Khizra Ahmad, Founder and CEO at HealthMAIT, Scientific Peer Reviewer, Journal of Cancer Education, American Association for Cancer Education (AACE), Executive Board Member, APPS UK Foundation, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2026 felt different.
This was the quiet consensus among everyone who followed the week’s announcements out of Chicago. Something shifted this year, and
“Covering it as an OncoDaily Ambassador gave me a front-row seat to all of it.”
The moment that defined the week was a standing ovation for Revolution Medicines’ daraxonrasib, which nearly doubled survival in metastatic pancreatic cancer, moving median OS from 6.6 to 13.2 months. After four decades of KRAS being called ‘undruggable,’ the oncology community went electric, and Revolution left Chicago being called ‘the next oncology titan’.
Pfizer’s LORBRENA posted a seven-year survival update in ALK-positive lung cancer and their TALAPRO-3 data showed a 52% reduction in progression risk in prostate cancer, signaling a maturing pipeline with real staying power. Eli Lilly and Company matched that energy at the plenary, where selpercatinib delivered an 83% reduction in recurrence risk in RET fusion-positive lung cancer, a result that could rewrite the adjuvant standard of care entirely. GSK carried that momentum further with velzatinib making a striking ASCO debut, shrinking tumors in 61% of first-line GIST patients, while JEMPERLI (dostarlimab-gxly) data pointed toward cure rates in endometrial cancer, a word oncologists don’t use lightly.
AI wasn’t a side conversation this year either. ASCO’s launch of its own dedicated AI in Oncology platform was a direct response to what Dr. Clifford Hudis called ‘the amount of noise in the AI space’ that has become ‘distracting or confusing.’ Massive Bio captured that gap perfectly, with Dr. Arturo LoAIza-Bonilla framing Reticulum Nexus AI Suite, ‘Being designed to help make the next action happen. It detects the signal, explains the context, routes the referral, supports the patient and keeps the journey moving.’ From liquid biopsy to AI-powered trial matching, digital health wasn’t woven into the conversation this year. It was the conversation.
Through all of it, the heart of the meeting was Dr. Eric Small‘s Presidential Address, where he shared the loss of his partner, oncologist Dr. Amy Lin, to metastatic ovarian cancer. His theme, ‘The Science and Practice of Translation,’ was no longer just a conference theme after that. It was a covenant, a reminder that behind every abstract, every trial and every breakthrough announced this week, there is a patient, a family and a life that science has the power to change.
That is ultimately what drives oncology forward, and it is why platforms like OncoDaily matter, as they bring rigorous, accessible oncology knowledge to those who need it the most. Being the ambassador at ASCO 2026 has been a privilege, and I look forward to continuing this collaboration and the meaningful work that lies ahead. ”
You can also read:
OncoDaily Ambassadors at ASCO 2026
