Gastrointestinal Cancer

The oncology we all learned over the past three decades will soon be a thing of the past, making way for therapy decisions based on what molecular switches should be turned on and off, and of equal importance, in what sequence.

Recently reported data demonstrate that the presence of a specific mutation in PDGFRA predicts for the lack of activity for the imatinib in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors.

Hugo Ford, MD, from the Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, UK, describes which patients with metastatic esophagogastric cancer derive the greatest benefit from second-line treatment with docetaxel.

Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, Gastrointestinal Oncology Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, describes a study looking at sorafenib plus doxorubicin compared with doxorubicin alone in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

The incidence of adverse effects with regorafenib in metastatic colorectal cancer is highest during the first treatment cycle and then diminishes over time.

William M. Grady, MD, from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, discusses results from an ongoing prospective study looking at gene expression profiling of circulating tumor cells in patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer.