During the 2026 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress, first-line treatment options for patients with favorable-risk advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) attracted considerable attention. For this patient population, how to control disease while reducing the burden of long-term treatment remains an important question warranting further investigation. Oncology Frontier – UroStream invited Professor Jun Guo of Peking University Cancer Hospital to discuss the patient selection, dual-target blockade strategy, and potential clinical value of ivonescimab.

Patients with oligometastatic cervical cancer face a risk of systemic recurrence but may also benefit from aggressive local treatment. During ESMO 2026, results were reported from a Chinese single-arm Phase II study evaluating QL1706 plus chemotherapy, followed by definitive radiotherapy and continued immunotherapy maintenance. A total of 28 patients were enrolled. Among the 22 evaluable patients, the objective response rate (ORR) was 90.91%, and the disease control rate (DCR) was 100%. After a median follow-up of 8.25 months, median progression-free survival (PFS) had not yet been reached. Oncology Frontier invited Professor Peng Xie from Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute, affiliated with Shandong First Medical University, to discuss the study design, efficacy findings, and safety management, and to share his perspectives on clinical practice.

In the treatment of head and neck cancers, particularly oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), clinicians have long faced a difficult trade-off: achieving radical tumor control often requires surgery that sacrifices critical anatomical structures, including the tongue, floor of the mouth, and jawbone, all of which are essential for speech, swallowing, and appearance. To further reduce the risk of local recurrence, postoperative radiotherapy or concurrent chemoradiotherapy is frequently added. However, the resulting complications, such as trismus, xerostomia, dysphagia, and tissue fibrosis, can continue to impair patients' quality of life for years.

The 2026 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress was held in Madrid, Spain. During the Head and Neck Cancer Oral Presentation Session, the Phase II results of the HexAgon-HN study (LBA42) were presented. The study evaluated the efficacy and safety of the hexavalent OX40 agonist INBRX-106 plus pembrolizumab (P) versus pembrolizumab monotherapy as first-line treatment for recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (R/M HNSCC) with a PD-L1 combined positive score (CPS) ≥20. The results showed that the objective response rate (ORR) in the combination group reached 48.3%, representing an absolute improvement of 21.8 percentage points over the monotherapy group (26.5%). The benefit was particularly pronounced in the HPV-positive subgroup (80.0% vs. 33.3%). This also represents the first positive proof-of-concept result from a randomized controlled trial of an OX40 costimulatory pathway agonist in cancer immunotherapy.

Recurrent high-grade glioma (HGG) has an extremely poor prognosis, particularly in IDH-wildtype patients, with a median overall survival (OS) of only 6–10 months. Despite progress in targeted therapy, the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) tumors remains a significant challenge due to the physiological barrier of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). At the 2026 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress, Professor Li Wenbin's team from the Neuro-Oncology Comprehensive Diagnosis and Treatment Center of Beijing Gaobo Hospital presented two research findings: a Phase I oral presentation on the novel BRAF inhibitor HSK42360 in recurrent glioma, and multicenter, large-sample prospective data on teniposide combined with platinum for recurrent HGG. On October 31, the 6th iHope Innovative Medicine Forum was held. With the construction of the ARO (Academic Research Organization) clinical research system as its core, the forum demonstrated Gaobo Hospital's strength in building a multinational, multicenter clinical research system and translating cutting-edge technologies. Oncology Frontier invited Professor Li Wenbin to interpret the breakthroughs in clinical translation of innovative drugs and the evolving landscape of neuro-oncology treatment from the perspectives of translational medicine and clinical research.