Calculators
OncoCalendar
Olena Postupalenko, Oncogynecologist at Kyiv City Clinical Oncology Centre, ESO ambassador in Ukraine, shared on LinkedIn:
“Three ESMO 2026 posters I found particularly thought-provoking.
As I started exploring this year’s ESMO abstracts and presentations, these three posters stood out to me. Interestingly, only the first one comes from gynecologic oncology.
1. GLP-1 receptor agonists in patients with ovarian cancer and obesity
A real-world analysis of 1,851 patients demonstrated that GLP-1 receptor agonist therapy was associated with lower all-cause mortality and reduced rates of venous thromboembolism, sepsis, ischemic stroke, as well as peritoneal and visceral metastases over five years.
The growing body of evidence linking metabolic interventions with oncologic outcomes is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
2. The placebo effect in oncology
An analysis of 33 placebo-controlled randomized trials involving 5,306 patients identified 113 objective responses in placebo arms (109 PRs and 4 CRs).
Objective responses were more frequent among blinded patients who were unaware they were receiving placebo compared with patients who knew they were receiving placebo (ORR 1.2% vs 0.3%; p=0.046).
Suggested that delayed or residual effects of prior anticancer treatments may explain at least part of the observed phenomenon.
3. European participation in pivotal oncology trials
This analysis reviewed all 145 EMA approvals for solid tumors between 2020 and 2025, based on 134 pivotal clinical trials enrolling 92,049 patients.
One in four trials either reported results as ‘Asia versus Rest of the World‘ or provided no detailed geographic breakdown. In 17 studies, European participants accounted for less than 20% of the study population. Nine EMA-approved drugs were supported by pivotal trials that did not include a single European patient.
Overall, European patients represented approximately 40% of participants across pivotal studies.
With increasing discussions around external validity and global drug development, these numbers deserve attention.”
You can also read: 25 Posts Not to Miss from ESMO Congress 2026: Day 5
