Gastrointestinal Cancer

The medical oncologist at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, spoke about the progress seen in gastrointestinal cancer research in 2020, as well as what improvements he hopes will occur in 2021.

This study indicated that appendiceal cancer diagnosed among younger individuals harbors a distinct genomic landscape, as compared with appendiceal cancer diagnosed among older individuals.

The FDA granted priority review to a new supplemental biologics license application for pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in combination with chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of patients with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic esophageal and gastroesophageal junction cancer.

The agent’s new drug application will be reviewed under the FDA’s Real Time Oncology Review pilot program and under Project Orbis.

A recent study found that rural non-Hispanic whites and blacks have experienced increased HCC case incidence rates, while urban areas have seen the rate decline since 2009.

Data from a Japanese cohort of patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis suggested ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) was significantly associated with reduced mortality or need for liver transplantation and was also likely to be associated with a reduction of biliary tract cancer.

“These results bring us one step closer to the first potential targeted therapy for advanced gastric cancer in over a decade,” said Helen Collins, MD.

The FDA granted priority review to the supplemental biologics license application for trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu) for the treatment of patients with HER2-positive metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.

Researchers indicated that this economic evaluation supports the widespread adoption of standard genetic testing for newly diagnosed patients with metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors.

The expert from the Otto J. Ruesch Center for the Cure of Gastrointestinal Cancers discussed precision medicine with regard to cancer care, as well as the need to make such care more accessible for the global community.

The study is evaluating the efficacy and safety of sintilimab injection in combination with bevacizumab biosimilar injection compared to sorafenib in the first-line treatment of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

Hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy with oxaliplatin, fluorouracil, and leucovorin significantly improved overall survival compared with transarterial chemoembolization in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

The addition of nivolumab (Opdivo) to chemotherapy resulted in a statistically significant improvement in PFS and evoked higher ORRs in patients with previously untreated advanced or recurrent gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancer.

The designation was granted to DKN-01 for the treatment of patients with gastric and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma whose tumors express high levels of DKK1.

The combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and chemotherapy led to a statistically significant survival benefit among previously untreated patients with PD-L1–positive advanced gastric cancer, gastroesophageal junction cancer, and esophageal adenocarcinoma.

Frontline pembrolizumab (Keytruda) plus chemotherapy significantly improved overall survival, progression-free survival, and objective response rates compared with chemotherapy alone in patients with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic esophageal cancer.

The medical oncologist spoke about the need to make next-generation sequencing available to all patients with gastrointestinal cancer.

The combination immunotherapy was associated with significant positive outcomes among patients with gallbladder carcinoma and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.

Researchers indicated that results of this study suggest the combination of dabrafenib and trametinib could serve as a much-needed treatment option for patients with BRAFV600E-mutated biliary tract cancer.

The trial is evaluating pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in combination with cisplatin plus 5-fluorouracil for the first-line treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic esophageal cancer.

Bristol Myers Squibb’s CheckMate-577 trial, which evaluated nivolumab to treat patients with resected esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer, met the primary end point of disease-free survival.

This study found that smoking was associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer incidence and mortality, while not drinking was correlated with a stronger beneficial effect of garlic supplementation on gastric cancer prevention.

In this multi-institutional study, regorafenib demonstrated modest clinical efficacy in heavily pretreated patients with biliary tract cancer.

The co-leader of the NCI Center for Cancer Research Liver Cancer Program discussed the clinical utility of the blood test and how it could potentially change liver cancer diagnoses moving forward.

Merck and Eisai announced that the FDA issued a complete response letter to its accelerated approval applications for the combination use of pembrolizumab plus lenvatinib to treat patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

In this open-label, randomized, phase 2 trial, treatment with trastuzumab deruxtecan led to significant improvements in response and overall survival in patients with HER2-positive gastric cancer.

Researchers have developed a new blood test that may help in identifying individuals who are likely to develop hepatocellular carcinoma.

The FDA approved nivolumab for the treatment of patients with unresectable advanced, recurrent or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma after prior fluoropyrimidine- and platinum-based chemotherapy.

The FDA approved atezolizumab in combination with bevacizumab for the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma who have not received prior systemic therapy.

Patients with pretreated microsatellite instability-high cancers treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors were found to have high activity, independent of tumor type and drug used.