Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium (ASCO GI)

Data from an interim analysis of an ongoing phase II study suggest that patients with carcinoid and pituitary NETs, who have been traditionally chemo-resistant, may obtain "extraordinary responses" with capecitabine and temozolomide.

Single-agent neoadjuvant capecitabine combined with radiation therapy demonstrated similar outcomes as previously established standards of care for patients with stage II or stage III rectal cancer.

The combination of ramucirumab and paclitaxel resulted in a significant prolongation in survival and gains in quality of life when compared to paclitaxel alone for the second-line treatment of patients with metastatic gastric cancer.

Combining two specific anti-cancer vaccines, rather than administering one as monotherapy, doubles the 1-year survival probability in patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), according to the results of a phase II study presented January 14.

An analysis of phase III, second-line data has shown that RAS mutations beyond KRAS exon 2 are negative predictive biomarkers for the EGFR-inhibitor panitumumab in metastatic colorectal cancer.

The incidence of adverse effects with regorafenib in metastatic colorectal cancer is highest during the first treatment cycle and then diminishes over time.

Capecitabine produces similar local disease control with lower toxicity versus gemcitabine when combined with radiotherapy following induction chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer.

FOLFOXIRI plus bevacizumab improved progression-free survival and response rates with a modest increase in side effects compared with FOLFIRI plus bevacizumab in patients with unresectable metastatic colorectal cancer.

Complete neoadjuvant treatment may represent a well-tolerated alternative to the current standard treatment sequence of adjuvant chemotherapy following chemoradiation and surgery.

James C. Yao, MD, from the MD Anderson Cancer Center, describes the administration of the mTOR inhibitor everolimus in patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.

Paul Ruff, MD, from the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, discusses a time-course analysis of overall survival following treatment with ziv-aflibercept in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, as observed in the VELOUR trial.

Richard Kim, MD, medical oncologist, Gastrointestinal Oncology Department at Moffitt Cancer Center, discusses studies investigating regorafenib (Stivarga) in metastatic colorectal cancer.

Katsuhiko Uesaka, MD, PhD, from the Shizuoka Cancer Center Hospital in Japan, discusses the JASPAC-01 study that compared gemcitabine to S-1 in Asian patients with resected pancreatic cancer.

Hugo Ford, MD, from the Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, UK, describes results from the phase III COUGAR-02 study that examined second-line docetaxel in patients with advanced gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma.

Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, discusses a study that examined the utility of doxorubicin-eluting beads in hepatic arterial embolization as a treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma.

The 2013 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium was held at the Moscone West Building, San Francisco, CA, from January 24-26.

Adding nab-paclitaxel to gemcitabine improves survival compared with gemcitabine alone in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Ramucirumab significantly extended overall survival as a second-line agent in patients with metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma that progressed on first-line therapy.

Patients with metastatic colorectal cancer whose disease had progressed despite treatment with oxaliplatin experienced an improvement in survival by switching to a regimen of ziv-aflibercept plus FOLFIRI.

Axel Grothey, MD, from the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, discusses the time course of adverse events following treatment with regorafenib, as observed in the CORRECT study.

Adjuvant chemotherapy with the oral fluoropyrimidine S-1 improved survival versus standard postoperative gemcitabine in Asian patients with pancreatic cancer, according to an interim analysis from a phase III trial conducted in Japan.

Ramesh K. Ramanathan, MD, from the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center, discusses the phase III MPACT study that examined gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel in patients with metastatic adenocarcinoma of the pancreas.

William M. Grady, MD, from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, discusses results from a study that examined the association of intrinsic subtypes of colorectal cancer with prognosis, chemotherapy response, and other factors.

A simple blood draw could lead to life-prolonging adjustments in treatment for patients with pancreatic cancer, the authors of a study have found.

Using a new classification system that categorizes colorectal cancers by tumor gene expression patterns, researchers have determined that tumor prognosis and response to adjuvant chemotherapy in CRC vary according to molecular subtype.

Patients with advanced esophagogastric adenocarcinoma who received docetaxel as a second-line therapy experienced a longer period of overall survival as well as a better quality of life compared with patients who received active symptom control.

A retrospective analysis of the potential benefits of surgery following treatment with imatinib (Gleevec) suggests a clear benefit in both OS and PFS in patients with metastatic or recurrent GIST when compared with those who received imatinib therapy alone.