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ASCO 2009
This year's ASCO Conference was held in sunny Orlando. Although well attended, it held no surprises or blockbuster announcements for kidney cancer drugs. Avastin was approved by the FDA for metastatic kidney cancer on August 3rd, but that was based on data that was presented at ASCO 2007. Of the 100 abstracts presented on kidney cancer, 40% of concerned studies for three drugs: Sutent (sunitinib), Nexavar (sorafenib), and Avastin (bevacizumab). The abstracts can be viewed at the ASCO website http://tinyurl.com/n7lzsq. 19 of the reports were presented on investigational therapies, that is, they are not approved by the FDA for kidney cancer treatment. Three of these, GlaxoSmithKline's pazopanib, Aveo's tivozanib (AV-951), and Pfizer's axitinib, are likely to be approved within the next year or two.
Following are summaries of some of the presentations, most of which were poster sessions and some of which were oral. We will be adding to the summaries over time.