Stefanie Morris, Principal Global Medical Science Leader and Pipeline Medical Lead Lung Cancer at Roche, shared on LinkedIn:
“In the oncology world, ‘post-congress recovery’ is usually just another way to say ‘pre-congress prep‘.
As we pack away our notes from a highly inspiring World Conference on Lung Cancer, the countdown to this year’s European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) congress is already on.
While scanning the ESMO 2026 programme, one session immediately caught my eye: ‘Expert navigation through the grey zone of oncology practice‘ – specifically the presentation on ‘Managing complexity in elderly and frail patients: When evidence is limited, but decisions are critical’.
This is a topic that consistently emerges in conversations with my colleagues and with clinicians: the patients we see in clinical trials don’t always represent the patients we see in everyday practice.
The majority of people with lung cancer are elderly or clinically frail, yet they have historically been underrepresented in clinical research. The opportunity here is significant.
When clinical trials include more representative populations, we can generate stronger, more applicable evidence.
Including elderly and frail people in trials generates robust data on efficacy, safety and quality-of-life outcomes for the people treated most often.
Clinicians can have genuinely informed conversations with their patients, rather than extrapolating from data that may not reflect them.
When we understand how treatments work across diverse populations, we can optimise care strategies, reduce unnecessary toxicity and better align treatment with each person’s individual goals and priorities.
We know the quality of treatment decisions ultimately depends on the reality of our evidence.
At Roche we believe clinical trial representation should be non-negotiable because every person, regardless of age or functional status, deserves care grounded in data that reflects who they really are.
I am looking forward to continuing this conversation at ESMO 2026 in Madrid.
A small nudge: We will be discussing this topic as part of our Roche symposium at ESMO on Monday 26 October.
I invite you to join us and share your perspectives!”
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