Stephen Liu, MD, Discusses Highlights of European Lung Cancer Congress

Stephen V. Liu, MD, of the Georgetown University School of Medicine and Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, DC, joined Lung Cancers Today to discuss the upcoming European Lung Cancer Congress (ELCC), which will kick off on March 26, 2025, in Paris, France.

The congress, which is a joint conference held by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer and the European Society of Medical Oncology, will run through March 29.

“This is a meeting where it leaves a lot of room for connection, for discussion, for networking,” Dr. Liu said. “It’s a favorite among lung cancer oncologists.”

He outlined several important presentations that are on the ELCC agenda for this year, highlighting the presentation of overall survival data from the phase 3 MARIPOSA trial, which had previously shown that frontline amivantamab plus lazertinib was superior to osimertinib in terms of progression-free survival.

“We learned by press release in early 2025 that it did translate to an improvement in overall survival,” Dr. Liu said. “The teaser from the press release showed that improvement in survival approaching one year difference in terms of the median. We’ll see those data for the first time publicly at ELCC 2025.”

Dr. James Chih-Hsin Yang of the National Taiwan University will present the MARIPOSA data during a proffered paper session on March 26. With this presentation, clinicians will be able to look at the survival curves and determine if the regimen should become the new preferred treatment in this setting.

“Countering the survival is certainly the increased infusions, the risk of VTE [venous thromboembolism], other toxicities, but really the magnitude of benefit will frame whether we should be changing practice in more patients,” Dr. Liu said.

The meeting will also feature an updated overall survival analysis from the phase 3 LAURA trial, which is evaluating osimertinib after definitive chemoradiotherapy in patients with unresectable stage III EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Dr. Liu noted that this data on overall survival, to be presented by Dr. Suresh Ramalingam of the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, will be of significant interest because osimertinib previously showed a “profound improvement in progression-free survival.”

In addition, Dr. Liu highlighted data from the phase 2 KRYSTAL-7 trial that will be presented by Dr. Marina Garassino of the University of Chicago. The trial is evaluating first-line adagrasib with pembrolizumab in patients with advanced or metastatic KRAS G12C-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The trial may address some key questions surrounding the efficacy and safety of combining KRAS-targeted agents with immunotherapy in this setting.

“Looking at [combining] adagrasib and pembrolizumab, is it more effective than we might expect from either agent alone, and is it safe to do so? I think that these data will be important to look at closely,” Dr. Liu said.

Another study to watch in the immunotherapy space is the final analysis of KEYNOTE-799, to be presented by Dr. Martin Reck, of the LungenClinic Grosshansdorf. Dr. Liu explained why he’ll be watching the results of the study evaluating pembrolizumab plus concurrent chemoradiation therapy in unresectable, locally advanced NSCLC.

“It’ll be interesting to see how those results fare to historic controls like PACIFIC and to more recent negative trials like PACIFIC-2,” Dr. Liu said.

Beyond the data, the ELCC will also feature opportunities for networking and education.

“One of the interesting sessions that I’ve got my eye on is one on artificial intelligence and how AI can improve outcomes and the treatment of lung cancer, looking at response assessment, pathologic assessment, and decision-making. This is a field that is rapidly evolving.”

The session, which will be chaired by Dr. Arsela Prelaj and Dr. Andreas Rimner on March 27, will help attendees get “up to speed with how we should be looking at AI and integrating it into our current and future trials,” Dr. Liu said.

Overall, the ELCC “will be a very interesting meeting for those who can attend,” Dr. Liu concluded.

To view the full program for the ELCC, visit: https://cslide.ctimeetingtech.com/coasis_21204/attendee/confcal/session/calendar.