The Lancet in conversation with
Jessamy Bagenal, Chloe Wilson, and Callum Davidson—editors at The Lancet—and Gavin Cleaver, The Lancet Group’s Audio Producer, in conversation with the journal’s authors, explore their latest research and its impact on people’s health, healthcare, and health policy.
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The Lancet in conversation with
Previewing ASCO 2025
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Vania Wisdom, Senior Executive Editor at The Lancet and the journal's Oncology Ambassador, joins Gavin Cleaver to discuss what's being published at this year's American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting, what she's excited to see at the conference, and why ASCO is so important to the field.
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Gavin: Hello. Welcome to a bonus in Conversation with podcast previewing, the upcoming American Society Clinical Oncology meeting, asco. I'm Gavin Cleaver. I'm joined by Vanya Wisdom Senior executive Editor at The Lancet, who will be attending ASCO for a quick chat about the conference. Vanya, thanks so much for joining me.
Vania: Thanks very much, Gavin. Pleasure to be here today.
Gavin: So we wanted to get something down for a quick podcast, right? Because there's so much going on at ASCO and it's so exciting. Why is it such an important conference for you and for the journals? I.
Vania: ASCO is the largest global conference in cancer, and it's always exciting to attend asco, not only because of the opportunity to learn about the latest scientific advances in oncology, but also because of the opportunity to discuss cancer advances and patient care with the wider cancer community.
I'm particularly excited about this year because I find the ASCO's theme on driving knowledge to action particularly meaningful, and this is because, and as an oncology ambassador at The Lancet, I believe that stimulating conversation and facilitating information and change amongst all the stakeholders in oncology is really a strong tool to transform the knowledge.
That created into social action. So it really, the theme of this year's conference is very much aligned with my own goals as the oncology ambassador,
Gavin: which I absolutely should have mentioned in the intro. You are the oncology ambassador for the Lancet. Is there anything ASCO that you're particularly looking forward to seeing, like kind of sessions or speakers, different aspects of it?
Vania: Like I would say always the key session is the a plenary session with the groundbreaking trials, and we always looking forward to hear about the cutting edge research, in particularly in areas like new cellular therapies, chemotherapy free options for cancer patients, the new applications for AI in cancer care.
But one thing that I'm really looking forward is the opportunity to meet up with. Patient advocates and key opinion lenders so that I can better understand what are the areas of priorities of research. For the journal. The journal to cover,
Gavin: of course, we should do a little bit of a plug for ourselves.
So what are Lancet published studies that are being presented at asco?
Vania: I can't review a lot of detail about it as all under embargo at the moment, but I would say I think we have a few trials that are going to be presented at asco. Amongst those, there is one looking at a new first in class drug for the treatment of ovarian cancer and another very exciting one on a novel cellular therapy for the treatment of a solid tumor.
So keep an eye out. They'll be coming out soon.
Gavin: I guess we have to balance hype with, inability to break the embargo. Do you have any kind of particular expectations around like specific subject areas being well represented or anything like that?
Vania: In addition to the promising areas of clinical research that I mentioned earlier, I'm hoping to see studies on how we can use innovation to get the drugs and intervention that we already know that work.
To more patients around the world, and by that simple practice changing innovations that could greatly benefit patients such as treatment destination or reposing of licensed drugs. This type of innovation will probably have a much greater effect on patient care than developing another expensive drug for an indication that already has a reasonable standard of care.
So in addition to the groundbreaking and cutting edge research, I'm hoping to see more centered studies at Asco DCF.
Gavin: You and other Lancet editors will be attending asco. Of course. Can potential authors reach out to you?
Vania: Absolutely. That's right. I'll be attending ASCO conference with my colleague, KA k from the Lancet Oncology and both of us will be representing the editors across the group.
My contact is on my. I've been sharing it on the Lancet social media channels and I'm very much excited to discuss any exciting projects that researchers might have in the pipeline and really happy to meet up. So you all welcome to drop me along.
Gavin: Great. So Vanya, our oncology ambassador at The Lancet.
Thanks so much for chatting with me. And if any listeners are excited about asco two, get in touch with Vanya. Hopefully we'll we'll see you there and hear more about all the incredible research that's being published at that conference. Thanks, Vanya. Thank you.