Gastrointestinal Cancer

Few cancers have a bleaker outlook than pancreatic cancer.

Hospitals, pharmacists, and physicians across the United States are reporting shortages of critical anticancer drugs, including carboplatin, cisplatin, dacarbazine, fludarabine, and cytarabine.

New pancreatic cancer vaccine findings were presented at the 2007 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, held January 19-21 in Orlando, FL.

An oral therapy currently utilized in the treatment of advanced kidney cancer may be on the threshold of obtaining a major new indication.

The European Commission has granted marketing authorization to sorafenib (Nexavar) for the treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common form of liver cancer.

In an oral presentation, Ann-Lii Cheng, MD, PhD, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, highlighted the results of a phase III study evaluating the efficacy and safety of sorafenib in patients from the Asia-Pacific region with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Although gemcitabine-based chemotherapy is standard in advanced pancreatic cancer, the role of adjuvant chemotherapy is still incompletely defined.

A new study shows that less than one half of older patients successfully treated for colorectal cancer receive the recommended screening schedule to detect any recurrence of cancer. The analysis indicates poor compliance with recommended monitoring of colorectal cancer survivors could affect survival.

The 10th Annual Meeting of the World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer was held in Barcelona, Spain, in June. The Congress has grown into a key scientific program that covers malignancies affecting every component of the gastrointestinal tract and all facets of patient care, including screening, diagnosis, and management options for common and uncommon tumors.

This month's issue features highlights from the 10th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer (WCGC), held this past June in Barcelona, Spain. The WCGC is an annual meeting that provides scientific sessions and posters on various malignancies of the gastrointestinal tract.

Scientists at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, have linked the CDK8 gene to colon cancer, a previously unsuspected association.

In what researchers are touting as a first-of-its-kind finding, Houston-based University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center investigators have discovered a potential connection between exposure to the hepatitis B virus and an increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer.

Highlights from the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

Cutting-edge treatments for hepatocellular carcinoma, including contrast-enhanced ultrasound, combined CRT/TACE, sorafenib, & LCCRT for patients with PVT.

Despite improvements in screening that result in detecting this colorectal cancer in earlier stages, the disease remains the second leading cause of cancer death in men and the third in women.