What to Put on Your ASCO Shopping List

In keeping with its new hush-hush policy regarding research abstracts, the American Society of Clinical Oncology has released very little meaningful information for its upcoming annual meeting, which starts Saturday, May 31 in Chicago. For investors, this makes handicapping the meeting -- the most closely watched cancer conference of the year -- a lot more difficult.

ASCO has, however, made available the abstract titles and their presentation times. So at the very least, we can all prepare ourselves for the onslaught of clinical trial data. As I wrote a few weeks ago, biotech trading will likely be volatile when trading starts Monday, June 1, mainly because research abstracts have not made their way onto Wall Street this year, as they have in years past.

In an effort to set the table for investors, here's a capsule summary of the most important data expected at this year's ASCO meeting. This list is not comprehensive (with more than 2,000 abstracts presented, it's not possible to cover everything,) but as I uncover other companies worth watching, I'll report back.

ImClone Systems

ImClone (IMCL - commentary - Cramer's Take) and ASCO. They're like Ali and Frazier, Tom and Jerry , Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner -- you can't think of one without the other. So, here we go again. ImClone, the bruised biotech firm, is bringing Erbitux, the most famous unapproved drug in history, back to the biggest cancer research stage there is. Call it Erbitux III: The Final(?) Reckoning.

By now, everyone should know about the big event. On Sunday, June 1, at 3 p.m., ImClone's European partner, Merck KgaA, will present results from its Erbitux study in colon cancer patients. I won't bother with the details here, since I've written about this study enough already.

There are also several smaller studies to be presented at the conference using Erbitux as treatment for lung cancer, including the final report from a phase II study testing Erbitux in combination with the chemo drug docetaxel in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. This data, which will be presented Saturday morning, May 31, is a follow-up to preliminary data presented at last year's ASCO meeting. Also, on Sunday, June 1, look for some data using Erbitux along with chemo and radiation in patients with head and neck cancer.

---

Adam Feuerstein writes regularly for RealMoney.com. In keeping with TSC's editorial policy, he doesn't own or short individual stocks, although he owns stock in TheStreet.com. He also doesn't invest in hedge funds or other private investment partnerships. He invites you to send your feedback.