News & Events

The 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, held May 29 – June 2 at McCormick Place in Chicago, brought together oncology professionals from around the world under the theme, "The Science and Practice of Translation: Improving Cancer Outcomes Worldwide."

University of Illinois Cancer Center members played an active role throughout the meeting, contributing to scientific sessions and poster presentations that highlighted advances in cancer research and care.

Two Onc Docs, a podcast co-hosted by Cancer Center member Karine Tawagi, MD, and Samantha A. Armstrong, MD, partnered with OncLive On Air to provide an in-depth review of findings from the phase 3 RASolute 302 trial (NCT06625320). Presented at the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting, the landmark study demonstrated that daraxonrasib (RMC-6236) should become the new standard of care for the second-line treatment of patients with metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Abstracts featuring Cancer Center members:

(RW) post-progression outcomes following first-line (1L) ribociclib (RIB) + aromatase inhibitor (AI) versus AI alone in African American and low socio-economic status (SES) patients with hormone receptor-positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-n

Association of the 70-gene assay and homologous recombination deficiency in patients with high risk 2 breast cancers.

Acceptability of a narrative video intervention to promote clinical trial decision-making among Black women with breast cancer.

mTOR activation and racial disparity in early breast cancer survival.

Clinical outcomes from a multi-institution precision oncology tumor board: The PROMOTE study update.

Knowledge characterization of newly diagnosed breast cancer patients

Palliative care utilization and acute care outcomes in metastatic prostate cancer in a safety-net health system

Contemporary real-world patterns of precision medicine in metastatic NSCLC

Integrating AI-derived lung cancer risk and social determinants of health to improve risk stratification in a safety net lung cancer screening program

Quantifying equol-producing and beta-glucuronidating gut bacteria in breast cancer using 16S rDNA sequencing methods.

Transdermal drug delivery to the normal and the radiated breast: Determinants of individual variation in skin permeation

Exploring diversity and composition of sulfidogenic gut bacteria in breast cancer

Restrictive eligibility criteria in FDA-approved oncology trials following ASCO Guideline updates

Concordance of tissue and plasma NGS in early-stage non–small cell lung cancer

Artificial intelligence (AI) in hematology and oncology fellowship (HOF) training: A multicenter survey of education, attitudes, and clinical use

Systematic evaluation of machine learning optimization strategies for uveal melanoma detection using ultra-widefield photography

Race-associated clinicogenomic predictors in non-small cell lung cancer treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors

A phase 2 study of docetaxel (D), ramucirumab (R), and pembrolizumab (P) for patients with metastatic or recurrent non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who progressed on platinum-doublet and PD-1/PD-L1 blockade

Impact of NCCN-guided training on large language model performance in mNSCLC

Integrating BTK inhibition into R-da-EPOCH for HIV-related DLBCL

POLARIS: Polymetastatic lesion ablative radiotherapy with immunotherapy study

Understanding the impact of gold and silver signals on ERAS applications: A survey of hematology/oncology fellowship program directors

Acupuncture for psychoneurological symptoms in breast cancer: Symptom-specific response and sustainability

Correlation of an IGF1R RNA activation signature with allostatic load and time to castration resistance in primary prostate cancer patients

The evolving landscape of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for plasma cell leukemia: A systematic review of early outcomes

Risk of venous thromboembolism in resectable non-small cell lung cancer treated with neoadjuvant and adjuvant immunotherapy: A self-controlled case series

Assessing the role of oncologist type in shared decision-making for patients with metastatic breast cancer

Developing quality cancer survivorship care competencies for primary care: A modified Delphi study

Comparative analysis of large language models (LLMs) for pharmacogenomic (PGx)–guided prescribing in oncology

Clinical and structural factors associated with access to stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in lung cancer

Assessing cervical cancer screening awareness and community-identified barriers to prevention in Peoria, Tazewell, and Woodford Counties, Illinois

Comprehensive molecular and clinical characterization of early-onset gastrointestinal cancers: Integrating genomic landscapes with allostatic load in a safety-net cohort

Palliative care utilization in metastatic lung cancer at an urban safety-net hospital

Immune checkpoint inhibitor adoption, timing, and survival in an urban lung cancer cohort: A landmark analysis

(RW) post-progression outcomes after first-line (1L) treatment with ribociclib + an aromatase inhibitor (AI) vs AI alone in US patients with hormone receptor-positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HR+/HER2–) metastatic breast cancer