarcomas are rare. Dedifferentiated liposarcoma is rarer and harder. SARC041 tests abemaciclib, originally developed for breast cancer, against placebo in advanced disease. 

No data have been disclosed publicly. This is the most uncertain of the five plenary readouts, and the one most likely to surprise the room either way. 

4. LIBRETTO-432: catching lung cancer earlier
Eli Lilly · Plenary, LBA3 · 31 May

About one in 50 non-small cell lung cancers carry a fusion in a gene called RET. Selpercatinib is already used in advanced disease in those patients. LIBRETTO-432 asks whether giving it after surgery can stop the cancer coming back. Lilly toplined positive event-free survival data in February. Based on that disclosure, overall survival was trending in the same direction but immature. ASCO is expected to show the full curves. 

The trial enrolled 151 patients. Small for a phase III in lung cancer, which tells you how rare the RET fusion is and how much work goes into finding the right patients. 

5. HARMONi-6: a Chinese bispecific takes a swing
Akeso, partnered with Summit Therapeutics · Plenary, LBA4 · 31 May 

Ivonescimab is an investigational bispecific antibody that targets PD-1 and VEGF at once. It is being studied as a first-line option in lung cancer. 

At ESMO Berlin in October, Akeso reported that within this trial, ivonescimab plus chemotherapy showed a median progression-free survival of 11.1 months, compared with 6.9 months for tislelizumab plus chemotherapy. Hazard ratio 0.60. ASCO is expected to reveal whether that translates into longer overall survival within the same trial. 

There is important context. HARMONi-6 is a Chinese trial and the comparator is tislelizumab, not pembrolizumab, which is the dominant first-line drug in Europe and the US. Cross-trial comparisons should be made with caution. A broader read on ivonescimab in a global setting may come from the HARMONi-3 trial. HARMONi-6 is the warm-up. 

6. VIKTORIA-1: a new shape for breast cancer treatment
Celcuity · Late-breaking oral, LBA1008 · 2 June

Breast cancer that has progressed after CDK4/6 inhibitors is one of the toughest situations in oncology. Celcuity is trying to change that with gedatolisib, an investigational drug that hits three targets in the same pathway at once. 

On 1 May, Celcuity reported that within the trial, both the triplet and the doublet performed better than the study comparator in patients with a PIK3CA mutation. Detail is reserved for ASCO. 

Clinicians will watch the size of the benefit, whether the triplet’s profile justifies its side effects, and how stomatitis (painful mouth sores) compares with alternatives in the same study. Celcuity has a regulatory decision pending in July for the other half of the patient population. Trial design here. 

7. ARACOG: which prostate cancer drug keeps you sharper?
Alliance Foundation Trials · Abstract 5005 · Press briefing 18 May

Darolutamide and enzalutamide are both widely used in advanced prostate cancer. They work in similar ways. Patients and doctors choose between them based largely on side effects. 

ARACOG asks whether one is gentler on the brain. Researchers used the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery, the kind of tests typically used in Alzheimer’s research, to compare cognitive function in 132 men over 48 weeks. ASCO included it in the pre-meeting briefing, which tells you the answer matters. 

8. BWEL: can losing weight after breast cancer change outcomes?
Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology · Abstract 12010 · Press briefing 18 May

Obesity has been associated with worse outcomes in breast cancer. BWEL is the largest trial yet to test whether a phone-based weight-loss programme can improve quality of life and, eventually, survival. 

The trial enrolled 3,181 women with stage II to III breast cancer. Weight loss data were reported in 2023. The ASCO 2026 readout focuses on quality of life and symptoms. Long-term cancer outcomes are expected to come later. A rare phase III trial of a non-drug intervention, the operational lessons may matter for anyone designing supportive care research. 

9. YOCAS: yoga in survivorship
URCC NCORP Research Base · Abstract 12004 · Press briefing 18 May

Cancer survivors are often left with two problems drugs do not solve well: low mood and poor sleep. YOCAS is a nationwide phase III trial testing yoga against standard care. That a yoga trial reaches phase III scale tells you how seriously the field is taking non-drug interventions. Positive results could put real evidence behind something many survivors already do. 

10. Pfizer: a wide portfolio in motion
Pfizer · 40+ abstracts including three late-breakers

Pfizer is bringing one of the larger portfolios to this year’s meeting: lorlatinib in ALK-positive lung cancer, a BRAFTOVI regimen in colorectal cancer, talazoparib plus enzalutamide in prostate cancer, tucatinib in HER2-positive breast cancer, plus early pipeline updates on sigvotatug vedotin, PF-08634404 and atirmociclib. 

What this collection suggests is where one of the larger oncology developers sees the next decade going: earlier lines, more combinations, more biomarker-defined populations. 

What this year’s readouts may tell us 

Three patterns emerge when you read the list together. 

• Drugs are being studied earlier: Apalutamide in localised prostate cancer. Selpercatinib in adjuvant lung cancer. Tucatinib as first-line maintenance. The science is sound, but the logistics are harder. Recruiting newly diagnosed patients is different from recruiting patients who have run out of options.

• The patient is the unit of analysis. RASolute 302 is powered on RAS G12-mutant disease. VIKTORIA-1 splits by PIK3CA status. LIBRETTO-432 is RET-fusion only. Modern trials tend to succeed by finding the right patient first not by enrolling broadly and hoping. Screen failure rates in molecularly defined trials regularly exceed 70%. 

• The map is shifting east. HARMONi-6 is a Chinese trial and its results will be discussed in oncology clinics in Berlin, Boston and London. Sponsors planning global development should consider China alongside other key regions, rather than as a follow-on market

Team continuity matters as much as scale 

Trials like these are hard to run well. Biomarker-stratified populations. Rare cancers. Multi-country designs. The trials that succeed often have one thing in common: the same team works on them from start to finish. 

In a five-year trial it is not unusual for sponsor and partner teams to change. The person who designed the recruitment strategy may not be the person executing it three years later, and that gap is often where timelines slip and screen failure rates climb. 

That continuity is what TFS HealthScience aims to deliver. The same medical director. The same lead CRA. The same project manager who remembers why a specific exclusion criterion was written the way it was. In a trial where seven out of 10 screened patients do not make it through, that kind of institutional memory can help support operational efficiency. 

TFS HealthScience supports oncology trials across more than 40 countries, with experience in solid tumours, haematological malignancies and rare cancers. We run them with the team that started them. If you are designing your next oncology programme and want to talk it through, we would rather have a conversation than send you a brochure. 

This material is for informational purposes only and reflects a high-level summary and interpretation of publicly available information, including sponsor press releases and prior congress disclosures from sources such as ASCO’s official press programme and ESMO 2025 published data. It does not constitute scientific, medical or regulatory advice, nor does it endorse any investigational product. References to trial data reflect topline or preliminary information disclosed by sponsors. Clinical outcomes and conclusions remain subject to full data disclosure, peer review and regulatory evaluation. Drug names referenced (including daraxonrasib, ivonescimab, selpercatinib, apalutamide, abemaciclib and gedatolisib) are used in accordance with sponsor disclosures.