THE CHEMOTHERAPISTS FROM THE NATIONAL MEDICAL RESEARCH RADIOLOGICAL CENTRE PRESENTED THE RESULTS OF THEIR RESEARCH AT THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS IN CHICAGO, ASCO‑2026

This event is considered one of the main platforms for dialogue among all countries in the field of science and practice of oncological disease treatment. The program includes more than 200 scientific sessions, thousands of posters, and presentations of research in the field of drug therapy, covering immunotherapy, targeted treatment methods, artificial intelligence, and personalized medicine. The congress traditionally sets the directions for the development of global oncology and influences future clinical standards for cancer treatment. More than 44,000 various specialists from 160 countries participated in shaping the current agenda for the fight against cancer in 2026, including specialists from the National Medical Research Radiological Centre of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

“This year, the congress’s expert council selected for a poster presentation the work carried out in our chemotherapy department, in which we studied the possibility of reducing the cytostatic load in patients with HER2‑positive respectable breast cancer”, – says Larisa Bolotina, Professor and Head of the Chemotherapy Department at the P. Hertsen Moscow Oncology Research Institute — a branch of the National Medical Research Radiological Centre of the Ministry of Health of Russian Federation. “To this end, at the first stage of antitumor treatment — neoadjuvant drug therapy — we excluded one of the drugs, carboplatin, from the standard two‑component chemotherapy regimen. At the same time, targeted anti‑HER2 therapy was maintained in full (trastuzumab and pertuzumab). In addition, our approach also involved reducing the duration of drug administration: patients received treatment in the form of 12 weekly infusions of paclitaxel with dual targeted blockade, as opposed to the 18 weeks stipulated in clinical guidelines. Most importantly, we managed to reduce the toxic load on the body without compromising treatment efficacy, which was highly appreciated by our foreign colleagues.”

A comparative analysis of the proposed method showed that this approach is fully comparable to the results obtained with the standard regimen. The rate of complete pathological response — that is, complete destruction of tumor cells — across all cases exceeded 60 %. In a separate subgroup of patients with non‑luminal breast cancer, this figure even surpassed 80 %.

“The results we obtained inspired us to share our observations with the most demanding professional audience. The fact that our material was included in the official list of works presented at this year’s congress in Chicago is not only prestigious but also gives us grounds to continue this work. And, first and foremost, our patients will benefit from it”.