Evidence summaries
Landmark cancer trials, in plain language
Each week we summarise one important, peer-reviewed cancer trial — what it tested, what it found, and what it might mean for patients. No jargon, no hype. Just the evidence, explained clearly.
Cancer type
Trial type
The CHALLENGE trial
A structured exercise program after colon cancer treatment lowered the chance of the cancer coming back — and helped people live longer.
Read the summaryThe KEYNOTE-177 trial
For one specific type of advanced colon cancer, immunotherapy worked better than chemotherapy — and more than half the people who got it were alive five years later.
Read the summaryIDEA: is three months of chemo enough?
For most people with stage III colon cancer, three months of chemotherapy worked nearly as well as six — with far less lasting nerve damage.
Read the summaryThe NATALEE trial
For the most common kind of early breast cancer, adding a targeted pill to hormone therapy modestly lowered the chance of the cancer coming back.
Read the summaryThe KEYNOTE-189 trial
For the most common kind of advanced lung cancer, adding immunotherapy to chemotherapy helped people live longer and kept the cancer controlled longer.
Read the summaryEvidence review: immunotherapy before lung surgery
Pooling eight trials shows that adding immunotherapy to chemo before surgery improved outcomes and left far more people cancer-free at surgery.
Read the summaryThe PATINA trial
For hormone-receptor-positive, HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, adding palbociclib to maintenance therapy extended the time before the cancer progressed by more than 15 months.
Read the summaryThe ASCENT-04 trial
For PD-L1-positive triple-negative breast cancer, replacing standard chemotherapy with an antibody-drug conjugate kept the cancer controlled longer and produced responses that lasted nearly twice as long.
Read the summaryThe ADAURA trial
For EGFR-mutated lung cancer removed by surgery, taking a targeted pill every day for three years dramatically reduced the chance of the cancer returning — including in the brain.
Read the summaryThe EV-303 trial
For muscle-invasive bladder cancer in people who cannot receive cisplatin, an antibody-drug conjugate plus immunotherapy around surgery dramatically improved survival compared to surgery alone.
Read the summaryCheckMate 238 at 9 years
This nine-year update confirms that for high-risk melanoma removed by surgery, one year of nivolumab kept the cancer away for longer than ipilimumab — and was better tolerated.
Read the summaryThe DESTINY-Breast05 trial
For high-risk HER2-positive breast cancer with cancer still present after pre-surgery treatment, a newer targeted drug roughly halved the chance of it coming back — but carries a serious lung risk to watch for.
Read the summaryDaraxonrasib for pancreatic cancer
An oral drug that switches off mutated RAS — the engine of most pancreatic cancers — shrank tumors and was linked to longer survival than second-line chemotherapy, in an early-phase study still awaiting confirmation.
Read the summaryThe KEYNOTE-522 trial
For early-stage triple-negative breast cancer, adding pembrolizumab to chemotherapy before and after surgery cleared more tumors completely, lowered the risk of recurrence, and improved survival — regardless of PD-L1 status.
Read the summary