Electric energy and emerging AI

What we brought to and learned from ASCO 2025

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting is always the most anticipated event in the cancer community. 2025 was no exception. With over 450 oral presentations and nearly 45,000 attendees, this year’s congress was a dynamic showcase of what’s possible when cutting-edge science and cross-disciplinary collaboration come together. From paradigm-shifting trial results to AI-powered platforms reshaping research workflows, the energy in Chicago was electric.

Highlights from the science, my top takeaways

I always look forward to the morning plenary and highlight sessions to set the tone for each day, and this year delivered some remarkable updates:

• Colon Cancer: Atezolizumab added to adjuvant mFOLFOX6 reduced recurrence or death by 50% in dMMR stage III colon cancer patients, a potential new standard of care.
• Prostate Cancer: The Phase 3 AMPLITUDE trial showed that combining niraparib with abiraterone acetate and prednisone reduced symptomatic progression by 56% in BRCA-mutated mCSPC, a major step forward for precision medicine.
• Melanoma & Hematologic Malignancies: Advances in malignant melanoma and myelofibrosis highlighted the increasing power of targeted therapies driven by genetic insights.
• Breast Cancer: Breakthrough data from AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo signaled important progress in both early and advanced breast cancer.

And not to forget Owkin’s own study, INVOKE, presented as a poster. This Phase 1 trial evaluates OKN4395, a first-in-class EP2/EP4/DP1 triple prostanoid receptor antagonist, in patients with advanced solid tumors.

AI and digital pathology: A new era in oncology

ASCO 2025 highlighted the accelerating integration of AI and digital pathology into oncology. One standout study showed that AI assistance improved pathologist accuracy from 89.1% to 96.1% in challenging HER2-low and ultra-low IHC breast cancer scoring, a significant leap for treatment precision.

At Owkin, we share this conviction. We had an ASCO abstract on the development and validation of an AI model to predict germline BRCA1/2 mutations directly from HR+/HER2- breast cancer histology images. Moving towards giving patients earlier, more accessible risk stratification to help match them to the right treatment. 

AI’s role is also growing in clinical guidelines and trial design. One example: ASCO’s new AI-Powered Guidelines Assistant, developed with Google Cloud, helps oncologists navigate complex care recommendations faster and more accurately. Each of these examples are  tangible steps toward more efficient, standardized care.

Owkin at ASCO, introducing K-Navigator

Owkin was once again strongly represented at the event, with a dedicated team on-site to connect with partners and unveil K-Navigator, our new agentic AI software designed specifically for academic biomedical researchers.

Built by researchers, for researchers, K-Navigator helps users analyze and visualize multiomic patient data, navigate biomedical literature and databases through a simple chat interface, and uncover insights from a vast knowledge base, including 26.5 million articles, 19 major databases, and rich spatial multiomic data.

Accelerate your research and sign up here!

And this is just the beginning. Stay tuned for K-Pro, the enterprise version launching this October. Powered by a suite of intelligent agents and cutting-edge multimodal data, K-Pro is the first universal AI co-pilot for cancer research, designed to generate insights from day one, support decision-making across teams, and accelerate scientific breakthroughs.

Owkin’s vision: agentic AI for oncology

AI and digital pathology are no longer future-facing; they are central to how we diagnose, treat, and innovate in oncology. At Owkin, our mission is to explore complex biology through agentic AI, scaling and speeding research to bring novel therapies to patients faster.

With K-Pro, we’re proud to help lead this transformation. Book a meeting to find out more about K-Pro.

We look forward to reconnecting at ESMO 2025 for the launch of K-Pro Berlin this October.