Grey Horizon postings will resume week of June 22, 2026

  To all Grey Horizon readers, 

Thank you for your continued support of this blog.  Postings will resume the week of June 22, 2026. 

Metastasis-directed therapy for oligometastatic solid tumours in histology-specific context

 Findings from EXTEND, "a multicentre, open-label, parallel group, superiority-design phase II randomized study conducted among patients with oligometastatic solid tumours" was recently presented at the European Society of Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) Congress in Stockholm.  EXTEND is the first randomized study for oligometastatic kidney cancer, a phase II ASTROS trial "comparing metastasis-directed therapy followed by pembrolizumab or surveillance." The EXTEND trial thus emphasizes consideration of control arm with potential adaption to novel systemic therapies. 

Click here to learn more about the EXTEND trial. 

Source mentioned: 

Sherry AD, Haymaker C, Wang S, et al. Addition of Metastasis-Directed Therapy to Standard of Care for Oligometastatic Solid Tumors: Primary Analysis of All Tumor-Histology Baskets of the Phase II Randomized EXTEND Trial . JCO; Published online 16 May 2026. DOI: 10.1200/JCO-25-02856

A single colonoscopy reduces colorectal cancer risk, but not mortality

 Findings from the NordiCC (Nordic Colorectal Cancer) group, a 13-year follow-up study that "enrolled men and women aged 55-64 years, who were randomly allocated to colonoscopy screening or no screening" was recently published in The Lancet.  Study authors commented that they did not observe a clinically relevant cancer stage shift between the screening and non-screened groups of participants.  Further, "stage shift of cancer due to screening applies only to cancers detected at screening or surveillance after screening."  At 13 year follow-up, screening-detected colorectal cancer only occurred in 16% in the screening group; "cancers detected later were due to clinical symptoms, as there was no colonoscopy screening."  

Click here to read more about the NordiCC study. 

Sources mentioned: 

• Kaminski M, Kalager M, Løberg, et al. for the NordiCC Study Group. Long-term effects of colonoscopy screening on colorectal cancer incidence and mortality: a multicountry, population-based randomised controlled trial . The Lancet; Published online 4 May 2026. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(26)00508-8
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• Shaukat A. Colonoscopy, cancer prevention, and the new arithmetic of benefit . The Lancet; Published online 4 May 2026. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(26)00794-4

Towards a chemotherapy-free future in breast cancer?

 New research, set to be discussed at the European Society for Medical Oncology [ESMO] Breast Cancer Congress (May 6-8, 2026 in Berlin) purports that "a less intensive chemotherapy regimen is associated with improved quality of life for patients, without compromising clinical outcome."  Traditional approaches to treatment, with an intent to extend treatment for several years to maximize tumour control, may lead to "unnecessary toxicities and treatment burden."  Multimodal strategies are being explored to de-escalate treatments, such as removing carboplatin from chemotherapy in a neoadjuvant setting, or a positron emission tomography (PET)-guided strategy "associated with a high 3-year invasive disease-free survival rate in patients with HER-2 positive early breast cancer who omitted chemotherapy." 

Click here to read more: 

Sources mentioned (conference abstracts) 

Llombart Cussac A, et al. Chemotherapy-free, pathological complete response (pCR)-guided strategy with trastuzumab-pertuzumab (HP) and T-DM1 in HER2+ early breast cancer (EBC): PHERGain-2. ESMO Breast Cancer 2026. Abstract 214O

Rapesta G, et al. Health policy and real-world strategies in early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer: results from an international survey within the DEFINITIVE project. ESMO Breast Cancer 2026. Abstract 223P