Dow Jones Newswires reporter Thomas Gryta wrapped up his trip to the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting with a reporter’s notebook that touches on the cost of cancer care and a debate over the value of Amgen’s bone drug Xgeva, among other things. But here’s our favorite nugget from his reporting (as you can see from the picture at right it has to do with Legos): Much of the ASCO meeting centers around research and education, but the car-show-like exhibition hall is always a World’s Fair of cancer-drug marketing. Many of the company “booths” are the size of small buildings, including lounges and refreshments for meeting attendees. Perhaps the most original display of this year’s meeting — which wrapped up yesterday — was from Seattle Genetics. The company invited participants to place Lego blocks to build a huge model of an antibody conjugate — not-so-coincidentally, a type of drug Seattle Genetics is developing. That class of treatment uses a cell-killing drug attached to a type of antibody so that the large-molecule drug seeks out the cancer, then kills it. To build the model,

two Ohio State University professors/self-proclaimed Lego enthusiasts–Paul Janssen and Benn Coifman–were enlisted. Both are accomplished Lego model builders:  Jannsen got some attention recently for making an intricate eight-foot-by-eight-foot model of the university’s football stadium , while Coifman has built more than 200 model trains from the small plastic bricks. In planning the assembly, the team required about 85,000 Lego pieces (mostly green ones). The manufacturer, the Lego Group, doesn’t accept special orders that small, according to Coifman and Janssen. That forced the pair to buy the needed blocks from an underground network of about 15 other Lego enthusiasts. A Seattle Genetics spokeswoman said the project succeeded in generating interest in the booth and the company is considering several options for the model’s future, including using it at another medical meeting or donating it to a local children’s hospital. The company expects FDA decisions in late August on brentuximab vedotin, which it is developing with Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., for treating two different blood cancers. Photo courtesy of Seattle Genetics

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Notes from ASCO: Seattle Genetics Plays With Legos