Targeted drugs (not immunotherapies) stole ASCO 

While immunotherapies have made global headlines as the vanguard of cancer care, a yesteryear approach to oncology was the star of the field’s biggest academic meeting.

As STAT’s Adam Feuerstein explains, targeted cancer drugs, which have been around for decades, were the talk of the weekend’s American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago.

Two treatments — one from Blueprint Medicines and one from Takeda — demonstrated promising results for patients whose lung cancer expresses certain genetic mutations. That came on the heels of positive data from an Amgen drug that hits a genetic target long thought undruggable.

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