Gastrointestinal Cancer

The combination of dabrafenib and trametinib led to encouraging responses in patients with rare, incurable cancer of the digestive tract.

The novel bispecific antibody ZW25 induced a disease control rate of 82% in heavily pretreated patients across several HER2-positive tumor types, according to phase I study results presented at the 2018 EORTC-NCI-AACR Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics Symposium.

Michael J. Overman, MD, associate professor, Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the combination of atezolizumab (Tecentriq) and bevacizumab (Avastin) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Pixatimod (PG545) in combination with the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) may benefit patients with advanced bowel cancers, including a small subset of those with colorectal cancer considered to be microsatellite stable.

Seth Berk, MD, section chief of gastrointestinal hematology/oncology at Virtua Memorial Hospital, discusses the use of immunotherapy in colon cancer.

Al B. Benson, MD, professor of medicine, Hematology and Oncology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, discusses the clinical utility of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in guiding treatment decisions for patients with colorectal cancer (CRC).

Matthew Farren, PhD, post-doctoral fellow, Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, discusses the rationale behind the combination of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and modified leucovorin/5-fluorouracil/oxaliplatin (mFOLFOX6) in patients with advanced colorectal cancer.

Syma Iqbal, MD, associate professor of clinical medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, discusses the treatment of patients with HER2-driven gastric cancer.

Second-line treatment with pembrolizumab improved overall survival versus chemotherapy in patients with advanced or metastatic esophageal or esophagogastric junction carcinoma whose tumors expressed PD-L1.

Juan Manuel O’Connor, MD, head, Department Gastrointestinal Oncology, Department of Clinical Oncology, Institute Alexander Fleming, Buenos Aires, discusses real-world results with regorafenib (Stivarga) in the treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

Kabir Mody, MD, medical oncologist, Mayo Clinic, discusses treatment options for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

The FDA has approved pembrolizumab for the treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who have previously received sorafenib.

Jonathan Strosberg, MD, associate professor, Moffitt Cancer Center, discusses updates from the NETTER-1 study in patients with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs).

Tanios Bekaii-Saab, MD, medical oncologist, Mayo Clinic, discusses the utility of next-generation sequencing in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

As researchers gain a better understanding of the unique aspects of individual tumor types and their surrounding microenvironment, the design of novel therapies categorized as prodrugs is become increasingly sophisticated, and several novel constructs show particular promise.

Syma Iqbal, MD, associate professor of clinical medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, discusses the impact of peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) on the treatment of patients with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs).

Afsaneh Barzi, MD, assistant professor of clinical medicine, Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Southern California, discusses available and emerging neoadjuvant strategies for the treatment of patients with nonmetastatic pancreatic cancer.

Obesity is associated with an increased risk of early-onset colorectal cancer among women and correlates with higher rates of cancer resections in gastrointestinal malignancies across age groups.

Based on fresh studies in the setting of metastatic pancreatic cancer, the American Society of Clinical Oncology now recommends routine testing for mismatch repair deficiency or high microsatellite instability for candidates for checkpoint inhibitor therapy.

Michael Pishvaian, MD, PhD, director, Phase I Clinical Program, co-director of the Ruesch Center Pancreatic Cancer Program Medical Oncology, Otto J. Ruesch Center for the Cure of Gastrointestinal Cancer, Georgetown University Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the combination of atezolizumab (Tecentriq) and bevacizumab (Avastin) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.