In Its 50th Year, ESMO Comes to Berlin, a City Transformed

When the organization now called the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) opens its 50th anniversary Congress tomorrow in Berlin, Germany, it will showcase a city that has reinvented itself in the decades since that first gathering of French, Belgian, and Italian oncologists—along with a few Americans.

The ESMO 2025 Congress, to be held October 17-21 in Messe Berlin (which means “trade fair” Berlin), comes at a high point in global oncology, as the meeting’s agenda speaks to the breakthroughs in technology and precision medicine that are allowing scientists to target increasingly narrow types of cancer with tailored treatments.

And ESMO selects Berlin at a crucial juncture. More than 80 years after leading scientists fled Germany ahead of World War II, the German government has set up a fund to recruit US-based scientists who have been displaced by visa challenges or lost grants.1 A recent report in The New York Times highlighted a proposed budget cut to the National Cancer Institute of more than 37%, from $7.2 billion to $4.5 billion.2

Messe Berlin | Image: Messe Berlin

In 1975, when the first ESMO Congress huddled in Nice, France, the city of Berlin was midway through life as a divided city: the grim East, attached to the then-Soviet bloc, and the lively West, a symbol of democracy behind concrete walls, propped up by the US, Britain, and France. Today, the unified German capital of 3.7 million is the largest and most diverse city of the European Union, home to people from more than 190 countries. The Berlin region hosts 35 pharmaceutical manufacturers and hundreds of smaller biotech and medical technology companies.

ESMO Congress 2025: Science and Beyond

The theme, “Science and Beyond,” captures a 5-day meeting that runs the gamut from late-breaking science to sessions that address living with cancer, to speakers who will discuss challenges of disparities or reimbursement from the European perspective. The Congress opens October 17 with a presidential address by Fabrice Andre, MD, PhD, Institut Gustave Roussy Department of Medical Oncology, Villejuif, and an address by scientific cochairs Toni Chouieri, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Myriam Chalabi, MD, PhD, of Netherlands Cancer Institute.

Keynote lectures help set the tone for some of the top drug classes and themes explored across the Congress:

• On October 18, “The Arrival of Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs): Combination Development,” by Lillian Siu, MD, FRCPC, Princess Margaret Cancer Center, and Thomas B. Powles, MBBS, MRCP, MD, Barts Cancer Institute
• On October 19, “Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines: Clinical Perspectives,” Catherine Wu, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
• On October 20, “Myeloid Mayhem: How Inflammation May Link the Environment and Aging With Cancer,” Charles Swanton, PhD, BSc, FRCP, Francis Krick Institute

Presidential Symposia

Three sessions on October 18-20 offer the high points of the Congress, featuring the top research being presented. These sessions will include the following:

• October 18 will bring KEYNOTE-905/EV-303, which examines perioperative treatment with the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) enfortumab vedotin (Padcev; Astellas/Pfizer) plus pembrolizumab (Keytruda; Merck) in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) who are ineligible for cisplatin. Topline results announced in August showed the combination significantly improved outcomes compared with surgery alone3; this is the first systemic treatment to show a survival benefit in this population.
• Two breast cancer trials are featured on October 18. DESTINY-Breast11 evaluates neoadjuvant use of another ADC, trastuzumab deruxtecan alone, or T-DXd (Enhertu; AstraZeneca), or followed by paclitaxel plus trastuzumab plus pertuzumab (THP), vs standard of care (SOC) for high-risk HER2+ early breast cancer. Interim findings of DESTINY-Breast05 assess T-DXd vs trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) in patients with high-risk HER2+ primary breast cancer with residual invasive disease after neoadjuvant therapy.
• October 19 brings the phase 3 PSMAddition trial of Lutetium-177 (177Lu) vipivotide tetraxetan (177Lu PSMA-617) (Pluvicto; Novartis), combined with androgen deprivation therapy and an androgen receptor pathway inhibitor in patients with PSMA metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer. Novartis previously announced the trial met its primary end point.4
• Two trials at the final symposium October 20 deal with uses of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). IMvigor011 is a phase 3 study of ctDNA-guided atezolizumab (Tecentriq; Genentech) vs placebo in MIBC, while the AGITG DYNAMIC-III trial evaluates ctDNA-guided de-escalation of adjuvant chemotherapy in stage III colon cancer.

Proffered Papers

Some of the best finds for up-and-coming therapies can be found in these sessions, starting with the October 17 readout of Boehringer Ingelheim’s Beamion LUNG-1, which will offer results in first-line use of zongertinib for patients with HER2-mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); results presented earlier this year5 for previously treated patients led to an August FDA approval6 for patients whose tumors have HER2 (ERBB2) tyrosine kinase domain–activating mutations.

Proferred papers being presented October 19 in prostate cancer include EMBARK, which involves enzalutamide (Xtandi; Pfizer/Astellas) in recurrent prostate cancer, and PRESTO, a phase 3 open-label combined androgen blockade in high-risk patients with biochemically relapsed prostate cancer. Another paper to watch comes October 20, involving IO Biotech’s phase 3 results for the IO102-IO103 vaccine plus pembrolizumab in first-line treatment of advanced melanoma.7

Sessions of Note

A quality of life session on October 18 will feature multiple speakers on sexual complications of living with cancer, including patient testimony and a presentation of the EUROPER report by Andre Deschamps, of the European Prostate Cancer Coalition.

The session, “Beyond Precision Medicine,” taking place October 19, will feature City of Hope’s Hope S. Rugo, MD, discussing “Combining ADCs and IO,” along with Christos Sotiriou, MD, PhD, of Institut Jules Bordet on “When to Stop Treatment?” and Giuseppe Curigliano, MD, PhD, University of Milan, on “Future Trial Designs for Breast Cancer.”

On October 20, the session “Beyond Survival: Long-Term Toxicities in Young Adults with Cancer, will include panelists Neil Iyengar, MD, of Emory Winship Cancer Institute; Alice Indini, MD, of Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori of Milan; Ivana Bozovic Spasojevic, MD, PhD, of Institute for Oncology and Radiology of Serbia, and Ines Vaz-Luis, MD, MSc, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

References

1. Schade M. German programmes and strategies for attracting scientists from abroad. Academics. August 12, 2025. Accessed October 16, 2025. https://www.academics.com/guide/brain-drain-in-the-us

2. Mahler. Trump is shutting down the war on cancer. New York Times. September 14, 2025. Updated September 21, 2025. Accessed October 16, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/magazine/cancer-research-grants-funds-trump.html

3. Chan A. Perioperative enfortumab vedotin plus pembrolizumab displays positive top-line data in muscle-invasive bladder cancer. OncLive®. August 12, 2025. Accessed October 16, 2025. https://www.onclive.com/view/perioperative-enfortumab-vedotin-plus-pembrolizumab-displays-positive-topline-data-in-muscle-invasive-bladder-cancer

4. Clarke H. Adding lutetium (177Lu) vipivotide tetraxetan to SOC improves rPFS in mHSPC. Urology Times®. June 2, 2025. Accessed October 16, 2025. https://www.urologytimes.com/view/adding-lutetium-177lu-vipivotide-tetraxetan-to-soc-improves-rpfs-in-mhspc

5. Heymach JV, Ruiter G, Ahn MJ, et al; Beamion LUNG-1 Investigators. Zongertinib in previously treated HER2-mutant non-small-cell lung cancer. N Engl J Med. 2025;392(23):2321-2333. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2503704

6. Caffrey M, McCormick B. Zongertinib granted accelerated approval in nonsquamous NSCLC for HER2 TKD-activating mutations. AJMC®. August 8, 2025. Accessed October 16, 2025. https://www.ajmc.com/view/zongertinib-granted-accelerated-approval-in-nonsquamous-nsclc-for-her2-tkd-activating-mutations

7. Caffrey M. From “super skeptical” beginnings, a new immune-modulatory vaccine awaits phase 3 results. AJMC. May 3, 2025. Accessed October 16, 2025. https://www.ajmc.com/view/from-super-skeptical-beginnings-a-new-immune-modulatory-vaccine-awaits-phase-3-results