ASCO’s Asia-Pacific meeting in Singapore bets on speed as Korea seeks a bigger voice in cancer research

Missed Chicago? The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and leaders of its 2026 ASCO Breakthrough program say timing now matters more than size, positioning the Singapore gathering as the next launchpad for region-specific oncology issues specific to Asia, including topics around artificial intelligence, precision medicine and a growing class of antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs).

Breakthrough is ASCO’s Asia-Pacific meeting, first held in 2019 to focus on how innovations move into clinical use and to view global research through a regional lens. The 2026 edition is set for June 25 to 27, 2026 at the Raffles City Convention Centre, with abstracts accepted from Dec. 3, 2025 to Feb. 24, 2026 (Eastern Time).

In an interview with Korea Biomedical Review, Park Joon-oh, president of the Korean Society of Medical Oncology (KSMO) and a professor of hematology and oncology at Samsung Medical Center, said organizers are aiming for more than 1,000 participants, with Korea targeting roughly 10 percent of attendees and, more to the point, a larger share of oral presentations. Last year, there were 14 abstracts by Korean researchers that were accepted to ASCO Breakthrough.

Dr. Park Joon-oh, president of KSMO

Teams that miss the Annual Meeting window in Chicago, he said, look for the earliest high-visibility venue that will take clean data quickly. “Timing is more important: the goal is to present at the earliest major international congress after results are ready,” Park said. If the dates align, he added, ASCO Breakthrough can be “a meaningful platform for Korean-led research.”

Attendance has climbed since the pandemic’s virtual years, with the last in-person edition in 2024 drawing 790 participants from more than 35 countries. Scientific committees are in place, speaker invitations are underway and the category grid follows ASCO’s template, pairing disease-specific tracks with topic areas such as AI, translational research and new drug development.

Instead of mirroring the breadth of ASCO’s Annual Meeting in Chicago, ASCO Breakthrough in Singapore is built to view global research from the perspective of the Asian region, and to show how research actually reaches patients. Sessions walk through the practical steps: getting a new tool into routine care, retraining nurses and physicians, adjusting ward workflows, and testing whether the costs are sustainable for hospitals.

Presentation stage at ASCO Breakthrough

Because attention in oncology often follows the podium, an oral presentation carries far more weight than a poster, shaping careers and even budget decisions; Park says the Singapore stage should give more Asia-origin teams a shot at those oral slots.

Momentum from the region’s pipelines is part of the calculus. Japan, China, Korea and Singapore are feeding immunotherapies, targeted agents and ADCs into a docket that also leans into AI and genomics. “The Asia-Pacific region has distinct issues compared to Western regions,” Park said, adding that the region’s genetic and cultural breadth strengthens trials that require diverse enrollment and that discussions of inequity in access should sit alongside the science.

Korea’s bid rests as much on infrastructure as on ambition, drawing on national health insurance, patients concentrated in large hospitals and strong motivation to join studies—factors that speed enrollment and tighten execution. “Seoul is among the top global cities in terms of clinical trial patient enrollment,” Park said, linking that to more Korean investigators serving as principal investigators and joining global steering committees.

The submission strategy is expected to reflect the meeting’s purpose. Organizers have indicated that studies initiated in Asia and work using Asia-developed drugs align well with ASCO Breakthrough, while multinational programs remain welcome. No major overhaul of tracks is planned; the structure remains close to ASCO’s divisions by disease, treatment modality, translational research, AI and drug development.

Park also emphasized the importance of submitting strong abstracts early, noting that impactful Asia-initiated studies can elevate the region’s presence on the global stage. As an example, he pointed to two representative abstracts from last year’s ASCO Breakthrough that highlight how region-specific research can shape global oncology discussions.

Abstract 199 examined intracranial outcomes of first-line selpercatinib in progressive RET fusion–positive NSCLC from the LIBRETTO-431 study— which is especially relevant to Asia given the clinical significance of RET fusion–positive NSCLC and CNS involvement in the region. The results reinforce the value of routine genomic testing and optimized targeted therapy in Asia. Meanwhile, Abstract 129 evaluated PD-1 blockade with camrelizumab following chemoradiotherapy in nasopharyngeal carcinoma, a cancer with a disproportionately high incidence in East and Southeast Asia. Its significant improvement in event-free survival with manageable toxicity suggests that adjuvant immunotherapy could play a meaningful role in regions where NPC remains a major public-health burden. Park said these examples demonstrate why timely abstract submissions from Asia matter—because they spotlight diseases and therapeutic questions that are uniquely relevant to the region.

ASCO and Korea’s oncology society have collaborated for years and formalized a memorandum of understanding in 2023, expanding leadership development and educational participation for Korean researchers.

Park also points to workforce plans at home, from a precision medicine network with government and the National Cancer Center to a new AI-focused winter school that aims to train younger clinicians to use AI in oncology and to design credible studies.

2026 ASCO Breakthrough is accepting abstract submissions here and more details can be found: https://breakthrough.asco.org/?cmpid=amm_ascoorg_brktsum_breakthroughsummit_dsp-dm_kbr-e_all__glob_120225____aware_text_