Susumu Hijioka, MD, of the National Cancer Center, Tokyo, discusses results from the phase III JCOG1901 STARTER-NET study in patients with gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine (GEP-NET) tumors. The study evaluated combination therapy with everolimus plus lanreotide vs everolimus monotherapy for unresectable or recurrent GEP-NETs (Abstract 652).
The open-label, global, randomized phase III BREAKWATER study was an analysis of first-line encorafenib plus cetuximab plus chemotherapy in patients with BRAF V600E–mutant metastatic colorectal cancer. Here, Scott Kopetz, MD, PhD, FACP, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, reports the primary analysis of objective response rate and the first interim analysis of overall survival (Abstract 16).
The randomized, double-blind, multicenter, placebo-controlled ALASCCA Trial screened 3,508 patients across 33 hospitals in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway for eligibility. They either had stage II or III colon cancer or stage I, II, or III rectal cancer. Ultimately, 626 patients continued on with the trial, including 419 with colon cancer, and 207 with rectal cancer. Anna Martling, MD, PhD, of Karolinska Institutet, and colleagues evaluated the impact of low-dose aspirin on recurrence in this patient population, especially those with PI3K pathway alterations (Abstract LBA125).
Thierry André, MD, of Hôpital Saint-Antoine, presented first results from the ongoing phase III CheckMate 8HW trial comparing nivolumab plus ipilimumab vs nivolumab monotherapy for microsatellite instability–high/mismatch repair–deficient metastatic colorectal cancer (Abstract LBA143).
Aasma Shaukat, MD, MPH, of NYU Langone, presented results from the PREEMPT CRC study, which evaluated the clinical performance of an investigational blood-based screening test for detecting molecular signals of advanced colorectal neoplasia in an average-risk population (Abstract 18).
Cathy Eng, MD, of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, reported on findings from the FRESCO-2 study, focusing on overall survival with fruquintinib vs placebo after adjusting for subsequent anticancer therapy in patients with refractory metastatic colorectal cancer (Abstract 171).
Abstract 171, a poster, was presented at the 2025 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium by Sara Lonardi, MD, of Veneto Institute of Oncology IOV-IRCCS in Padova, Italy; Dr. Eng is the study's senior author.
