Gastrointestinal Cancer

The use of an immuno-oncology regimen as systemic therapy was found to be an independent prognostic factor and was associated with improved long-term survival for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, regardless of IO’s sequencing in the first and later lines of treatment.

Neoadjuvant treatment with the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab led to responses and was well tolerated in patients with resectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

Real-world data from a systemic review of treatment patterns in the United States showed that the majority of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma administered atezolizumab and bevacizumab in the frontline setting discontinued treatment within 12 months, indicating the need for additional research on the effectiveness of this regimen for patients with high-risk disease.

Marwan G. Fakih, MD, expands on long-term findings from the phase 2/3 PROSPECT trial and how these findings may influence the optimal use of nonoperative management strategies in locally advanced rectal cancer.

Treatment with ramucirumab in the second line after first-line lenvatinib monotherapy or the combination of atezolizumab and bevacizumab, or as third-line treatment following both regimens, elicited efficacy comparable with second-line ramucirumab following treatment with sorafenib in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

In this third episode of OncChats: Leveraging Endoscopic Ultrasound in Pancreatic Cancer, Toufic A. Kachaamy, MD, Madappa Kundranda, MD, PhD, and Tamas A. Gonda, MD, share how they would best utilize genetic testing results obtained from endoscopic ultrasound–guided biopsies in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas.

Daneng Li, MD, highlights the importance of biomarker testing in gastroesophageal and biliary tract cancers, the potential role for targeted therapy in first-line CRC treatment, and when to choose neoadjuvant therapy over upfront surgery and adjuvant therapy in pancreatic cancer.

Daneng Li, MD, discusses the investigation of triplet combination therapy for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma in the phase 1/2 Morpheus-Liver study.

Afsaneh Barzi, MD, PhD, discusses unmet needs associated with the adjuvant treatment of patients with gastroesophageal cancers and highlights the use of nivolumab in this setting.

Daneng Li, MD, discusses how immune-related adverse effects can affect the treatment of patients with gastrointestinal cancer, specifically those with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

Howard S. Hochster, MD, discusses data from the phase 3 FRESCO-2 trial of fruquintinib plus best supportive care in metastatic colorectal cancer.

The benzodiazepines lorazepam and alprazolam had differing effects on progression-free survival (PFS) outcomes among patients with pancreatic cancer, with lorazepam demonstrating an association with decreased PFS and alprazolam prolonging PFS.

Martin Wermke, MD, discusses why the novel agent may serve as a promising treatment option targeting DLL3.

Mitesh J. Borad, MD, highlights key additional findings from ReFocus and how RLY-4008 differs from currently available FGFR2 inhibitors.

The Center for Drug Evaluation, of the National Medical Products Administration in China, has granted a breakthrough therapy designation to savolitinib for use in patients with locally advanced or metastatic gastric cancer or gastroesophageal junction with MET amplification in whom at least 2 lines of standard therapy have failed.

Novartis will discontinue the development of the anti-TGFß monoclonal antibody NIS793 for the treatment of patients with pancreatic cancer and other malignancies, according to a SEC filing from Xoma.

The European Commission has approved pembrolizumab for use in combination with trastuzumab, fluoropyrimidine- and platinum-containing chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of adult patients with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic, HER2-positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma whose tumors express PD-L1 with a combined positive score of at least 1.

The European Medicines Agency has granted orphan drug designation to mitazalimab for use in patients with pancreatic cancer.

Interim data from the phase 3 CABINET trial demonstrated significant improvement in progression-free survival with cabozantinib vs placebo in patients with advanced pancreatic or extra-pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors following progression on prior systemic therapy.

Second-line treatment with GNOS-PV02 plus plasmid-encoded interleukin-12 followed by electroporation elicited complete molecular response detected via circulating tumor DNA in 4 additional patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma enrolled in the phase 1b/2a GT-30 study.

The FDA has granted an orphan drug designation to the IgG1k type murine monoclonal antibody MAb-AR20.5 for the treatment of patients with pancreatic cancer.

Marios Giannakis, MD, PhD, discusses how targeting the WNT signaling pathway could harness a previously underutilized pathway involved in GI tumor development, spotlights the activity and safety of CGX1321 with or without pembrolizumab in phase 1 studies, and emphasizes the need for continued investigation of CGX1321 to further validate this precision medicine approach.

The combination of ociperlimab, tislelizumab, and chemotherapy elicited responses in patients with stage IV gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer, irrespective of PD-L1 expression.

Deb Schrag, MD, MPH, discusses the rationale for exploring the use of selective preoperative chemoradiation in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer, the safety and efficacy findings from the PROSPECT trial, and the importance of reviewing patient-reported outcomes during clinical trials.

The FDA has granted an orphan drug designation to NXP800 for the treatment of patients with cholangiocarcinoma.