Gastrointestinal Cancer

Arsen Osipov, MD, discusses the potential for ongoing research with immunotherapeutic approaches in gastrointestinal malignancies, including CAR T-cell therapy, bispecific T-cell engagers, and vaccines.

Yoomi Lee, MD, discusses her process for selecting a treatment approach for patients with neuroendocrine tumors.

Nataliya V. Uboha, MD, PhD, discusses early efficacy data demonstrated with zanidatamab in HER2-expressing upper gastrointestinal cancers.

The FDA has approved pembrolizumab for use in combination with trastuzumab, fluoropyrimidine- and platinum-containing chemotherapy for the frontline treatment of patients with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic HER2 positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.

The FDA has granted a priority review to the supplemental new drug application for ivosidenib tablets as a treatment option for patients with previously treated, IDH1-mutant cholangiocarcinoma.

The rolling submission of a new drug application to the FDA for surufatinib for the treatment of patients with pancreatic and non-pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors has been completed.

Amy Jones, MD, discusses future research efforts in pancreatic cancer.

The first patient has received treatment with fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki in the phase 2 DESTINY-CRC02 trial, which is exploring the safety and efficacy of the antibody-drug conjugate in patients with HER2-overexpressing, BRAF wild-type, RAS-mutant or wild-type or mutant locally advanced, unresectable or metastatic colorectal cancer who have progressed following treatment with standard chemotherapy.

Edward Kim, MD, discusses the FDA approval of TheraSphere™ Yttrium-90 Glass Microspheres in hepatocellular carcinoma.

In a 5 to 4 vote, the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted to oppose maintaining the accelerated approval of nivolumab monotherapy for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma who received prior treatment with sorafenib.

Dr. Riedel and Dr. Van Tine discuss the multidisciplinary management of patients with sarcoma, the clinical impact of the FDA approval of ripretinib in the gastrointestinal stromal tumor paradigm, and other exciting advances in sarcoma.

In an 8 to 0 vote, the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted to support the accelerated approval of pembrolizumab monotherapy for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma who received prior treatment with sorafenib.

In a 6 to 2 vote, the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted against maintaining the accelerated approval of pembrolizumab for the treatment of patients with PD-L1–positive recurrent or advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma who have received 2 or more lines of therapy.

The combination of atezolizumab and bevacizumab has become the frontline standard of care for most patients with unresectable or metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma who have not received prior systemic therapy.

Amgen has completed its planned acquisition of Five Prime Therapeutics for $38.00 per share in cash, or approximately $1.9 billion.

After years of stagnation, the paradigm for treating patients with unresectable intermediate-stage or advanced hepatocellular carcinoma is starting to change as a result of novel strategies and evolving views of appropriate patient populations for systemic therapies.

Riad Salem, MD, discusses the unique elements of the TheraSphere, the data that supported the regulatory approval, and the anticipated future for the radioembolization technology in hepatocellular carcinoma.

The FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee is poised to move forward this week with a public review of 6 indications for immune checkpoint inhibitors granted under the agency’s accelerated approval process that later failed to reach thresholds for statistical significance for key end points in confirmatory clinical trials.

With immunotherapy options expanding for patients with a range of gastrointestinal cancers to include combination strategies with chemotherapy, their use in the treatment course should come sooner rather than later for those with high PD-L1 expression.

The frontline combination of toripalimab and cisplatin/paclitaxel reached its prespecified primary end points of progression-free and overall survival in patients with advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in the phase 3 JUPITER-06 trial.

The plethora of actionable targets in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma has created opportunities for these patients to be treated with targeted therapy.

Anita Lavery, MD, MRCP, discusses achieving safe care for patients with esophagogastric cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Parissa Tabrizian, MD, discusses the rationale for examining cemiplimab in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health is among the few clinical trial sites in the U.S. for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network’s newly created Precision Promise, the first large-scale precision medicine trial designed to transform outcomes for patients with pancreatic cancer.

Zev A. Wainberg, MD, discusses the role of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in resectable pancreatic cancer, emerging approaches in locally advanced disease, the promise of PARP inhibitors in the metastatic setting, and other future research directions of interest.

Derazantinib demonstrated promising disease control when given to patients with inoperable or advanced intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and FGFR2 gene fusion.

Investigators are exploring a dual HER2-targeting strategy that incorporates tucatinib into a novel combination as second-line therapy for patients with HER2-positive gastric and esophageal cancers.

The FDA has granted a breakthrough therapy designation to bemarituzumab plus modified fluoropyrimidine, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin as a frontline treatment for patients with FGFR2b–overexpressing and HER2-negative metastatic and locally advanced gastric and gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma.

Milind Javle, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, explains what GI oncologists can expect from FGFR treatment for advanced cholangiocarcinoma in terms of treatment responses.