Ian Chau, MD, on Gastrointestinal Cancers: Real-World Effectiveness of Nivolumab Plus Chemotherapy
2024 ASCO GI Cancers Symposium
Ian Chau, MD, of The Royal Marsden Hospital, discusses reportedly the first study to evaluate the real-world effectiveness of nivolumab as a first-line treatment of advanced gastric, gastroesophageal junction, or esophageal adenocarcinoma. The combination therapy improved overall survival compared with chemotherapy alone. Dr. Chau presents the 18-month follow-up results (Abstract 295).
The ASCO Post Staff
Manish A. Shah, MD, of Weill Cornell Medical College, discusses phase III findings of the KEYNOTE-590 study, which shows that, after 5 years, the use of pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy improved survival with durable efficacy, compared with placebo plus chemotherapy, in patients with untreated advanced esophageal cancer (Abstract 250).
The ASCO Post Staff
Ian Chau, MD, of The Royal Marsden Hospital, discusses an analysis from the CheckMate 648 study on quality-adjusted time without symptoms and toxicity in patients with unresectable advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Patients treated with nivolumab plus ipilimumab and nivolumab plus chemotherapy compared with chemotherapy alone experienced longer quality-adjusted survival (Abstract 251).
The ASCO Post Staff
Anant Ramaswamy, DM, of Tata Memorial Centre, discusses phase III results of a study that added docetaxel to a doublet regimen of fluorouracil or capecitabine and oxaliplatin, which did not improve overall survival in patients with advanced gastroesophageal junction and gastric cancers. Continuing chemotherapy beyond 6 months also did not appear to improve survival in this population (Abstract LBA248).
The ASCO Post Staff
Yasunobu Ishizuka, MD, of Japan’s Aichi Cancer Center, discusses study results showing that scheduling infusions of nivolumab monotherapy before mid-afternoon for patients with metastatic gastric cancer may alter treatment efficacy. Several studies have suggested that circadian rhythm is essential in immune system function, including anticancer immunity (Abstract 268).
The ASCO Post Staff
Lorraine A. Chantrill, PhD, MBBS, of Australia’s Wollongong Hospital, New South Wales, discusses phase II findings on the combination of nab-paclitaxel plus carboplatin as a first-line treatment for patients with gastrointestinal neuroendocrine carcinomas. According to Dr. Chantrill, this regimen appears to be active in these tumors and warrants further evaluation in a phase III trial (Abstract 589).
