Gastrointestinal Cancer

Results of an analysis presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting demonstrate the difficulty in determining the prevalence of germline cancer susceptibility gene mutations in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) who do not harbor Lynch syndrome.

A device using tumor treating fields that was administered to patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer showed early signs of tolerability and safety when in combination with gemcitabine in the frontline setting.

IMAB362 reduced the risk of death or progression by approximately 50% when added to standard chemotherapy for patients with CLDN18.2-positive advanced gastric cancers.

Nivolumab (Opdivo) as a monotherapy and in combination with ipilimumab (Yervoy) demonstrated promising antitumor activity in patients with high microsatellite instability (MSI-H) metastatic colorectal cancer.

The addition of capecitabine to standard adjuvant gemcitabine doubled 5-year overall survival (OS) rates for patients with pancreatic cancer whose tumors were surgically removed.

The European Commission has approved everolimus (Afinitor) for use as treatment for patients with progressive, unresectable or metastatic, well-differentiated nonfunctional gastrointestinal or lung neuroendocrine tumors.

Tanios Bekaii-Saab, MD, discusses the use of both regorafenib and TAS-102, as well as the potential role immunotherapy could have within colorectal cancer.

Precancerous colon polyps exhibit many of the same driver mutations that fuel the development of colorectal cancer.

The majority of patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma are diagnosed with late-stage, unresectable tumors, a setting in which combination chemotherapy remains the mainstay.

Manish A. Shah, MD, associate professor of Medicine, Joan and Sanford I. Weill Department of Medicine, Bartlett Family Associate Professor in Gastrointestinal Oncology, medical oncologist, Weill Cornell Medicine and New-York Presbyterian Hospital, discusses the phase IIIb HELOISE trial, which compared 2 dose regimens of trastuzumab combined with chemotherapy as a first-line treatment for patients with HER2-positive metastatic gastric/gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma (mGC/GEJC).

Survival outcomes in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer were significantly longer among those with tumors originating on the left versus the right side of the colon, according to a retrospective analysis of the phase III 80405 trial.

A phase III study exploring the combination of olaparib and paclitaxel missed its primary endpoint of improvement in overall survival compared with paclitaxel and placebo for patients with advanced gastric cancer.

A regimen combining the vaccines CRS-207 and GVAX Pancreas failed to improve overall survival versus either CRS-207 alone or chemotherapy in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer who had failed at least 2 prior therapies.

The investigational pancreatic cancer vaccine algenpantucel-L failed to improve overall survival versus standard of care in the phase III IMPRESS trial.

Graham Dixon, PhD, chief scientific officer, Onxeo, discusses a mechanistic study of the relative cytotoxicity of doxorubicin-loaded nanoparticle formulation versus doxorubicin in hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines.

Regorafenib (Stivarga) improved overall survival versus best supportive care in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma who progressed after receiving sorafenib (Nexavar).

Wendy Setiawan, PhD, assistant professor of Preventive Medicine, Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, discusses a study that examined differences in pancreatic cancer incidence across five racial/ethnic populations in a multiethnic cohort.

Van K. Morris, MD, assistant professor of GI Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses a study examining nivolumab (Opdivo) as a potential treatment for patients with anal cancer.