People with advanced lung or colorectal cancer heard hopeful news at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting. Cancer care is becoming more personalized, and new technologies like artificial intelligence are helping doctors figure out which treatments might work best for each person.
Takeda shared several studies on difficult-to-treat cancers, including ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer, lung cancer that resists immunotherapy, and metastatic colorectal cancer. While research is still underway, experts think these findings could help patients receive more personalized care and better outcomes in the future.
One main takeaway from Takeda’s ASCO presentations was the importance of finding the right treatment for each patient.
“Not every new medicine that becomes available is suitable for every patient,” Rushi Potdar, Takeda’s Chief Medical Officer for the Oncology Business Unit, tells BlackDoctor. “Each asset has its own place in a personalized treatment journey for patients.”
Now, doctors are choosing treatments based on factors like tumor type, biomarker test results, overall health, and how a person responds to therapy over time, rather than using the same approach for everyone.
One study focused on patients with ALK-positive metastatic non-small cell lung cancer that had spread to the brain.
Researchers used AI-powered imaging to analyze data from patients treated with brigatinib. This technology helped track changes in brain tumors and identify features that could show which patients might benefit from treatment over time.
“That’s very important from a physician point of view,” Potdar shares. “We are giving physicians a tool to understand who is going to benefit and how they are going to benefit from a particular therapy.”
For patients, this research could mean fewer guesses about treatment and more confidence that the chosen therapy will be effective.
“I think that’s where personalization of care is getting more and more well-defined now,” he adds.
Another important point was the challenges many patients face outside the doctor’s office.
Takeda presented research showing that factors such as financial stress, access to information, biomarker testing, and participation in clinical trials can affect patients’ health.
“Patients of color usually face a higher burden and higher hurdles when you consider social determinants of health,” Potdar notes.
These barriers can make it more difficult for patients to receive timely tests, learn about their treatment options, or participate in clinical trials.
“It’s very important to give a voice to those challenges through high-quality evidence,” he says.
For patients and caregivers, these findings underscore the importance of asking about biomarker testing, clinical trial opportunities, and support programs that can help with financial or everyday challenges.
Immunotherapy has improved treatment for many people with advanced lung cancer, but not everyone benefits long-term. When cancer starts to grow again, there are fewer options available.
“Immunotherapies are well established in many solid tumors, even up to the first-line setting, but it remains a huge challenge to determine what to do and how to treat these patients once they progress through first-line immunotherapies,” Potdar says.
Takeda shared updated data on TAK-928, an investigational PD-1/IL-2 alpha-biased bispecific fusion protein being studied across multiple lines of therapy in non-small cell lung cancer, including in patients whose cancer has progressed after immunotherapy.
Researchers saw encouraging signs that the treatment worked for some time and, according to Potdar, had manageable side effects.
“These patients need a therapy with a very manageable safety profile, and I think that’s what TAK-928 is delivering.”
Although this treatment is still being studied and is not yet widely available, the results show that researchers are working to provide more options for patients with limited treatment options.
For people with metastatic colorectal cancer, early tumor shrinkage can help predict how well a patient will respond to treatment.
Takeda shared new research stemming from an analysis of data from the FRESCO and FRESCO-2 clinical trials, confirming that patients treated with fruquintinib whose tumors shrank early in treatment tended to have longer progression-free and overall survival.
“What we found is that patients who experienced tumor shrinkage and early tumor shrinkage had longer progression-free survival and longer overall survival,” Potdar notes.
These findings could help doctors know sooner if a treatment is working and if they need to make changes.
“Instead of starting a therapy and waiting to see what happens, we are giving physicians dynamic parameters to show who is going to benefit,” he explains.
For patients, this highlights the importance of having follow-up scans and staying in touch with their care team about treatment progress.
Many of the studies presented at ASCO are still in the early stages and need more research, but they reveal trends that could shape the future of cancer care:
According to Potdar, the ultimate goal is to ensure patients receive the right treatment at the right time.
As Takeda advances multiple late-stage programs and pursues additional regulatory milestones across oncology, Potdar says the company’s guiding principle remains unchanged.
“Our fundamental philosophy remains the same: give patients what they need for their difficult-to-treat diseases at that point in time. We continue to think about patients in a much more holistic way than individual lines of therapy,” he concludes.
With expanding pipelines in lung cancer, gastrointestinal cancers, and other oncology indications, Takeda believes the future of cancer care will increasingly rely on personalized treatment strategies supported by both scientific innovation and emerging technologies.
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