Afsaneh Barzi, MD, PhD, on Disparities in Access to Screening and Treatment of GI Cancers
2021 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium
Afsaneh Barzi, MD, PhD, of the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center and the University of Southern California, discusses reasons for the incomplete understanding of the molecular landscape of minority patients with cancer, lack of screening chief among them. This underrepresentation, Dr. Barzi says, is more marked in gastrointestinal malignancies than other solid tumors, and she recommends ways to improve the outlook.
The ASCO Post Staff
Milind M. Javle, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses phase II study results showing that the novel tyrosine kinase inhibitor infigratinib may prove to be effective in treating patients with advanced cholangiocarcinoma harboring an FGFR2 gene fusion or rearrangement (Abstract 265).
The ASCO Post Staff
Tenna V. Henriksen, PhD Candidate, of Aarhus University, discusses her findings on how circulating tumor DNA may help assess recurrence risk and the benefit of adjuvant therapy, and more quickly detect early relapse after treatment in patients with colorectal cancer (Abstract 11).
The ASCO Post Staff
Talia Golan, MD, of the Oncology Institute, Sheba Medical Center, discusses phase III results from the POLO trial, which explored the question of whether maintenance olaparib could improve overall and progression-free survival for patients with germline BRCA-mutated metastatic pancreatic cancer (Abstract 378).
The ASCO Post Staff
Richard S. Finn, MD, of the UCLA Medical Center, discusses updated results from the IMbrave 150 study, which showed atezolizumab plus bevacizumab provides the longest overall survival seen in a front-line phase III study in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, confirming this combination as the standard of care for patients with previously untreated, unresectable disease (Abstract 267).
The ASCO Post Staff
Zev A. Wainberg, MD, of UCLA Medical Center, discusses phase II results from the FIGHT study, which combined bemarituzumab with modified FOLFOX6 in first-line treatment of advanced gastric/gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. This is reportedly the first randomized trial of any FGFR inhibitor, validating this target in gastric cancer (Abstract 160).