Gastrointestinal Cancer

MABp1, a novel anti–interleukin 1-alpha antibody, was safe, well-tolerated, and demonstrated a significant impact on symptoms compared with placebo for patients with advanced colorectal cancer.

The first prospective study to investigate the use of immunotherapy in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal demonstrated promising results following treatment with nivolumab.

Treatment with ARQ-087 demonstrated promising signs of clinical activity with a manageable safety profile for patients with FGFR2 fusion-positive advanced and/or metastatic intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.

Adding selective internal radiation therapy with SIR-Spheres Y-90 resin microspheres to standard first-line chemotherapy significantly increased hepatic depth of response in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

IMAB362, a novel chimeric IgG1 backbone antibody highly specific for CLDN18.2, extended median overall survival by 4.8 months when added to standard chemotherapy in patients with advanced gastric cancer.

Dr. Navesh K. Sharma, associate professor of Radiology in the Division of Radiology and Oncology at Penn State Hershey Medical Center and section chief of Radiation Oncology at the Penn State Health St. Joseph Cancer Center, discusses that age should not be a deciding factor in giving internal radiation to patients with liver cancer.

Dr. Jordi Bruix, MD, head of the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) at University of Barcelona, discusses the major impact that regorafenib (Stivarga) will have for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Dr. Adam Bass, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the causes for different types of gastric cancer.

Barry M. Berger, MD, FACP, chief medical officer, Exact Sciences, discusses the significance and benefits of the Cologuard screening test for colorectal cancer.

Eileen M. O’Reilly, MD, associate director for Clinical Research, David M. Rubenstein Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses factors that patients and oncologists should consider when developing a treatment plan for pancreatic cancer.

Daniel Sargent, PhD, professor of Oncology and Biostatistics, Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, discusses the IDEA initiative, which is an international study to examine if patients with colon cancer would benefit from reducing the duration of adjuvant therapy from 3 months to 6 months to reduce side effects and cost.

Adding MM-398 (irinotecan liposome injection; nal-IRI; Onivyde) to 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin had no negative effect on quality of life while significantly improving overall survival in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.

John L. Marshall, MD, chief, Division Of Hematology/Oncology, Georgetown University Hospital Associate Director, clinical research, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University Hospital, discusses the difference between squamous and adenocarcinoma in esophageal and gastric cancer.

Combined inhibition of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis with atezolizumab (Tecentriq) and the MEK pathway with cobimetinib (Cotellic) showed promising clinical activity and a good safety profile in heavily pretreated patients with microsatellite stable metastatic colorectal cancer.

The FDA has granted an orphan drug designation to the STAT3 targeted agent napabucasin as a treatment for patients with gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancer.

Second-line treatment with regorafenib (Stivarga) improved overall survival by 2.8 months compared with placebo for patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma who progressed on sorafenib (Nexavar).

Kanwal Raghav, MBBS, MD, assistant professor, Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses a study examining HER2 gene amplification in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

Michael J. Overman, MD, discusses the findings of the phase II CheckMate-142 study, which examined nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) in patients with high microsatellite instability colorectal cancer.

Patients with nonfunctioning neuroendocrine tumors of lung or gastrointestinal origin continued to live longer when treated with the mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitor everolimus (Afinitor) than with placebo.

The United States Preventative Services Task Force recommends screening for colorectal cancer using traditional colonoscopy or one of 7 tests at various frequencies for all patients aged 50 to 75.

Michael J. Overman, MD, associate professor, Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses a study examining nivolumab (Opdivo) monotherapy, ipilimumab (Yervoy) monotherapy, and the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab in patients with high microsatellite instability metastatic colorectal cancer.

In patients with advanced colorectal cancer, the combination regimen of cobimetinib (Cotellic) and atezolizumab (Tecentriq) was found to demonstrate clinical activity as well as have a good safety profile.

Results of an analysis presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting demonstrate the difficulty in determining the prevalence of germline cancer susceptibility gene mutations in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) who do not harbor Lynch syndrome.

A device using tumor treating fields that was administered to patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer showed early signs of tolerability and safety when in combination with gemcitabine in the frontline setting.