Five-year survival rates for people with metastatic colorectal cancer haven’t budged much in recent decades but new data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual conference pushed the boundary enough to be notable.

Could Merus NV be on course to get the fourth “tumor agnostic” drug approved, a groundbreaking approach to cancer that focuses on mutations rather than location of the disease? According to a trial update revealed at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference the biotech from Utrecht, the Netherlands, could join Merck & Co Inc., Bayer AG/Eli Lilly and Co. and Roche Holding AG with its early-to-mid stage candidate, zenocutuzumab.

The “showdown” at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting foreseen by one analyst between breast cancer drugs from Gilead Sciences Inc. and Astrazeneca plc with partner Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. didn’t quite materialize. Or the showdown happened, but turned out more nuanced than a one-to-one, high-noon gunfight on Main Street. Gilead ended considerable suspense June 4 by offering at ASCO phase III data from the Tropics-02 study with Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan), expectations for which already had grown lukewarm. Astrazeneca and Daiichi dazzled the next-day meeting with phase III data from the Destiny-Breast04 (DB04) study with Enhertu (fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan).

As the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting began, researchers discussed abstracts related to findings due to roll out during the course of the weekend event. On the table June 3 were primary results from the double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, phase III Shine study of Imbruvica (ibrutinib) from Abbvie Inc. and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) in combination with bendamustine‐rituximab and rituximab maintenance therapy as a first‐line treatment for patients ages 65 and over with mantle cell lymphoma.