In the global phase III RAINBOW trial in patients with metastatic gastric cancer, the investigational monoclonal antibody ramucirumab significantly improved both progression-free and overall survival, when added to paclitaxel in second-line therapy, as reported at the 2014 Gastrointestinal Cancers...
This Clinical Trials Resource Guide is meant to increase awareness of currently recruiting NCI- or academic institution–sponsored clinical studies for your patients with gastrointestinal cancers. All of the studies are listed on the National Institutes of Health website at ClinicalTrials.gov, and...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved ramucirumab (Cyramza) to treat patients with advanced or metastatic gastric cancer or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma with disease progression on or after prior treatment with fluoropyrimidine- or platinum-containing chemotherapy....
By detecting certain volatile organic compounds in exhaled breath, NanoArtificial Nose technology (NA-NOSE) was able to differentiate patients with gastric cancer from those with benign lesions, with high accuracy, in a poster that earned a merit award at Digestive Disease Week 2014, the largest...
CD44 is a gastric cancer stem cell marker, and the hedgehog signaling pathway can be dysregulated by cancer stem cells during tumorigenesis. In a study reported in Clinical Cancer Research, Yoon and colleagues found that high CD44 expression was associated with chemotherapy resistance and poorer...
A new report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an agency of the World Health Organization, urges health authorities of countries with high stomach cancer burden to include stomach cancer in their national cancer control programs and allocate more resources to control the...
As reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post (page 155), the RAINBOW trial is an international phase III study demonstrating improved overall survival with ramucirumab (Cyramza) plus paclitaxel as second-line therapy for patients with advanced gastric/gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma over...
In the phase III RAINBOW trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Hansjochen Wilke, MD, Director of Medical Oncology/Hematology at Kliniken Essen-Mitte, Essen, Germany, and colleagues found that adding the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2) inhibitor ramucirumab (Cyramza) to...
Patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) can achieve remission on tyrosine kinase inhibitors, but almost all of them eventually develop resistance to these agents. The PAZOGIST trial results suggest that pazopanib (Votrient)—a broad-spectrum tyrosine kinase inhibitor—may be an effective ...
Surgeons at the cutting edge are offering minimally invasive resection to patients with small gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) deemed to be low-risk, according to panelists at a session of the American College of Surgeons 2014 Clinical Congress in San Francisco. “We are seeing more small...
When melanoma patients develop metastases to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract or pancreas, resection of these lesions may improve survival, according to two single-institution studies presented at the 2015 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. In a study that earned a Merit Award, researchers reported ...
The 2015 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, held January 15–17 in San Francisco, attracted almost 4,000 attendees, who heard or viewed data from nearly 800 scientific abstracts and lectures. Here are our summaries of some of the many important developments from the meeting. Bevacizumab Plus...
In a new study,1 more precise estimates of age-associated risks of gastric and breast cancer were derived for carriers of the CDH1 gene mutation, a cancer-predisposing gene that is abnormal in families meeting criteria for clinically defined hereditary diffuse gastric cancer (HDGC). David G....
The use of radiation therapy in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancer has evolved over the past several decades, in a gradual, stepwise fashion. Since most gastrointestinal cancers are diagnosed at a locally advanced stage, coupled with the inherent sensitivity of most parts of the...