Gastrointestinal Cancer

The European Commission has approved nivolumab for use as an adjuvant treatment in adult patients with esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer who have residual pathologic disease after neoadjuvant chemoradiation.

Updated overall survival data from the APACT trial suggest improved outcomes for patients with resected pancreatic cancer who receive adjuvant nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine despite missing the primary end point in earlier analysis.

Milind Javle, MD, discusses the potential impact of infigratinib on the treatment landscape of FGFR2 fusion–positive cholangiocarcinoma.

Ardaman Shergill, MD, discussed the use of EGFR inhibitors in metastatic colorectal cancer and advantages of expanded dosing indications.

Richard Kim, MD, discusses the utility of EGFR inhibitors in patients with RAS wild-type colorectal cancer, the convenience of biweekly dosing with cetuximab, recommendations for managing EGFR inhibitor–related treatment-related adverse effects, and novel combinations on the horizon.

Metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) experts discuss tumor sidedness and their current use of next-generation sequencing panels to assess patients and guide treatment decisions.

Reactions to the increase in prevalence of metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) among a younger patient population despite treatment advances.

Surgical resection demonstrated a notable survival benefit, particularly in combination with neoadjuvant therapy, in patients with aggressive margin-positive pancreatic cancer.

Experts in gastrointestinal oncology review the challenges associated with molecular testing and the role of biomarker testing on disease management. 

Sam Klempner, MD, and Daniel Catenacci, MD, discuss the KEYNOTE-811 study of pembrolizumab plus trastuzumab in combination with chemotherapy in patients with HER2-positive disease.

Bristol Myers Squibb has decided to voluntarily withdraw the indication for nivolumab as a monotherapy for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who were previously treated with sorafenib from the US market.

Nivolumab plus chemotherapy or ipilimumab showcased superior overall survival over chemotherapy alone in previously untreated patients with advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

A new experimental treatment arm examining pamrevlumab in combination with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel as a first- or second-line treatment for patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer has been added to the novel clinical trial platform Precision Promise, which is being conducted by the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.

Wen Wee Ma, MBBS, discusses first-line treatment considerations in metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Thought leaders in gastric and GEJ cancers review safety outcomes from the CHECKMATE649 trial presented at the 2021 ASCO annual meeting.

Key opinion leader in gastric cancer, Daniel Catenacci, MD, leads a discussion on the study design, patient population, and results from the CHECKMATE649 trial of nivolumab and chemotherapy in patients with gastric or GEJ cancers.

Dr. Wainberg discusses factors that help steer treatment selection in HER2-positive gastrointestinal malignancies, advances on the horizon, and more.

Daniel Catenacci, MD, and Sam Klempner, MD, consider the overall impact of recently approved immunotherapy-based regimens for gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancers.

Experts in the management of gastric cancer provide a historical perspective on available treatment options.

Tanios Bekaii-Saab, MD, spotlights the recent developments made in gastrointestinal cancers.

Jimmy Hwang, MD, discusses the frontline indications for checkpoint inhibitors in gastric cancer and their effect on subsequent treatment decisions, the growth of targeted therapy across gastrointestinal cancers, and expectations for future research and development.

Therapeutic breakthroughs for patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer have eluded investigators for decades, with chemotherapeutic combination strategies serving as the insurmountable standard of care.

Merck has announced plans to withdraw the accelerated approval indication for pembrolizumab in the treatment of select patients with recurrent locally advanced or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma whose tumors express a PD-L1 combined positive score of 1 or more, and who have progressed on or after 2 or more previous lines of therapy, including fluoropyrimidine- and platinum-containing chemotherapy, and HER2-/neu-targeted therapy, if appropriate.

The incidental identification of pancreatic cysts has become more common with the increasing use of imaging modalities in clinical practice.

The novel PI3Kß inhibitor GSK2636771 plus paclitaxel led to encouraging clinical activity as well as a tolerable safety profile in patients with PTEN-deficient advanced gastric cancer who progressed following frontline chemotherapy.

The optimal sequence of therapies in the second- or later-line settings for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma remains unclear.

Single-agent pemigatinib is being compared with gemcitabine plus cisplatin in patients with unresectable and/or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma whose tumor harbor FGFR2 fusions or rearrangements in the ongoing, phase 3 FIGHT-302 trial.

Jimmy Hwang, MD, discusses considerations for second-line treatment in gastric/gastroesophageal junction cancer.

Lenvatinib can continue to be administered in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma that has Child-Pugh class B liver function, as they experienced a similar tumor size reduction as their Child-Pugh class A counterparts in a post-hoc analysis of the phase 3 REFLECT trial.

Frontline pembrolizumab plus lenvatinib, and chemotherapy is being tested against chemotherapy alone in patients with advanced gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma, as part of the international, 2-part, phase 3 LEAP-015 trial.