Gastrointestinal Cancer

Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, Gastrointestinal Oncology Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses a retrospective analysis that evaluated embolization versus embolization plus systemic therapy in patients with metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

The addition of the investigational agent MM-398 (PEP02) to standard second-line chemotherapy significantly improved overall survival in a phase III trial for patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Ramesh K. Ramanathan, MD, describes a phase II study that analyzed gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel followed by consolidation with mFOLFIRINOX in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Pamela L. Kunz, MD, assistant professor of medicine, Oncology, Stanford University Medical Center, discusses the effort to identify molecular subtypes of gastric cancer.

The FDA has approved the VEGFR-2 inhibitor ramucirumab as a treatment for patients with patients with unresectable gastric cancer or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, based on a significant extension in OS.

The use of immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer has had limited exposure, but Aduro BioTech, Inc, has had phase II success with an approach in which two vaccines are administered. The vaccines, GVAX Pancreas and CRS-207, are administered to patients sequentially.

A recently approved indication for nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane) in metastatic pancreatic cancer is thought to have similar efficacy to a standard first-line treatment for the disease, but offers several advantages in the eyes of community oncologists and their patients

The FDA's Molecular and Clinical Genetics advisory committee has unanimously supported the safety, efficacy, and positive risk-benefit profile of the noninvasive stool-based DNA test Cologuard in a 10-0 vote.

The blood-based colorectal cancer (CRC) screening test Epi proColon passed the scrutiny of the FDA's Molecular and Clinical Genetics advisory panel in a close 5-4 vote with 1 abstention in support of the claim that the test's benefits outweigh its risks

Prodrug chemotherapy is an exciting approach by which higher concentrations of cytotoxic or biologically active agents can be achieved at a tumor site while avoiding the systemic toxicity of a non-cell-specific toxin.

Roberto Bordonaro, MD, chair, medical oncology, Garibaldi Hospital, Catania, Italy, discusses treatment options for patients with colorectal cancer who fail on oxaliplatin- and irinotecan-based chemotherapy.

Marc Peeters, MD, PhD, department of oncology, Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerpen, Belgium, discusses the future of the treatment of colorectal cancer.

Robert L. Fine, MD, an associate professor of Medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia University Medical Center, discusses a phase II study that evaluated the efficacy of neoadjuvant gemcitabine, docetaxel, and capecitabine (GTX) in patients with inoperable pancreatic adenocarcinoma

Genetic counseling-including testing and risk assessment-is one of the most rapidly growing areas of oncology and has become the standard of care for patients with a personal and family history of breast, ovary, or colon cancer.