The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has highlighted results from five major studies to be presented at ASCO’s 50th Annual Meeting, May 30-June 3, 2014, in Chicago.

The research found that hormone therapy can be safely delayed following prostate cancer relapse in some men; that implementation of recent U.S. lung cancer screening guidelines would substantially increase early-stage diagnoses, as well as overall health care costs; and that two new targeted drugs offer promise in several hard-to-treat cancers.

Another study offers new insight on obesity’s relation to breast cancer mortality in younger women.

The studies are among the more than 5,000 abstracts publicly released on ASCO’s website, at abstracts.asco.org in advance of the Annual Meeting.

Other major research, including studies selected for the meeting’s Plenary session, will be released as Late-Breaking Abstracts on-site at Chicago’s McCormick Place and online on a rolling basis throughout the meeting.

The meeting, with the theme “Science and Society: The Next 50 Years,” is expected to draw more than 25,000 cancer specialists from around the world.

“The study findings being presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting on the year of the Society’s 50th anniversary show there is unprecedented reason for hope in cancer research and care,” said Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, ASCO President.

“Clinical trials are delivering on the promise of personalised medicine for both common and rare cancers. We’re finding relatively simple ways to improve the quality of patients’ lives during treatment and improving our understanding of how societal challenges, like obesity, can shape our patients’ care and outcomes.”

“Cancer research is paying off with substantial gains,” said Jyoti D. Patel, MD, Chair of ASCO’s Cancer Communications Committee.

“In particular, we’re seeing that there is huge value in improving our use of long-time staple treatments, as this new study on hormonal therapy for prostate cancer shows. And in lung cancer, we’re getting a clearer picture of the important benefits of screening, as well as its substantial projected costs for implementation."

Source: ASCO