An updated analysis of a randomized phase III trial showed that taking a high dose of the acid-reducing medicine esomeprazole with low-dose aspirin for at least 7 years can moderately reduce the risk of developing high-grade dysplasia or esophageal cancer and delay death from any cause in people...
Very small differences in the way a patient lies during radiotherapy treatment for lung or esophageal cancer can have an impact on survival, according to research presented at the European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology (ESTRO) 37 Conference (Abstract OC-0322). These differences of only a...
In the Scandinavian phase III CRITICS trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Cats et al found no benefit of postoperative chemoradiotherapy vs chemotherapy among patients with gastric cancer who had received neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Compliance with postoperative regimens was poor in both groups....
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Fuchs et al, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) showed activity in patients with previously treated advanced gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancer in the phase II KEYNOTE-059 trial. Study Details In the study, 259 patients from sites in 16 countries who had disease...
Esophageal cancer is the eighth most common cancer worldwide, with an estimated 456,000 new cases in 2012, and the sixth most common cause of death from cancer with an estimated 400,000 deaths, according to data from GLOBOCAN, which provides statistics on the incidence and mortality of cancer...
Patients with esophageal cancer who refuse surgery when it is recommended are less likely to survive long term than similar groups of patients who undergo an operation, according to research presented by Ghaly et al at the 54th Annual Meeting of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (P78). ...
Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers developed a single blood test that screens for eight common cancer types and also helps identify the location of the cancer. The test, called CancerSEEK, is a unique noninvasive, multianalyte test that simultaneously evaluates levels of eight cancer...
Abraham J. Wu, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses his findings that suggest efforts to reduce lung dose, such as shrinking the treatment volumes or using proton therapy, may improve outcomes in esophageal cancer (Abstract 3).
Maria Svensson, MD, PhD Candidate, of Lund University, discusses high expression of PD-1 and PD-L1 in chemotherapy-naive esophageal and gastric adenocarcinomas, the implications for survival, and the link to a deficiency in mismatched repair genes (Abstract 9).
Pieter van der Sluis, MD, PhD, of the University Medical Center Utrecht, discusses study findings that compared robot-assisted minimally invasive thoracolaparoscopic esophagectomy vs open transthoracic esophagectomy for resectable esophageal cancer (Abstract 6).
Manish A. Shah, MD, of Weill Cornell Medicine, discusses phase III study findings on cisplatin plus capecitabine or fluorouracil with or without ramucirumab as first-line therapy in patients with metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma (Abstract 5).
David H. Ilson, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the merits of preoperative chemotherapy vs chemoradiotherapy, the role of targeted agents, recent results from genomic profiling, and whether PET scans can guide neoadjuvant treatment.
Basem Azab, MD, of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami, discusses the impact on overall survival when more than 2 months elapse between finishing neoadjuvant therapy and undergoing esophagectomy (Abstract 2).
The phase III KEYNOTE-061 trial investigating pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as a second-line treatment for patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma did not meet its primary endpoint of overall survival (OS) (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.82, 95% confidence interval [CI] = ...
An analysis of bacteria present in the mouth showed that some types of bacteria that lead to periodontal disease were associated with higher risk of esophageal cancer, according to a study published by Peters et al in Cancer Research. Esophageal cancer is the eighth most common cancer and the...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved trastuzumab-dkst (Ogivri) as a biosimilar to trastuzumab (Herceptin) for the treatment of patients with breast or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma whose tumors overexpress the HER2 gene. The drug is the first...
On November 28, Merck KGaA and Pfizer announced that the phase III JAVELIN Gastric 300 trial did not meet its primary endpoint of superior overall survival with single-agent avelumab (Bavencio) compared with physician's choice of chemotherapy. The trial investigated avelumab as a third-line...
An analysis in the Dutch Chemoradiotherapy for Esophageal Cancer Followed by Surgery Study (CROSS) reported by Noordman et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology showed no adverse effect of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy vs surgery alone on postsurgery health-related quality of life in patients with ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Doi et al, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) showed activity in patients with previously treated advanced esophageal carcinoma in the phase Ib multicohort KEYNOTE-028 study. Study Details In the study, eligible patients with squamous cell carcinoma or...
In a propensity score–matched analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Mokdad et al found that adjuvant chemotherapy had a survival benefit vs observation after preoperative chemoradiotherapy and resection in patients with locally advanced gastroesophageal cancer. Study Details The study...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved bevacizumab-awwb (Mvasi) as a biosimilar to bevacizumab (Avastin) for the treatment of multiple types of cancer. Bevacizumab-awwb is the first biosimilar approved in the U.S. for the treatment of cancer. “Bringing new biosimilars to...
The superiority of docetaxel-based triplet therapy over standard of care in patients with resectable esophagogastric cancer has been confirmed in late-breaking results from the FLOT4 trial presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract LBA27_PR)....
Patients requiring surgery for esophageal cancer fare better after undergoing a hybrid minimally invasive esophagostomy compared to an open esophagostomy, according to long-term results of the MIRO trial presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract ...
Female patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer treated with chemotherapy and radiation therapy before surgery are more likely to have a favorable response to the treatment than male patients are, and women are less likely to experience cancer recurrence, according to a study published by...
A UK phase III trial (UK MRC OE05) has shown no significant survival benefit of extended and intensified neoadjuvant chemotherapy with epirubicin, cisplatin, and capecitabine vs standard cisplatin/fluorouracil followed by resection in patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma. The findings were...
The phase III NRG Oncology RTOG 0436 trial has shown no survival benefit of adding cetuximab (Erbitux) to paclitaxel/cisplatin and radiation therapy in patients with esophageal cancer treated without surgery. These results were reported by Suntharalingam et al in JAMA Oncology. Study Details In...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Shah et al, the phase IIIB HELOISE trial has shown no survival benefit of high-dose vs standard trastuzumab (Herceptin) maintenance plus chemotherapy in the first-line treatment of metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma....
As reported by Petty et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, analysis of outcomes in the UK phase III Cancer Esophagus Gefitinib trial showed an overall survival benefit with second-line gefitinib (Iressa) in patients with advanced esophageal cancer who had epidermal growth factor receptor...
Salah-Eddin Al-Batran, MD, of the Institute of Clinical Cancer Research Krankenhaus Nordwest, discusses phase III study findings on perioperative chemotherapy with docetaxel, oxaliplatin, and fluorouracil/leucovorin vs epirubicin, cisplatin, and fluorouracil or capecitabine for resectable gastric...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review a supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for pembrolizumab (Keytruda) seeking approval for treatment of patients with recurrent or advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma who have already...
Radiotherapy alone is often used to treat early-stage glottic cancer. However, the optimal radiation treatment schedule remains unknown. Both hypofractionated radiotherapy and conventionally fractionated radiotherapy are recommended treatment options. In an attempt to compare differences in overall ...
The adaptive phase II/III GATSBY trial has shown no survival difference between ado-trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) vs taxane treatment in patients with previously treated locally advanced or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. Results were reported by Thuss-Patience et...
In a Japanese phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Kudo et al found that nivolumab (Opdivo) had activity in heavily pretreated patients with advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Study Details In the study, with enrollment between February and November 2014, 65 patients...
Patients with esophageal cancer who suffer sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass) during neoadjuvant chemotherapy survive, on average, 32 months less than patients with no sarcopenia. This is the central finding of a recent study conducted at the Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) of MedUni Vienna and...
In the UK Medical Research Council ST03 phase II/III trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Cunningham et al found that adding bevacizumab (Avastin) to perioperative chemotherapy did not improve survival in patients with operable esophagogastric cancer and may have been associated with impaired...
A test that measures the levels of five chemicals in the breath has shown promising results for the detection of cancers of the esophagus and stomach in a large patient trial presented by Markar et al at the 2017 European Cancer Congress (Abstract 6LBA). Together, stomach and esophageal...
Ian Chau, MD, of the Royal Marsden Hospital, discusses the continuum of care in esophageal and gastric cancers and the multiple active lines of treatment. Routine adoption of genomic testing may lead to further refinement of current treatment and more options in the future.
Geoffrey Ku, MD, MBA, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the promise of immunotherapy drugs and the search for biomarkers that will help identify patients more likely to respond, not only to these medications, but to combinations of immunotherapies, other targeted treatments,...
Karyn A. Goodman, MD, of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, discusses initial study findings on PET scan–directed combined-modality therapy for esophageal cancer (Abstract 1).
Results of the ONO-4538-12 trial demonstrated that nivolumab (Opdivo) significantly reduced the risk of death by 37% (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.63; P < .0001) in patients with previously treated advanced gastric cancer refractory to or intolerant of standard therapy, a condition without current ...
Findings from a federally funded clinical trial—CALGB 80803 (Alliance)—point to a new way to improve the outlook for patients with esophageal cancer: using positron-emission tomography (PET) scans to assess tumor response to initial chemotherapy may allow doctors to tailor further...
A new integrated genomic study by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network identified genetic alterations that distinguish the two most common subtypes of esophageal cancer. Esophageal cancer is a rare cancer in the United States, but the 8th most frequently diagnosed cancer worldwide. It...
As reported by Angela N. Bartley, MD, of St Joseph Mercy Hospital, Ann Arbor, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the College of American Pathologists (CAP), the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), and ASCO have released a guideline on HER2 testing and clinical...
In the phase II portion of a German phase II/III trial (FLOT4) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Al-Batran et al found that preoperative docetaxel-based vs anthracycline-based triplet therapy produced a higher complete histopathologic regression rate in patients with resectable gastric or...
Among Japanese patients with esophageal cancer, those whose cancer tested positive for DNA from the bacterium Fusobacterium nucleatum had shorter cancer-specific survival compared with those whose cancer had no DNA from the bacterium, according to study results published by Yamamura et al in...
In a secondary analysis of a clinical trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Chu et al found that use of proton pump inhibitors (gastric acid suppressants) reduced the effectiveness of oral capecitabine in patients with advanced gastroesophageal cancer. The study involved analysis of the effect of...
Martin H. Schuler, MD, of the University Hospital Essen, discusses in German findings from this phase II trial of epirubicin, oxaliplatin, and capecitabine with or without the antibody IMAB362 as first-line therapy in patients with advanced CLDN18.2+ disease. (Abstract 614O)
Martin H. Schuler, MD, of the University Hospital Essen, discusses findings from this phase II trial of epirubicin, oxaliplatin, and capecitabine with or without the antibody IMAB362 as first-line therapy in patients with advanced CLDN18.2+ disease. (Abstract 614O)
As reported in The Lancet Oncology, Gharahkhani et al identified several new genetic risk variants for the development of Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma through a large-scale meta-analysis of genome-wide studies. Study Details The study involved a meta-analysis of four...
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute scientists have shown that unexpectedly, esophageal cancer cells do not divide faster than their normal neighbors. Unlike normal cells, however, the tumor cells produce slightly more dividing daughter cells than nondividing cells, forming a tumor. The study,...