Precision medicine was at the heart of ESMO 2023

The annual meeting of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) concluded earlier this weekend. ESMO 2023 in numbers is pretty incredible:

34,000 oncology professionals from 170 countries

261 sessions

1,632 oral presentations

2,185 poster presentations

Owkin always makes the yearly pilgrimage to ESMO to pour over the latest data, catch up on cutting-edge science and connect with our partners from pharma, academia and tech.  

In addition to our booth, we showcased our AI-enabled capabilities through two posters from our data scientists Christian Esposito and John Klein, showing how deep learning could be used in the prediction of pathologic response to neoadjuvant therapy and in the identification of lipomas. 

The researchers we met were most interested in our work building the world’s largest spatial multiomics dataset in oncology (MOSAIC), and our newly announced collaboration with Servier to discover and develop AI-driven precision therapeutics.

Conference highlights

Standing Ovation: Thousands of ESMO delegates gave a standing ovation to confirmatory EV-302/KEYNOTE-A39 trial data which showed Seagen and Astellas Pharma’s NECTIN-4 Padcev in combination with Merck’s Keytruda. This drug combo will become the “new standard of care” in first-line Metastatic Invasive Bladder Cancer (MIBC).

‍AI in prognostication: During a special session on AI we learnt about the ways the technology is pushing oncology into a new era. Professor Anne Vincent-Salomon highlighted the AI tools already available in oncology, including Owkin’s RlapsRisk™ BC - an AI diagnostic tool to help pathologists and oncologists determine the right treatment pathway for early breast cancer patients. Professor Manuel Salto-Tellez also cited our second AI diagnostic tools MSIntuit™ CRC, as a product for routine diagnostic practice. “Owkin opened the black box on AI”, said Professor Vincent-Salomon. 

New treatment for a rare form of lung cancer: Results of the PAPILLON phase III study demonstrated how this brand-new targeted therapy could be effective in treating a rare form of lung cancer. The results, presented during a presidential session by Professor Nicolas Girard (respiratory oncologist and head of the Medical Oncology department at Institut Curie) showed increased survival and a reduced risk of the disease. 

This year’s event also saw the emergence of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), immuno-oncology (IO), and small molecule adjuvants (SMAs) which help uncover biomarkers from the tumour immune microenvironment (TIME), enabling researchers to edge closer to the promise of precision medicine.

It was so great to meet and talk to so many researchers, and we look forward to reconnecting at ESMO 2024 in Barcelona next year!

In the meantime you can learn more about MOSAIC, our diagnostics, or contact us to talk with one of our team.