Combination cancer immunotherapies take center stage at ASCO’s annual meeting

Biotech and pharma companies are racing to develop combinations of immunotherapy drugs to treat cancer more effectively. But new data emerging Wednesday night from clinical trial research abstracts released by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) paint a muddled picture.

Even with hints of efficacy, there’s still no convincing proof cancer patients benefit more when experimental immune-boosting drugs are paired with immunotherapy blockbusters like Merck’s Keytruda and Bristol-Myers Squibb‘s Opdivo.

The thousands of research abstracts posted online Wednesday evening are early glimpses of cancer studies that will be presented in more detail at the ASCO annual meeting starting on June 1. The information disclosed in ASCO research abstracts might be preliminary, but investors still pour through them, causing stocks to move.

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