ADC combination therapies in the spotlight at ESMO 2025

Antibody-drug conjugates emerged as the leading source of practice-changing data at ESMO 2025, driven in many cases by synergistic effects when combined with anti-PD-1 immunotherapies.

The combination strategy received validation in 2023 when Padcev enfortumab vedotin from Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and Astellas Pharma Inc. (Tokyo:4503) was approved in combination with Keytruda pembrolizumab as first-line therapy for advanced and metastatic urothelial cancer. The idea was to leverage the cytotoxic effects of the ADC’s chemotherapy payload to create an inflammatory tumor microenvironment, thereby enhancing the activity of PD-1 blockade, which depends on the presence of activated T cells...