ASCO highlights include cancer drug news from Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi, Merck KGaA, Novartis and Eisai

A wide variety of clinical evidence on novel cancer treatments, as well as potential additional uses for existing drugs, were presented at this year's annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, one of the most prestigious events for the sector, taking place over the weekend and through tomorrow in Chicago.

One thing that is apparent from the hundreds of presentations is that cancer is not a single disease, and the products that are coming through the research pipeline will, if brought to market, be essentially expensive therapies and so will add to the global burden of health care financing. Several of these are covered by individual stories today, but herewith a summary of some others of importance.

Global drugs behemoth Pfizer presented results from an expanded Phase I trial of crizotinib (PF-02341066) in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with a specific alteration of the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene, which the lead investigator, Yung-Jue Bang, said: "are quite dramatic, and represent an important improvement over what we would see with standard chemotherapy for patients with metastatic disease." Crizotinib reduced tumor size in 57% of patients and stopped the progression of the disease in 87% of those in the study. Most of the trial's participants had never smoked or were former smokers. According to a spokesman for the firm, Pfizer hopes to submit the drug for regulatory approval in the first half of 2011.