In a Japanese phase III trial (TOPIC-NEC) reported in JAMA Oncology, Morizane et al found no difference in overall survival with etoposide/cisplatin (EP) vs irinotecan/cisplatin (IP) in chemotherapy-naive patients with advanced digestive system neuroendocrine carcinoma. Study Details The open-label ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Thierry André, MD, and colleagues, the French (GERCOR) phase II NEONIPIGA trial has shown a high pathologic complete response rate with nivolumab/ipilimumab neoadjuvant therapy in patients with localized deficient mismatch repair...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Bauer et al, the phase III INTRIGUE trial showed no significant progression-free survival benefit with second-line ripretinib vs sunitinib in imatinib-pretreated patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), including among patients with KIT ...
In the 5-year follow-up of the Korean KLASS-02 trial reported in JAMA Surgery, Son et al found similar 5-year overall survival and relapse-free survival among patients with R0 resection using laparoscopic vs open distal gastrectomy in patients with locally advanced gastric cancer. Late...
In 1996, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) published its first set of Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology® covering eight tumor types. Guidelines are now published for more than 60 tumor types, subtypes, and topics. During the NCCN’s 27th Annual Conference, which was again...
Gulam A. Manji, MD, PhD, of Columbia University Medical Center, discusses phase II results on perioperative combination chemotherapy and pembrolizumab in patients with resectable gastric cancer. The combination appeared to result in many complete pathologic responses (Abstract CT009).
Black adult patients are more likely than White patients to receive substandard gastrointestinal cancer surgery, according to a large study led by researchers at Yale Cancer Center published by Bakkila et al in JAMA Network Open. “The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light previously reported race...
As reported in Nature by Yelena Y. Janjigian, MD, of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues, the first interim analysis of the phase III KEYNOTE-811 trial has shown a significantly higher objective response rate with the addition of...
Over the past year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted approval to several novel drugs and new indications for older therapeutic agents used in gastrointestinal oncology. Cetuximab Plus Encorafenib On September 28, 2021, cetuximab (Erbitux) was approved in combination with encorafenib...
As reported in The Lancet by Yelena Y. Janjigian, MD, of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues, the phase III CheckMate 649 trial has shown that the addition of first-line nivolumab to chemotherapy resulted in improved overall and...
Although appendectomy is still the most effective treatment for acute appendicitis, nonoperative management is increasingly common, as recent studies—such as one published in November 2020 in The New England Journal of Medicine and a second published in December 2021 in the same journal—have shown...
In a meta-analysis of population-based studies reported in JAMA Network Open, Elmahdi et al found that although the reported incidence of cancers in individuals with pediatric-onset inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is low, the condition is associated with a significantly increased risk of cancers...
Stefano Cascinu, MD, of the Comprehensive Cancer Center, Università Vita-Salute, IRCCS-Ospedale San Raffaele, Milan, Italy, was the invited discussant of KEYNOTE-5901 and CheckMate 649.2 “These landmark studies could change the treatment paradigm of advanced esophageal and gastric cancers. They...
Updates of landmark trials of immune checkpoint inhibitors as first-line therapy for advanced HER2-negative esophagogastric cancers were presented at the 2022 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. The studies upheld previous findings of an overall survival benefit when these agents are paired...
Updates of phase II studies evaluating fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) in gastrointestinal cancers were presented at the 2022 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, continuing to offer support for the antibody-drug conjugate in these malignancies. In HER2-expressing gastric cancer, T-DXd...
As reported in Nature by Yelena Y. Janjigian, MD, and colleagues, the first interim analysis of the phase III KEYNOTE-811 trial has shown a significantly higher objective response rate with the addition of pembrolizumab to trastuzumab and chemotherapy in patients with previously untreated advanced ...
A disease control rate of 100% was achieved in gastrointestinal cancers treated with the KRAS G12C inhibitor adagrasib in the phase II KRYSTAL-1 trial, presented at the 2022 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.1 The population included primarily those with pancreatic cancer; other noncolorectal ...
The era of precision oncology, in which molecular biomarkers are used to help guide drug delivery, has dovetailed with the emerging issues of value-based care and cost containment. To shed light on these issues and more, The ASCO Post spoke with Hanna K. Sanoff, MD, MPH, Clinical Medical Director...
In a single-center phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chi et al found that the combination of the MET inhibitor binimetinib and the KIT inhibitor imatinib produced a high response rate in patients with previously untreated advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumor. As stated ...
Francesca Battaglin, MD, of USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Keck School of Medicine, discusses findings from one of the largest studies to investigate recurrent neoantigens in upper gastrointestinal cancers. Dr. Battaglin and her team identified peptides with high human leukocyte antigen–binding affinity and an association with a positive tumor inflammation signature in both microsatellite-instable and microsite-stable tumors, suggesting a role for such antigens as potential cancer immunotherapy targets (Abstract 246).
Zev A. Wainberg, MD, of the University of California, Los Angeles, discusses an update, of 25 additional months, on phase III safety and efficacy results from the KEYNOTE-062 trial. This study compared pembrolizumab with or without chemotherapy vs chemotherapy alone for patients with PD-L1–positive advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma (Abstract 243).
In the INTRIGUE trial, the tyrosine kinase inhibitor ripretinib was not superior to sunitinib in the second-line treatment of patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST); however, the agent was better tolerated. These findings were presented by Michael C. Heinrich, MD, FACP, and...
Yu Sunakawa, MD, PhD, of Japan’s St. Marianna University School of Medicine, discusses his findings from the DELIVER trial, which suggest the gut microbiome may predict skin toxicities in patients with advanced gastric cancer who are treated with nivolumab. In addition, some single nucleotide polymorphisms, such as NOTCH1, SEMA4D, NLRC5, and IL-6R genes, may potentially become markers for diarrhea and skin toxicities with this agent.
Kohei Shitara, MD, of Japan’s National Cancer Center Hospital East, discusses a long-term data follow-up from CheckMate 649, which support the continued use of nivolumab plus chemotherapy as first-line treatment in patients with advanced gastric, gastroesophageal junction, and esophageal adenocarcinomas (Abstract 240).
In an Asian phase II/III trial (ATTRACTION-4) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Yoon-Koo Kang, MD, and colleagues found that the addition of nivolumab to oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy improved progression-free survival—but not overall survival—as first-line treatment of HER2-negative, unresectable, ...
A study published by Deng et al in JAMA Network Open showed that chemotherapy after surgery for gastric adenocarcinoma was significantly associated with longer survival in patients with chemosensitive disease, but not in those with very sensitive or refractory disease. These findings suggest that...
In a case-control study reported in JAMA Oncology, Minkyo Song, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that seropositivity for gastric antiparietal cell antibodies (APCAs) was associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer among younger Finnish women who were seronegative for antibodies to Helicobacter ...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Zhao et al found that the addition of an immune checkpoint inhibitor to chemotherapy in trials of first-line treatment of advanced gastric or esophageal adenocarcinoma was not associated with benefit in low PD-L1–expressing subgroups not...
In a Dutch cohort study (PLASTIC) reported in JAMA Surgery, Gertsen et al found that staging laparoscopy provided more diagnostic information resulting in change of treatment intent than F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) in patients with...
The invited discussant of this study on patient-reported outcomes, Areej El-Jawahri, MD, Associate Director of Cancer Outcomes Research and Education Program and Director of Bone Marrow Transplant Survivorship Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, said these findings underscore the importance...
According to data presented during the 2021 ASCO Quality Care Symposium,1 1-month changes in patient-reported outcomes may predict treatment response and survival outcomes in patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancers. The results of a prospective study of 159 patients with metastatic...
As reported in JAMA Surgery by Huang et al, the Chinese phase III CLASS-01 trial has shown no difference in 5-year overall survival in patients with locally advanced gastric cancer who underwent laparoscopic vs open distal gastrectomy. The previously reported primary analysis of the trial showed no ...
In a single-institution prospective cohort study reported in JAMA Surgery, Gamble et al found that patients with hereditary lobular breast cancer due to CDH1 variants also had a high prevalence of occult signet ring cell gastric carcinoma. Study Details The study involved 283 patients from 151...
In a study reported in JAMA Network Open, Kuzuu et al found that the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan was associated with reduced rates of new diagnoses, as well as reduced rates of diagnosis at earlier stages, for some gastrointestinal cancers. Study Details The retrospective cohort study included data...
Katherine Van Loon, MD, MPH, was raised in Miami, until the age of 12, and then her family relocated to Atlanta, where she spent her junior and high school years. “If you ask my parents about my decision to become a doctor, they will say I first declared it at age 5. Nobody knew how that idea came...
In the primary analysis of the phase II DESTINY-Gastric02 trial, fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) produced clinically meaningful and durable responses in Western patients with advanced HER2-positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancers whose disease had progressed after a...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Yoon-Koo Kang, MD, and colleagues, the phase III VOYAGER trial showed no improvement in progression-free survival with avapritinib vs regorafenib as third- or later-line treatment of patients with molecularly unselected, locally advanced,...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Teh et al found that regionalization of gastric cancer care in a U.S. integrated health-care system resulted in the increased use of laparoscopic gastrectomy and D2 lymphadenectomy, as well as improved overall survival...
With the investigational checkpoint inhibitor tislelizumab, durable responses were achieved by some patients with previously treated advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, regardless of the number of prior lines of therapy, in the phase II RATIONALE 208 trial. These findings were presented during the...
In the Chinese phase III RESOLVE trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Zhang et al found that perioperative S-1/oxaliplatin was superior to—and adjuvant S-1/oxaliplatin was noninferior to—adjuvant capecitabine/oxaliplatin in terms of disease-free survival in patients undergoing D2 gastrectomy for...
A phase II study published by Kanwal Raghav, MBBS, MD, and colleagues in Cancer Discovery found that combination treatment with the PD-L1 inhibitor atezolizumab and the VEGF inhibitor bevacizumab was well tolerated and resulted in a 40% objective response rate in patients with advanced malignant...
In a phase Ib/IIa trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Wagner et al found that the combination of a type I KIT inhibitor, PLX9486, with the type II inhibitor sunitinib produced clinical benefit and improved progression-free survival rates in patients with refractory gastrointestinal stromal tumors...
Obese patients with colorectal cancer receive lower cumulative doses of adjuvant chemotherapy relative to their body surface area than nonobese patients, according to results from a large meta-analysis reported by Slawinski et al at the ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer 2021 (Abstract...
Trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki demonstrated clinically meaningful benefit across specific subgroups of patients with HER2-positive and HER2-low advanced gastric cancer, according to findings from a post hoc exploratory biomarker analysis presented by Kohei Shitara, MD, and colleagues at the ESMO World ...
In a retrospective analysis reported by researchers from the International Esodata Study Group (IESG) in JAMA Surgery, D’Journo et al developed a model for predicting risk of 90-day mortality following esophagectomy for patients with esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer. As stated by the...
In the Korean phase III PRODIGY trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Yoon-Koo Kang, MD, and colleagues found that the addition of neoadjuvant docetaxel, oxaliplatin, and S-1 (DOS) to D2 gastrectomy followed by adjuvant S-1 was associated with improved progression-free survival in...
As reported in The Lancet by Yelena Y. Janjigian, MD, and colleagues, the phase III CheckMate 649 trial has shown that the addition of first-line nivolumab to chemotherapy resulted in improved overall and progression-free survival among patients with advanced HER2-negative gastric, gastroesophageal ...
Clinical trial data show that adjuvant imatinib improves recurrence-free survival as well as overall survival, when administered for at least 3 years, among patients who undergo a macroscopically complete resection of a primary gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), Chandrajit P. Raut, MD, MSc,...
On January 15, 2021, the antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki was approved for treatment of adults with locally advanced or metastatic HER2-positive gastric or gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma who have received a prior trastuzumab-based regimen.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data...
In a perspective in The New England Journal of Medicine, Julia A. Beaver, MD, and Richard Pazdur, MD, of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Oncology Center of Excellence (OCE), discussed issues surrounding “dangling” accelerated approvals of anti–PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies—ie, approvals for...