By Peter J. O’Dwyer, MD (left)
and Mitchell D. Schnall, MD, PhD

Thank you to all who participated in our Fall 2025 Group Meeting—whether you joined us in Philadelphia or online. Though we missed the contributions of our National Cancer Institute (NCI) colleagues due to the federal government shutdown, the work continues, and we look forward to welcoming them back next time. This meeting emphasized two areas of increasing importance to our Group: data science and real-world data. A requirement for a data science program is that we have well-curated databases, and these are coming together with pathomic and radiomic analyses applied to trials with well-documented clinical data. A successful partnership with Caris Life Sciences resulted in sequencing and pathomic analyses of 5000 patient samples from the landmark TAILORx breast cancer study, in a public-private partnership with the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program of the NCI.

Just one year after the agreement was concluded, all the samples have been run, the data analyzed, and three abstracts accepted for presentation at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Drs. George Sledge and Joseph Sparano provided an early look at these data for our membership at the General Session. Both that session and the Robert L. Comis, MD Translational Science Symposium continued to provide cutting-edge perspectives and opportunities for the next generation of ECOG-ACRIN trials and investigators. More about the latter in a future issue.

The Cancer Research Advocates Committee, led by Mary Lou Smith, JD, and Lisa Beckendorf, continue to develop their role as our partners in cancer research through training and education. At the Group Meeting, their session focused on ways to improve communication, navigate disagreements, and build trust through dialogue. During the General Session, Ms. Beckendorf presented the results of interviews with the committee chairs about how advocates can be more effective. The top finding: involve advocates early and often. This means advocates should be invited into in the clinical trial process from the very beginning and included in meetings about concept development and trial design, and working groups. By deepening collaboration from the earliest stages, we can better ensure that our research reflects the needs and priorities of the patients we serve.

Our meeting took place on the heels of the European Society of Medical Oncology Congress 2025, and we now draw your attention to two important studies presented there. Dr. Janice Mehnert (New York University) shared the results of the randomized phase 3 STAMP trial (EA6174), the largest study to date evaluating pembrolizumab as adjuvant therapy for Merkel cell carcinoma following surgery. The trial found that patients who received pembrolizumab had fewer distant cancer recurrences than those who did not, suggesting it may help prevent the spread of this aggressive skin cancer. While the effect on overall recurrence did not reach statistical significance, the reduction in distant metastases is still clinically meaningful and could change the standard of care.

Researchers also presented results from the phase 3 DREAM3R trial (PrE0506), a collaboration between PrECOG, LLC and the Thoracic Oncology Group of Australasia (TOGA). The study, led by Dr. Patrick Forde (Johns Hopkins University) in the US, tested first-line treatment with durvalumab plus chemotherapy for patients with advanced pleural mesothelioma. The combination showed non-significant improvement in overall survival compared with chemotherapy alone.

The final meetings of the year, the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, are fast approaching, and ECOG-ACRIN will be well-represented at these. At ASH, secondary research from the practice-changing E1910 study in B-ALL will be shared, as well as primary results from the phase 2 EA9152 trial in T- and B-ALL. At San Antonio, as mentioned above, several abstracts related to our public-private partnership with Caris will be presented. Be sure to look for these presentations and support our colleagues, as time permits!

Read the November 2025 issue here.