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).
Kai-Keen Shiu, MD, PhD, of the University College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust - London, discusses an interim analysis of PFS 2 results (defined as time from random assignment to progression on the next line of therapy or death) from the phase III KEYNOTE-177 trial. This study has already shown that first-line pembrolizumab provides a clinically meaningful and statistically significant improvement in PFS compared with chemotherapy in patients with microsatellite instability–high metastatic colorectal cancer (Abstract 6).
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).
Matthew H.G. Katz, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses findings from the Alliance A021501 study, which showed that administering mFOLFIRINOX before surgery was associated with a favorable overall survival rate relative to historical data in patients with borderline resectable adenocarcinoma of the pancreas (Abstract 377).
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.
Wasat Mansoor, MBChB, PhD, of The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, discusses phase III results from the KEYNOTE-590 trial, which showed no deterioration in health-related quality of life when pembrolizumab was added to chemotherapy in patients with metastatic and unresectable esophageal cancers (Abstract 168).
