Key Oncology Publications This Week: November 2025
Key Oncology Publications This Week: November 2025
This summary highlights the most important publications from the week of November 20-26, 2025 from the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Annals of Oncology, The Lancet Oncology, JAMA Oncology, and Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, with focus on immunotherapy and the specified tumor types.
Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer: Cemiplimab Sets New Standard in Adjuvant Setting
The C-POST trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine and now FDA/EC-approved, represents a paradigm shift for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC). This phase III study demonstrated that adjuvant cemiplimab significantly improves disease-free survival in patients at high risk of recurrence after surgery and radiotherapy.ascopost+1
Cemiplimab reduced the risk of recurrence or death by 68% (HR 0.32; 95% CI 0.20–0.51; p<0.001) compared to placebo. At 24 months, disease-free survival was 87.1% with cemiplimab versus 64.1% with placebo. The benefit extended to both locoregional recurrence (80% risk reduction) and distant metastasis (65% risk reduction). This is the first systemic therapy to demonstrate adjuvant benefit in CSCC, marking cemiplimab as the first immunotherapy approved for this earlier disease setting.ecancer+3
Clinical Implications: Patients with high-risk CSCC—including those with nodal involvement, extracapsular extension, or aggressive pathological features—should now be considered for adjuvant cemiplimab following definitive local therapy. The treatment is administered as 350 mg every 3 weeks for 12 weeks, followed by 700 mg every 6 weeks for up to 36 additional weeks.targetedonc
Bladder Cancer: POTOMAC Trial Establishes Durvalumab + BCG as First-Line Option
The final analysis of the POTOMAC trial, published in The Lancet, confirms that adding durvalumab to BCG therapy significantly improves outcomes in BCG-naive, high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).sciencedirect+1
At a median follow-up of 58.7 months, durvalumab plus BCG induction and maintenance demonstrated a 32% reduction in disease recurrence or death compared to BCG alone (HR 0.68; 95% CI 0.50–0.93; p=0.015). The early and sustained separation of Kaplan-Meier curves, beginning at less than 4 months, supports the clinical significance of this finding. Importantly, the combination maintained a tolerable safety profile consistent with the known profiles of both agents.ascopost+3
Clinical Implications: POTOMAC establishes durvalumab plus BCG as a potential new standard for BCG-naive, high-risk NMIBC, offering hope of preventing the approximately 40% early recurrence rate seen with BCG alone and potentially avoiding radical cystectomy.urologytimes+1
For muscle-invasive bladder cancer, the SunRISe-4 trial (reported in The Lancet Oncology) evaluating neoadjuvant TAR-200 (gemcitabine intravesical system) plus cetrelimab showed promising pathological complete response rates, supporting continued investigation of bladder-preservation strategies.urologytimes+1
Hepatobiliary Cancer: New Targeted Therapies Show Durable Responses
HER2-Positive Biliary Tract Cancer
The final results from the HERIZON-BTC-01 trial, published in JAMA Oncology, demonstrate clinically meaningful and durable responses with zanidatamab in HER2-positive metastatic biliary tract cancer.mdanderson
Zanidatamab, a bispecific HER2-targeted antibody, achieved an objective response rate of 41.3% with a median duration of response of 15.5 months. Patients with IHC3+ tumors showed even better outcomes, with a 51.6% response rate and median duration of response of 18.1 months. These results supported FDA accelerated approval in November 2024 and provide the longest follow-up data reported to date in HER2-targeted therapy for biliary tract cancer.mdanderson
Hepatocellular Carcinoma
A comprehensive network meta-analysis in JAMA Oncology compared first-line systemic therapies for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, integrating both survival and quality-of-life endpoints. Atezolizumab plus bevacizumab demonstrated the optimal balance, with the highest probability of reducing deterioration in global health status (85%), abdominal symptoms (95%), jaundice (89%), and pain (86%).jamanetwork+2
Clinical Implications: For advanced HCC, atezolizumab plus bevacizumab provides the best-documented balance of efficacy and quality-of-life preservation, supporting its position as preferred first-line therapy.ascopost
Upper GI Cancer: MATTERHORN Establishes Perioperative Immunotherapy Standard
The MATTERHORN trial, with final overall survival results presented at ESMO 2025, confirms that perioperative durvalumab plus FLOT chemotherapy significantly improves outcomes in resectable gastric and gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma.oncodaily+1
The final analysis demonstrated a statistically significant 22% reduction in mortality (HR 0.78; 95% CI 0.63–0.96; p=0.021) and 29% reduction in progression or death on event-free survival (HR 0.71; p<0.001). Two-year event-free survival rates were 67.4% with durvalumab plus FLOT versus 58.5% with FLOT alone. Notably, this benefit was observed regardless of PD-L1 expression status, and durvalumab did not delay surgery or adjuvant therapy.ascopost+1
Clinical Implications: MATTERHORN positions durvalumab plus FLOT as a new standard of care for resectable gastric/GEJ adenocarcinoma. The FDA approved this combination in November 2025. A meta-analysis of perioperative chemo-immunotherapy trials confirms consistent improvements in pathological complete response, event-free survival, and overall survival across studies.frontiersin+2
Prostate Cancer: Optimizing ADT Duration and MRI-Guided Surveillance
Optimal ADT Duration
A major MARCAP Consortium meta-analysis published in JAMA Oncology synthesized data from 10,266 men across 13 international trials to determine optimal androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) duration with radiotherapy for localized prostate cancer.uclahealth+1
Key findings stratified by risk group:
Low-risk patients: May not require ADT
Intermediate-risk patients: Optimal benefit from 6–12 months of ADT
High-risk patients: Benefit up to 12 months
Very high-risk patients: May require longer therapy
The analysis demonstrated that most ADT benefits occur within the first 9–12 months, with diminishing returns beyond this period counterbalanced by increased risks of cardiovascular and metabolic complications.uclahealth
Clinical Implications: Treatment decisions should be personalized based on cancer risk, overall health, age, and patient preferences, rather than applying uniform long-duration ADT regimens.uclahealth
MRI for Active Surveillance
A multisite longitudinal cohort study in JAMA Oncology validated the safety of MRI-guided biopsy decision-making, demonstrating a 96% negative predictive value for clinically significant prostate cancer at 29% prevalence. Over three years, 41% of men avoided prostate biopsy while maintaining oncological safety, supporting MRI as a reliable triage tool when appropriate monitoring is implemented.jamanetwork
Head and Neck Cancer: Emerging EGFR-Targeted Approaches
A comprehensive review in JAMA Oncology examines the evolving landscape of EGFR-targeted therapeutics in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Novel approaches under investigation include bispecific antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), immune cell engagers, and adaptive cell therapies. The review notes that current EGFR-targeted therapies, including cetuximab, show inferior efficacy in HPV-positive disease, highlighting the need for distinct treatment strategies based on tumor etiology.pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih
Additionally, a randomized clinical trial in JAMA Oncology compared induction-concurrent versus concurrent-adjuvant chemotherapy approaches in high-risk N2–N3 nasopharyngeal carcinoma.jamanetwork
Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology: Targeted Radionuclide Therapy
The November 2025 issue features a landmark Review on targeted radionuclide therapy (TRT), highlighted on the cover. This article discusses the molecular blueprint of TRT, examining established and emerging targets including innovations in ligand design, radioisotope selection, and dosimetry. The review addresses ongoing challenges including patient stratification, toxicity management, and regulatory harmonization, emphasizing TRT's transformative potential across multiple cancer types.linkedin+1
Additional Notable Publications
| Journal | Topic | Key Finding |
|---|---|---|
| Annals of Oncology | Peripheral T-cell and NK-cell lymphomas | Updated ESMO-EHA Clinical Practice Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment, and follow-uppubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih |
| JCO | CodeBreaK 300 (KRAS G12C CRC) | Sotorasib plus panitumumab showed 30% prolonged overall survival versus standard of care in chemorefractory diseaseoncologynews |
| Lancet Oncology | AI in pancreatic cancer | PANORAMA study demonstrates AI models can detect pancreatic tumors more accurately than radiologists, with potential for earlier diagnosisthelancet+1 |
| JAMA Oncology | Proton craniospinal irradiation | Evaluated for leptomeningeal metastasis managementjamanetwork |
The publications from this week represent significant advances across multiple tumor types:
Immunotherapy expansion continues: The approval of adjuvant cemiplimab for CSCC and durvalumab combinations for bladder and gastric cancers demonstrates the progressive integration of checkpoint inhibitors into earlier disease settings and combination regimens.
Personalized medicine advancing: The prostate cancer data emphasizes tailoring ADT duration to individual risk profiles rather than applying uniform treatment protocols, while biomarker-independent benefits in the MATTERHORN trial suggest broad applicability of perioperative immunotherapy in gastric cancer.
Targeted therapies achieving durable responses: Zanidatamab's results in HER2-positive biliary tract cancer and the comprehensive HCC quality-of-life analysis provide actionable evidence for treatment selection in hepatobiliary malignancies
