The ASCO 2021 Annual Meeting is the largest oncology conference in the world and the most awaited by those who work in this area, since every year it presents several studies that change clinical practice. In 2021, due to the pandemic, for the second consecutive year the event was held 100% online. Each year there are countless studies that can transform our practice or appear as an option for change.

Below are some highlights from ASCO 2021:

Mamma: adjuvant study with PARP inhibitors in patients with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. There was a significant increase in disease-free survival with the use of olaparib. We await the overall survival data.

Prostate: treatment that demonstrated an increase in overall survival with LU-PSMA 617 therapy in PSMA positive castration-resistant prostate cancer undergoing previous treatments with new-generation antiandrogens and taxanes. This study already changes clinical practice because it has demonstrated an increase in overall survival.

Head and neck: use of immunotherapy combined with standard chemotherapy for first-line recurrent/metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma. There was a significant increase in progression-free survival. It is worth waiting for data on overall survival and quality of life.

Rim: immunotherapy in the adjunctive treatment of clear cell renal cancer. It shows an increase in disease-free survival, but it is still immature for the analysis of overall survival, but with a tendency to be positive.

These are just a few examples of several studies presented that may give new directions to our clinical practice or, if they do not change it yet, open up new possibilities in the treatment of various types of neoplasms.

For this reason, we always stress the importance of clinical research. It really saves lives! And there's nothing like a congress of this size to encourage us more and more to Do research.

Several Brazilian centers and researchers from our country participated in these and other studies presented at ASCO, which fills us with pride and encouragement to continue the fight for facilitate research practice in our country. The patients gain the most from this.