(Press-News.org) June 1, 2025 — The Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology announced today results from ATOMIC (A021502), a phase III trial evaluating standard chemotherapy alone or combined with atezolizumab (Tecentriq®) in treating patients who have surgically resected stage III colon cancer and deficient deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) mismatch repair (dMMR). The study, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and conducted in partnership with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, met its primary endpoint, demonstrating a statistically significant improvement in disease-free survival (DFS) with the addition of atezolizumab, an anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody, to standard adjuvant FOLFOX (5-fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin). The data are being presented today at 1:05 pm CDT/2:05 pm ET during the Plenary Session at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting (LBA1) by Alliance Study Chair Frank Sinicrope, MD.
“This is a landmark study for the treatment of patients with dMMR colon cancer,” said Dr. Sinicrope, Professor of Oncology and Clinical Investigator of the Mayo Foundation at the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center. “For the first time, we’re seeing a clinically meaningful benefit of adjuvant immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy in resected colon cancer patients significantly increases the chances of living longer with recurrence of their disease. At three years, patients who received atezolizumab had 50% less risk of disease recurrence or death.”
ATOMIC is an international multicenter, randomized, and open-label phase III trial. From September 2017 to January 2023, the trial enrolled 712 patients with resected stage III dMMR colon cancer in the United States and Germany, including 1 pediatric patient. All were included in the second interim analysis reviewed in February 2025 by the Alliance Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB). The median age of patients was 64 years, and more than half (55.1%) were female. Patients were randomized 1:1 into two treatment groups to receive either 6 months of standard adjuvant FOLFOX chemotherapy alone (n=357 patients) or FOLFOX combined with atezolizumab with the atezolizumab continued as monotherapy for an additional 6 months (n= 355). Patients were stratified by T and N stage in addition to primary tumor site (83.8% proximal; 46.1% clinical low risk, and 53.9% high risk). The primary endpoint was DFS; secondary endpoints were overall survival (OS) and adverse event (AE) profile.
Results from the ATOMIC trial presented today at ASCO demonstrate that the addition of atezolizumab resulted in a statistically significant improvement in DFS of patients, reducing the instantaneous risk of disease recurrence or death by 50% for patients treated with atezolizumab in combination with chemotherapy, compared to those receiving chemotherapy alone (hazard ratio for DFS, 0.50; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.34 to 0.72). The 36-month disease-free survival was 86.4% (95% CI, 81.8 to 89.9) in the atezolizumab group, as compared with 76.6% (95% CI, 71.3 to 81.0) in the FOLFOX alone group. The median follow-up was 37.2 months; 125 DFS events were observed. “These highly statistically significant results (p<0.0001) underscore the potential of atezolizumab in combination with standard chemotherapy to be practice changing for patients with stage III colon cancer and dMMR,” said Fang-Shu Ou, PhD, Associate Professor of Biostatistics at Mayo Clinic, and lead biostatistician on ATOMIC.
The safety profile of the combination regimen was consistent with known toxicities of FOLFOX and PD-L1 blockade. Immune-related adverse events (irAEs) were manageable and occurred in line with expectations based on previous atezolizumab studies.
Colorectal cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Until now, the only adjuvant treatment for patients with stage III colon cancer has been with standard adjuvant chemotherapy drugs such as 5-fluorouricil (or capecitabine) and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX regimen). However, patient outcomes remain suboptimal, highlighting the need for more effective, biomarker-driven therapies as shown for dMMR tumors in ATOMIC.
“Every year, millions of people are diagnosed with colorectal cancer worldwide, many of whom face limited treatment options—especially at advanced stages. The ATOMIC trial incorporates immunotherapy that can enhance the ability of the body’s immune system to attack cancer cells. The potential impact for patients is substantial,” noted Eileen O’Reilly, MD, from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Jeffrey Meyerhardt, MD, MPH, from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who co-chair the Gastrointestinal Committee for the Alliance.
ATOMIC is sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and was being led and conducted by the NCI-funded Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology with participation from the NCI-funded national clinical trials network (NCTN) as part of a collaboration with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, and the NCI through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA). The trial was also open in partnership with the German group Arbeitsgemeinschaft Internistische Onkologie (AIO). To learn more about the ATOMIC trial, visit ClinicalTrials.gov.
[Support by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers U10CA180821 and U10CA180882 (to the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology); and Genentech, a member of the Roche Group]
# # #
Reference: Alliance A021502: Randomized trial of standard chemotherapy alone or combined with atezolizumab as adjuvant therapy for patients with stage III colon cancer and deficient DNA mismatch repair or microsatellite instability (ATOMIC). A full description of this clinical trial can be found at https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT02912559.
The Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology is a national leader in advancing cancer research, uniting over 25,000 cancer specialists at 115 main institutions and 1,400 affiliates across the U.S. and Canada. As part of the National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) and a leading research base for the NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP), the Alliance conducts pioneering, practice-changing clinical trials that improve outcomes and reshape standards of care. Our work has led to multiple FDA approvals, influenced national guidelines, and produced hundreds of high-impact publications. More than 40,000 participants have taken part in Alliance studies, and our growing biospecimen repository now includes over 1.5 million samples, collected over the past 30 years. Learn more at www.AllianceforClinicalTrialsinOncology.org.
Tecentriq® (atezolizumab) is a registered trademark of Genentech, a member of the Roche Group.
END
Late-breaking abstract featured at ASCO 2025
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Colon cancer is the third most prevalent form of cancer in the U.S., and while screening has helped detect and prevent colon cancer from spreading, major advancements in treating colon cancer have lagged.
Now, new research led by Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center found that adding immunotherapy to chemotherapy after surgery for patients with stage 3 (node-positive) colon cancer — and with a specific ...
By leveraging the structural parallels between genomic sequences and natural language, these AI-driven models can decode complex genetic information, offering unprecedented insights into plant biology. This advancement holds promise for accelerating crop improvement, enhancing biodiversity conservation, and bolstering food security in the face of global challenges.
Traditionally, plant genomics has grappled with the intricacies of vast and complex datasets, often limited by the specificity of traditional machine learning models and the scarcity of annotated ...
This research provides key insights into how microbial inoculants can offer a cost-effective, eco-friendly strategy to enhance crop resilience in saline soils.
Soil salinization is a major global challenge that severely impacts agricultural productivity, with over 3% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface affected. It threatens food security by causing osmotic, ionic, and oxidative stress, which can reduce crop yields by more than 50%. Traditional remediation methods, such as physical and chemical interventions, are often prohibitively expensive. However, ...
While moms have traditionally gotten much of the focus when it comes to children’s eating habits, a new study highlights the importance of dads in shaping a child’s relationship with food. According to the study, young children were more likely to consume the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables if their father ate a healthier diet during his teen years.
The study is based on data from 669 men who answered questionnaires about their eating habits during adolescence and then, years later, provided information about their attitudes and behaviors surrounding their children’s diet.
“Our ...
May 31, 2025 — A phase II clinical trial led by the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology has met its primary endpoint, demonstrating that the combination of avelumab and cetuximab improved progression-free survival (PFS) compared to avelumab alone in patients with advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC). The results, presented as an oral abstract at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, suggest a promising new approach for patients with this aggressive form of skin cancer.
“These results show that combining immune checkpoint inhibition targeting the PD-1: PD-L1 pathway ...
In patients with an advanced type of skin cancer called cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC), those who received the combination of the immunotherapy drug avelumab and targeted agent cetuximab had almost four times longer median progression-free survival compared to patients who received avelumab alone, according to the results of a phase 2 trial presented today at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting and concurrently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
“It is both an honor and humbling to develop clinical trials ...
Merremia boisiana, a member of the Convolvulaceae family, a fast-growing vine native to tropical rainforests and known for its vibrant golden flowers and astonishing climbing ability, grows at speeds exceeding 12 cm per day, often overwhelming native vegetation and disrupting forest ecosystems. Despite its ecological importance and genetic proximity to economically vital crops like sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), little was known about its genomic makeup until now.
A study (DOI:10.48130/tp-0025-0007) published in Tropical Plants on 24 March 2025 by Fei Chen and Wenquan Wang’s team, Hainan University, marks a significant leap ...
At present, it takes an average of 18 months for a supercomputer to evaluate a single 3D part and accurately predict its lifespan or expected date of failure. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)’s Structures Uniquely Resolved to Guarantee Endurance (SURGE) program has tasked grantees with compressing this evaluation time to three days and significantly simplifying the process so that it can be performed on a laptop computer.
Four members of the Texas A&M University faculty have responded to that ...
Many men with aggressive prostate cancer can experience a high rate of recurrence despite treatment.
A new Phase 2 clinical trial at UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center unveiled clues as to why these patients are doing poorly and may offer hope in the form of targeted therapy.
The findings will be presented at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference on June 3 in Chicago. .
Pilot trial sheds new clues ...
SAN ANTONIO, May 30, 2025 – People who are at higher risk for heart disease also seem more likely to develop dementia.
And research led by The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) has discovered new associations between various lipid, or fat, levels in the blood and the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, the most common cause of dementia worldwide.
The findings mean that using blood lipid profiles could help better understand, predict and possibly even prevent the disease in the future.
In more than 800 older adults who were part of the long-running Framingham Heart Study, the researchers ...
