2019 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium
Study Finds Shorter Treatment Course for Rectal Cancer May Actually Improve Outcomes
In patients with locally advanced rectal cancer, the delivery of all radiotherapy and chemotherapy neoadjuvantly—with a shorter course of radiation—may improve the chance of complete response and down...
KEYNOTE-181: Pembrolizumab vs Chemotherapy in Second-Line Treatment of Advanced Esophageal Cancer
IN THE GLOBAL phase III KEYNOTE-181 trial, pembrolizumab as second-line therapy for advanced esophageal cancer did not improve overall survival in the whole population, vs chemotherapy, but did impro...
CELESTIAL Trial in Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Analysis on Quality-Adjusted Life-Years
ON JANUARY 14, 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved cabozantinib, an orally available receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor, for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who have been...
Trends in Neoadjuvant Therapy for Resectable Pancreatic Cancer
SEVERAL STUDIES at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium evaluated the benefits of neoadjuvant treatment in patients with pancreatic cancer—and in patients deemed fully resectable, not just “bor...
New Data in Colorectal, Neuroendocrine, Gastric, and Hepatocellular Cancers
THE ANNUAL GASTROINTESTINAL CANCERS SYMPOSIUM took place earlier this year in San Francisco. In addition to important studies captured in our past few issues, The ASCO Post here briefly summarizes add...
Study Shows Limited Antitumor Activity of Pembrolizumab in Neuroendocrine Tumors
Neuroendocrine tumors appear resistant to single-agent immunotherapy, according to the results of the KEYNOTE-028 trial of pembrolizumab. “Pembrolizumab monotherapy showed limited antitumor activity b...
Mutations in DNA Damage Repair Predict Benefit With Platinum Agents in Pancreatic Cancer
Patients with advanced pancreatic cancer who have homologous repair damage response mutations may derive considerable benefit from treatment with platinum agents, according to an analysis of patients ...
First-Line Trastuzumab Plus Pembrolizumab Shows Efficacy in Patients With Metastatic Esophagogastric Cancer
When added to first-line chemotherapy in patients with untreated metastatic HER2-positive esophageal, gastroesophageal junction, and gastric adenocarcinoma, the combination of pembrolizumab and trastu...
Andecaliximab in Untreated Gastric or Gastroesophageal Junction Cancer
The large phase III GAMMA-1 trial failed to replicate the encouraging findings from a previous smaller study of andecaliximab plus chemotherapy in untreated HER2-negative gastric or gastroesophageal j...
KEYNOTE-181: Pembrolizumab vs Chemotherapy in Second-Line Treatment of Advanced Esophageal Cancer
In the global phase III KEYNOTE-181 trial, pembrolizumab as second-line therapy for advanced esophageal cancer did not improve overall survival in the whole population, vs chemotherapy, but did impro...
Rongbo Lin, MD, on Gastric Cancer: Results From the FNF-004 Trial
Rongbo Lin, MD, of Fujian Cancer Hospital, discusses phase II study findings on FOLFOX alone vs paclitaxel plus FOLFOX vs intraperitoneal paclitaxel plus FOLFOX as a first-line treatment in advanced g...
Andrew X. Zhu, MD, PhD, on Pancreatic Cancer: Results From the Prep-02/JSAP-05 Trial
Andrew X. Zhu, MD, PhD, of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, discusses phase II/III study findings on neoadjuvant chemotherapy with gemcitabine and S-1 vs upfront surgery for resectabl...
Pieter Tanis, MD, PhD, on Colon Cancer: Results From the COLOPEC Trial on Adjuvant HIPEC
Pieter Tanis, MD, PhD, of Amsterdam University Medical Centers, discusses study findings on adjuvant hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in patients with colon cancer who are at high ris...
Francesca Battaglin, MD, on Colorectal Cancer: Using Genetic Variants to Predict Treatment Efficacy
Francesca Battaglin, MD, of the University of Southern California Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses phase III study data on genetic variants used to predict the efficacy of cetuximab in pa...
Takashi Kojima, MD, on Esophageal Cancer: Results From the KEYNOTE-181 Trial on Immunotherapy vs Chemotherapy
Takashi Kojima, MD, of the National Cancer Center Hospital East, discusses phase III study findings on pembrolizumab vs chemotherapy as second-line treatment for advanced esophageal cancer (Abstract 2...
Jonathan R. Strosberg, MD, on Neuroendocrine Tumors: Results From the KEYNOTE-158 Trial on PD-1 Inhibition
Jonathan R. Strosberg, MD, of the Moffitt Cancer Center, discusses phase II study findings on pembrolizumab as a treatment for advanced neuroendocrine tumors (Abstract 190).
Andrew X. Zhu, MD, PhD, on Liver Cancer: Outcomes in the REFLECT Study on Lenvatinib
Andrew X. Zhu, MD, PhD, of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, discusses an analysis of survival and objective response in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who took part in a phase...
Jeffrey A. Meyerhardt, MD, MPH, on Colon Cancer: Results From the ACTS-CC 02 Trial on Adjuvant Chemotherapy
Jeffrey A. Meyerhardt, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses phase III study findings on S-1/oxaliplatin vs uracil and tegafur/leucovorin as adjuvant chemotherapy for high-risk stage III...
Heinz-Josef Lenz, MD, on Pancreatic Cancer Tumor Profiling and Treatment Response: Results From the COMPASS Trial
Heinz-Josef Lenz, MD, discusses molecular profiling and response to chemotherapy in the COMPASS study, which was designed to evaluate the feasibility of using genomic sequencing in pancreatic cancer c...
Carl C. Schimanski, MD, PhD, on Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastases: Study Results on Tecemotide After Surgery
Carl C. Schimanski, MD, PhD, of the Municipal Hospital Darmstadt, discusses phase II study findings on adjuvant immunotherapy with tecemotide after colorectal cancer liver metastasectomy (Abstract 480...
Heinz-Josef Lenz, MD, on BRAF V600E–Mutated Biliary Tract Cancer: Results From the ROAR Basket Trial
Heinz-Josef Lenz, MD, of the University of Southern California Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the efficacy and safety of dabrafenib and trametinib in patients with BRAF V600E–mutated bi...
Ahmed Omar Kaseb, MD, on Liver Cancer: Results From an Immunotherapy Trial
Ahmed Omar Kaseb, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses phase II study findings on nivolumab alone vs nivolumab plus ipilimumab in patients with resectable hepatocellular...
Manish A. Shah, MD, on Gastric Cancer: Results From the GAMMA-1 Study on First-Line Combination Therapy
Manish A. Shah, MD, of NewYork–Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, discusses phase III data on the efficacy and safety of andecaliximab combined with mFOLFOX6 as first-line treatment in patient...
David H. Ilson, MD, PhD, on Gastric Cancer: Results From the TAGS Study on Third-Line Trifluridine/Tipiracil
David H. Ilson, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses findings on the efficacy and safety of third-line trifluridine/tipiracil in patients with metastatic gastric cancer with o...
2019 GI Cancers Symposium: Rectal Cancer Treated With Total Neoadjuvant Therapy Plus Short-Course Radiation vs Concurrent Chemoradiation
The delivery of all radiotherapy and chemotherapy neoadjuvantly—also known as total neoadjuvant therapy—has improved complete response and downstaging rates compared to treatment after sur...
2019 GI Cancers Symposium: Is Adjuvant HIPEC Effective in Reducing the Risk of Peritoneal Metastases in Patients With Colon Cancer?
Patients with advanced or perforated colon cancer may be at elevated risk of peritoneal metastases. Since many patients with peritoneal metastases are diagnosed at a late stage, researchers sought to ...
2019 GI Cancers Symposium: Pembrolizumab in Pretreated, Advanced Neuroendocrine Tumors
Findings from the phase I KEYNOTE-028 trial, which studied pembrolizumab in a number of solid tumors, showed activity of the immunotherapy in some patients with heavily pretreated neuroendocrine tumor...
2019 GI Cancers Symposium: Durvalumab, Tremelimumab, and Best Supportive Care vs Best Supportive Care Alone in Advanced, Refractory Colorectal Cancer
The phase II CCTG CO.26 trial evaluated whether the combination of durvalumab, a programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor, and tremelimumab, an anti–cytotoxic T-lymphocyte–associat...
2019 GI Cancers Symposium: Pembrolizumab in Second-Line Therapy for Advanced Esophageal Cancer
Pembrolizumab significantly improved overall survival in the second-line setting of advanced esophageal cancer in patients whose tumors tested positive for programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) with ...
2019 GI Cancers Symposium: Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy vs Upfront Surgery in Resectable Pancreatic Cancer
A phase II/III trial presented by Unno et al at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium (Abstract 189) sought to compare neoadjuvant chemotherapy (using gemcitabine and the oral fluoropyrimidine c...
2019 GI Cancers Symposium: Nivolumab vs Nivolumab Plus Ipilimumab in Resectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Anti–programmed cell death protein 1 and anti–cytotoxic T-lymphocyte–associated protein 4 antibodies have shown activity in hepatocellular carcinoma. Based on these earlier findings,...
2019 GI Cancers Symposium: Safety, Efficacy of Trifluridine/Tipiracil in Metastatic Gastric Cancer With or Without Gastrectomy
In a poster session earlier today David Ilson, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues reported on a preplanned subgroup analysis of the double-blind phase III TAGS study looking...
2019 GI Cancers Symposium: Addition of Andecaliximab to mFOLFOX6 in Treatment-Naive Advanced Gastric or GEJ Adenocarcinoma
A phase I/Ib study found that the addition of andecaliximab, a monoclonal antibody that inhibits matrix metalloproteinase 9, to modified fluorouracil (5-FU), leucovorin, and oxaliplatin (mFOLFOX6)&nbs...
