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A team of researchers led by Naruihiko Ikoma, MD, MS, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, analyzed outcomes in 316 patients with gastric cancer to determine whether patients who had clinically positive nodal disease before preoperative therapy have...
Triplet therapy that inhibits the BRAF, MEK, and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathways appears promising in BRAF-mutated colorectal cancer, a malignancy that typically does not respond to BRAF inhibition alone. Early results from the BEACON CRC study showed a 48% response rate and an...
Along with full coverage of key presentations from the 2018 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, The ASCO Post brings our readers this additional news roundup. Side Matters in Colon Cancer One of the studies included in the global IDEA trial, which compared 3 vs 6 months of adjuvant chemotherapy in ...
On January 26, 2018, the radiolabeled somatostatin analog lutetium Lu-177 dotatate (Lutathera) was approved for the treatment of somatostatin receptor–positive gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, including foregut, midgut, and hindgut neuroendocrine tumors, in adults.1,2 Supporting...
In a study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Manzano et al found that unplanned rehospitalization within 30 days after gastrointestinal (GI) cancer hospitalization was more likely after medical vs surgical index hospitalizations among older patients. Some risk factors for...
STEPHEN LEONG, MD, of the University of Colorado Comprehensive Cancer Center, Aurora, discussed the RAINFALL findings at the symposium, commenting, “The study did meet its primary endpoint of progression-free survival; however, it was disappointing not to see a benefit in overall survival or...
BASED ON EFFICACY seen in the second-line setting for the treatment of metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, ramucirumab (Cyramza) was evaluated as first-line therapy in the international phase III RAINFALL trial. Although the study met its primary endpoint, with a 25%...
On January 26, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved lutetium Lu-177 dotatate (Lutathera) for the treatment of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs). The drug is indicated for adult patients with somatostatin receptor–positive GEP-NETs. GEP-NETs can be...
A type of cancer that occurs in the lower stomach has been increasing among some Americans under the age of 50, even though in the general population, the incidence of all stomach cancers has been declining for decades. These findings were published by Anderson et al in the Journal of the National...
On January 26, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved lutetium Lu-177 dotatate (Lutathera) for the treatment of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs). This is the first time a radiopharmaceutical has been approved for the treatment of GEP-NETs. Lu-177 dotatate is...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Sekhar and colleagues found that the increasing proportion of lymph node–positive disease associated with enhanced detection techniques has led to nodal stage migration in anal cancer, which may reduce prognostic discrimination on the basis of lymph...
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).
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).
Florian Lordick, MD, of the University Medicine Leipzig, discusses study findings on intraperitoneal immunotherapy with the antibody catumaxomab for patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis from gastric cancer (Abstract 4).
Khaldoun Almhanna, MD, MPH, of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, discusses the long-term outcome of a phase III study that explored the significance of extensive intraoperative peritoneal lavage in addition to standard treatment for ≥ T3 resectable gastric cancer (Abstract 1).
The monoclonal antibody ramucirumab (Cyramza) was evaluated as first-line therapy for the treatment of metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma in the international phase III RAINFALL trial. Charles Fuchs, MD, of Yale New Haven Health in Connecticut, presented findings...
Detailed results of the phase III CELESTIAL trial in patients with previously treated advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were presented in a late-breaking oral session by Abou-Alfa et al at the 2018 ASCO Gastrointestinal (GI) Cancers Symposium (Abstract 207). Study Findings In CELESTIAL,...
Findings from the phase II KEYNOTE-224 trial investigating the use of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma who were previously treated with sorafenib (Nexavar) were presented by Zhu et al at the 2018 Gastrointestinal (GI) Cancers Symposium in San Francisco...
In 2007, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified shift work with circadian disruption or chronodisruption as a probable human carcinogen. Now, a meta-analysis investigating whether long-term shift work increases the risks of common cancers in women has found that, overall, night...
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] = ...
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...
On September 22, 2017, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was granted accelerated approval for treatment of recurrent locally advanced or metastatic, gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma with tumors expressing programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1), as determined by a U.S. Food and Drug...
Dual HER2 targeting in metastatic gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancers did not significantly improve outcomes over trastuzumab (Herceptin) alone—both in combination with chemotherapy—according to the results of the phase III JACOB study reported at the 2017 European Society for Medical...
In the Asian phase III GOLD trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Bang et al found that the addition of olaparib (Lynparza) to paclitaxel did not significantly improve overall survival among patients with previously treated advanced gastric cancer, including those with...
In this roundup, The ASCO Post offers a glance at key findings from studies in noncolorectal gastrointestinal malignancies presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress from investigators around the world. Docetaxel-Based Triplet in Gastric Cancer The superiority of...
Invited discussant Eric Van Cutsem, MD, PhD, of University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium, commented that both ATTRACTION-02 and KEYNOTE-059 suggest that anti-PD [programmed cell death protein] antibodies have activity in advanced gastric cancer, but their findings differed with regard to the impact of ...
In updates of two important studies in metastatic gastric cancer reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress, nivolumab -(Opdivo) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) demonstrated activity—but to varying degrees and with some nuances. “Anti-PD [programmed cell death protein]...
In the CALGB 80101/Alliance trial, no difference in overall survival was found for adjuvant chemoradiotherapy with epirubicin, cisplatin, and fluorouracil (ECF) vs fluorouracil and leucovorin (5-FU/LV) after curative resection of gastric cancer. The findings were reported in the Journal of Clinical ...
In an Asian phase III trial (ONO-4538-12, ATTRACTION-2) reported in The Lancet, Kang et al found that nivolumab (Opdivo) produced an improvement in overall survival vs placebo in patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer who had disease refractory to or who were intolerant...
On September 22, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company announced that the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) approved nivolumab (Opdivo) for the treatment of unresectable advanced or recurrent gastric cancer which has progressed after chemotherapy. This approval was based on the phase III ...
The phase III RILOMET-1 trial showed no survival benefit of adding the MET inhibitor rilotumumab to first-line epirubicin, cisplatin, and capecitabine in patients with advanced MET-positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. These results were reported in The Lancet Oncology by...
On September 22, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for patients with recurrent locally advanced or metastatic, gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma whose tumors express programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) as...
On April 27, 2017, the indications for regorafenib (Stivarga) were expanded to include treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who have been previously treated with sorafenib (Nexavar).1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data The new approval was based on the finding of improved overall survival...
Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) has shown a promising response rate in patients with pretreated metastatic gastric cancer, according to late-breaking results from the KEYNOTE-059 trial presented at the 2017 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Madrid (Abstract LBA28_PR). The expected...
In a single-center experience reported in JAMA Surgery, Eng et al found that an increased intraoperative fluid rate was associated with increased perioperative morbidity in patients with peritoneal cancer undergoing cytoreductive surgery with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy. Study...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Pavel et al, no significant difference in deterioration of health-related quality of life was observed with everolimus (Afinitor) vs placebo in the phase III RADIANT-4 trial, which included patients with advanced nonfunctional well-differentiated...
In 2014, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project discovered there are four molecular subtypes of gastric cancer: Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), microsatellite instability, genomically stable, and chromosomal instability. However, their clinical significance is unknown. Now, a study by Bo Hwa Sohn, PhD,...
The results of the phase III NETTER-1 trial, recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine,1 have been met with great interest by clinicians who treat neuroendocrine tumors. In patients with advanced midgut lesions, treatment with the radiopharmaceutical lutetium Lu-177 dotatate...
The evidence from clinical trials has established that “side matters” when it comes to colorectal cancer outcomes. How do clinicians use this information in their practices? Christina Wu, MD, of Emory University, shared her thoughts with attendees at the 2017 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and ...
A meta-analysis of three randomized trials (FOXFIRE, SIRFLOX, and FOXFIRE-Global) indicates no overall survival benefit of adding first-line selective internal radiotherapy to chemotherapy in patients with liver metastases from colorectal cancer. The findings were reported by Wasan et al in The...
DURING JULY, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and its Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) made a number of approvals and recommendations on a variety of oncology products. Neratinib ON JULY 1 7, the FDA approved neratinib (Nerlynx) for the extended adjuvant treatment of adult...
Gastric cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death in both men and women worldwide. In 2014, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project discovered there are four molecular subtypes of gastric cancer: Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), microsatellite instability (MSI), genomically stable (GS), and...
The benefits of a Mediterranean diet are well known when it comes to colorectal protection, but it’s hard to know specifically what elements of the diet are the healthiest. Now a new study, presented by Fliss Isakov et al at the ESMO 19th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, suggests...
Patients with stage III colon cancer considered at low risk for recurrence may be treated effectively—and incur less neurotoxicity—with 3 months of an oxaliplatin-based regimen as compared with the standard 6 months, according to the results of the International Duration Evaluation of Adjuvant...
“While these results are clearly superior to historical controls, the study prompts a number of questions,” session moderator, Daniel G. Coit, MD, a surgical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, commented in an interview. “Nearly half of the patients received systemic ...
Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemoperfusion is efficacious when used as part of multimodality therapy for low-volume peritoneal metastases of gastric cancer, suggests a prospective single-arm phase II trial.1 Among the 19 patients enrolled, all of whom had stage IV disease with either...
Casali et al have reported 10-year progression-free and overall survival rates among patients with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) receiving imatinib at 400 or 800 mg/d in the phase III European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer,...
The incidence of colorectal cancer continues to increase among young adults, with the sharpest increase among those aged 20 to 29, according to a recent article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.1 This trend has been called disturbing and ominous, but the widely reported results of...
After an infection with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), the virus persists in the body throughout a person's lifetime, usually without causing any symptoms. About one-third of infected teenagers and young adults nevertheless develop infectious mononucleosis, which usually wears off after a few weeks. ...
Cancer cells often delete genes that normally suppress tumor formation. These deletions also may extend to neighboring genes, an event known as “collateral lethality,” which may create new options for the development of therapies for several cancers. Scientists at The University of Texas MD...