I am the first on the standby list. My confirmed flight is 11:05 AM, but I want to be in New York early to catch some work time with M. So I have been in the airport and behind the security check since, on the standby of three flights already, always the top three, but I am not flying yet – all flights full, and nobody late for the gate.

The last day in the conference was short. The exhibit hall is closed, as well as the general poster area. Some people came in and out of the session with luggage, and the sessions always end with a “have a good trip home”.

I asked A what to take home from the conference. Ipilimumab was the answer. So I am going home with this message from my ASCO adventure: ipilimumab, short for ipi and a.k.a., unpronouncimab, as a immune therapy for metastatic melanoma.

Ipi is an antibody to a T-cell surface antigen CTLA-4 (cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4), which acts as a brake to T-cell activation. When the antibody ipi blocks CTLA-4, T-cell is activated to attack cancer cells. A large scale clinical trial presented in the ASCO meeting showed that ipi survival benefit of more than four months, This is significant because metastatic melanoma is one of the hardest forms of cancer to treat. And for 30 years, there has not been any treatment options and IL-2, was approved ten years ago, but only marginally useful.

Whew.

(If you press me, and as I indeed pressed A, the second conference take-home is Cricizonib for non-small cell lung cancer, and it came with a nice feel-good discovery story. The drug worked very well in clinical trials on cancer cells  that has a type of mutation called ALK fusion protein. Pfizer  developed the drug for something else, and had no idea about the ALK mutation. But a Japanese scientist analyzed a  cancer patient’s mutation, and found the miraculous correlation.)

To be frank, the first take-home message really should be to do some homework before coming to such a important  international conference. In a field I am marginally familiar with,  I was lost, challenged, and discouraged in many of the sessions. I did enjoyed very much the plenary session including an fantastic review on RAS signal pathway given by my grand-advisor. So that is nice.

So I am on the plane off Chicago, with these two and half messages.

When I packed and said good-bye to Jessica and Justin last night, they told me that I was their best airbnb guest. Jessica also said, “I want to be like you, when I am at your stage.” I am sure the expressions are gestures of exaggerated nicety, but maybe they think I am among the best guest, and I am very good in general, which is cool.  We three hugged, and Justin helped my luggage downstairs and into the taxi, and we three hugged again, and I said, “You are good kids. Good luck with everything.”

The next stop is New York. I booked a Williamsburg loft to stay with airbnb. M and I will do some work together in the next few days.

New York. New York.

New York.