Gastrointestinal Cancer

Data from the final analysis of the phase 3 KEYNOTE-966 trial indicate that pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy yields improvements in overall survival compared with chemotherapy alone in patients with advanced biliary tract cancer.

Data from a ctDNA analysis of the phase 3 INTRIGUE study indicate that KIT mutational status may be associated with response to certain Tyrosine kinase inhibitors in GIST, according to an expert from the Yale Cancer Center in New Haven, Massachusetts.

An expert from the Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center indicates that findings from the ctDNA analysis of the phase 3 INTRIGUE study were “provocative” and that the subsequent phase 3 INSIGHT study has the potential to be practice changing should data be positive.

Findings from a phase 2 trial indicate that CTX-009 plus paclitaxel may produce an encouraging responses in patients with advanced biliary tract cancer, according to investigators.

Patients with advanced biliary tract cancer experience modest clinical benefit following treatment with atezolizumab and cisplatin/gemcitabine with or without bevacizumab.

Patients with newly diagnosed, advanced biliary tract cancers do not have a statistically significant survival benefit following treatment with nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine and cisplatin.

Patients with previously untreated advanced gastric cancer, gastroesophageal junction cancer, and esophageal adenocarcinoma continue to benefit from treatment with nivolumab and chemotherapy.

Long-term survival benefit is seen in patients with treatment-naïve advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma who were treated with nivolumab plus chemotherapy or ipilimumab.

Investigators report benefit in patients with CLDN18.2-positive, HER2-negative locally advanced unresectable or metastatic gastric/gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma treated with first-line zolbetuximab and mFOLFOX6.

HER-Vaxx with standard-of-care chemotherapy yielded benefit in patients with HER2-overexpressing metastatic or advanced gastric/gastroesophaeal junction adenocarcinoma.

Findings from the phase 3 INTRIGUE trial highlighted improved median progression-free survival in patients with KIT exon–mutated gastrointestinal stromal tumors compared with sunitinib.

Positive topline data from the phase 2b HERIZON-BTC-01 trial indicate zanidatamab may improve outcomes for patients with HER2-amplified and expressing biliary tract cancers.

Future research into the management of unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma may involve combining local therapies with checkpoint inhibitors like durvalumab and tremelimumab, according to Ghassan K. Abou-Alda, MD.

Patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma who have recurrent disease following surgery or locally advanced diseases who will likely progress on local therapy may have an opportunity to benefit from tremelimumab and durvalumab following its FDA approval, according to Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD.

Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, discusses the importance of improving access to novel therapies and combinations for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma across the world.

Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, spoke about the recent approval of tremelimumab plus durvalumab for patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma, based on results from the phase 3 HIMALAYA trial.

Patients with gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors may benefit from treatment with radionucleotide therapeutic 177Lu-edotreotide, which received fast track designation from the FDA.

Results from a randomized controlled trial highlighted that the TissueCypher Barrett’s Esophagus Test heightened accuracy for assessing progression risk in high-grade dysplasia and esophageal adenocarcinoma among patients with Barrett’s esophagus.

Results from the phase 2 IMMUCHEC trial indicated that tremelimumab with or without durvalumab did not meet the primary end point of improved objective response rate vs chemotherapy in patients with treatment-naïve biliary tract cancer.

The FDA has granted orphan drug designation to second-line GNS561 following the completion of a phase 1/2a trial evaluating the novel PPT1 inhibitor in liver cancer and cholangiocarcinoma.

Findings from the phase 1/2 ReFocus study highlighted that RLY-4008 is a potentially transformative agent for the treatment of FGFR inhibitor–naïve, FGFR-mutant cholangiocarcinoma.

Long-term follow-up of the phase 2 DESTINY-Gastric02 study revealed fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki continues to show promise in locally advanced or metastatic HER2-positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.

Patients with locally advanced or metastatic biliary tract cancer can now receive treatment with durvalumab plus gemcitabine following the combination’s approval by the FDA.

“...we don’t focus on survivorship enough. It’s important to understand the other factors involved in surviving besides just a treatment.”

Patients with ERBB2-positive esophagogastric adenocarcinoma appeared to experience improved efficacy following treatment with a combination of trastuzumab and nivolumab plus leucovorin, fluorouracil, and oxaliplatin vs historical data.

Stacy Stein, MD, and co-investigators, research omalizumab to treat oxaliplatin hypersensitivity reactions for patients with gastrointestinal cancers.

The FDA has delayed the decision to approve tislelizumab monotherapy for patients with advanced or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma following prior systemic therapy, due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Howard A. Burris, MD, highlighted previous findings of the phase 3 TOPAZ-1 trial assessing durvalumab plus gemcitabine and cisplatin vs placebo plus gemcitabine and cisplatin in advanced biliary tract cancer and patient-reported outcomes data that were presented at 2022 ASCO.

In this month's Letter to the Readers, ONCOLOGY co-editor-in-chief Howard S. Hochster, MD, discusses oxaliplatin hypersensitivity reaction in gastrointestinal cancer.

The phase 3 RATIONALE 306 trial showed improved overall survival for patients receiving tislelizumab plus chemotherapy vs placebo and chemotherapy for unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma regardless of PD-L1 status.