Clinical Updates & Insights

Updated survival outcomes from the EMBER-3 trial reinforced the clinical benefit of imlunestrant-based regimens as all-oral, chemotherapy-free treatment options for endocrine-pretreated patients with estrogen receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer. Breast medical oncologist Komal Jhaveri, MD, FACP, presented the latest results for the trial at SABCS, and was also the lead and corresponding author of the paper published simultaneously in the Annals of Oncology.

Epcoritamab plus R2 resulted in substantial increases in the objective response rate and progression-free survival compared to R2 alone, the co-primary endpoints of the trial. The triplet combination also outperformed the standard-of-care on the secondary endpoints of complete response rate and duration of response. Lorenzo Falchi, MD, presented the latest results for the study at the American Society of Hematology's 67th Annual Meeting and Exposition in Florida.

A new era in the treatment of MIBC is on the horizon, with the combination of enfortumab vedotin plus pembrolizumab poised to become the new standard of care in the perioperative treatment of cisplatin-ineligible or cisplatin-refusing patients. MSK’s David Aggen, MD, discusses this, and what new treatment approaches physicians and scientists at MSK are now testing.

MSK researchers presented exciting advances in medical oncology for a range of cancer types at the ESMO Congress 2025. Highlights included the latest updates on three phase 1 trials testing innovative treatment approaches for select patients with advanced solid tumors, NSCLC, and pancreatic cancer. MSK researchers also presented new insights about mismatch repair deficient solid tumors that may inform tailoring personalized treatments.

When considering adjuvant therapy preferences for younger patients ages 50 to 69 with early-stage, low genomic risk breast cancer, is it reasonable to omit radiotherapy or endocrine therapy after lumpectomy? A large retrospective cohort study at MSK found that locoregional recurrence rates were significantly lower for those who completed at least one form of adjuvant therapy after lumpectomy.

Proton beam radiotherapy resulted in similar oncologic outcomes with less toxicity and improved quality of life than photon beam radiotherapy in patients with head and neck cancers, according to results of an MSK-led clinical trial presented today at the 2025 American Society for Radiation Oncology Annual Meeting.

MSK Kids is continuously investigating new ways to improve outcomes and the quality of life for pediatric patients with high-risk neuroblastoma. In this article we detail highlights of the latest clinical and molecular research advances for pediatric neuroblastoma.

Patients with early-stage, node-positive breast cancer whose nodes are pathologically tumor-free after neoadjuvant chemotherapy may safely skip post-mastectomy nodal irradiation without increasing the risk of invasive breast cancer recurrence or death, according to results from a clinical trial published recently in NEJM.

Clinicians and scientists at MSK continue to investigate new ways to improve outcomes for patients with thyroid cancer. Recent research insights from MSK thyroid cancer experts include, the safety and feasibility of active surveillance for certain patients, the identification of mutation profiles of subgroups, recommendations for future clinical trials of redifferentiation therapy, and study results showing that larotrectinib may be beneficial for treatment-naïve patients with NTRK fusion-positive thyroid cancer.

In this Q&A we discuss MSK’s pioneering work in rectal MRI, how it differs from endorectal ultrasound (ERUS), its role in groundbreaking clinical trials for patients with rectal cancer, why expertise matters, and new frontiers for future improvements to rectal MRI.