Is the CROWN deserved? Unsure. Plus, the media coverage is in a hurry!

Long term PFS results are presented at ASCO 2024, but the trial had a suboptimal control arm.

In this ASCO 2024 series, we provide insights about ASCO 2024 presentations, which is currently taking place between 31th May and 4th June. The annual congress of the American Society of Clinical Oncology is a key event in oncology. Each year, it attracts more than 30,000 attendees in Chicago.

Today, the long-term PFS results of the CROWN study will be presented at ASCO, and media (even before the results are presented), are already covering it with superlatives. Is the CROWN deserved here?

The CROWN trial had a suboptimal control arm.

In patients with advanced or metastatic ALK-rearranged non-small-cell lung cancer, alectinib was proven to be the best standard-of-care based on the ALEX trial, published and FDA approved in 2017!

In …. 2017, the same year, the CROWN trial investigated lorlatinib in a comparable setting, and started to accrue. The control arm SHOULD have been alectinib, which was the new standard-of-care. However, it was again crizotinib, an inferior comparator.

So are we surprised by significant PFS results in the CROWN study? Not really. Looking forward to see if we have more insights during the ASCO presentation.

Media covering as if presented hours before the actual presentation!

The Results of CROWN are everywhere covered as if already "presented" ... yet the results will be presented in a couple of hours! Are we supposed to have such coverage every day during ASCO 2024?