Gastrointestinal Cancer

The combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and chemotherapy continued to provide a clinically meaningful long-term survival benefit and deeper responses than chemotherapy alone in previously untreated patients with advanced gastric cancer, gastroesophageal junction cancer, and esophageal adenocarcinoma, according to 3-year follow-up data from the phase 3 CheckMate-649 trial.

Neoadjuvant treatment with the combination of tremelimumab and durvalumab produced responses and was well tolerated in patients with mismatch repair–deficient and microsatellite instability–high, Epstein-Barr virus–negative gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.

Adjuvant treatment with the combination of atezolizumab and bevacizumab demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in recurrence-free survival compared with active surveillance in patients with early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma at high risk of disease recurrence.

The panel reviews the HIMALAYA and IMbrave-150 clinical trials of checkpoint inhibitor combination therapy strategies in advanced HCC.

A deeper dive on immune checkpoint inhibitors in HCC including review of the mechanisms of action of the IO agents.

Mohamad Bassam Sonbol, MD, discusses key considerations for treatment selection in patients with gastroesophageal junction cancers.

The use of peptide receptor radionuclide therapy with lutetium Lu 177 dotatate improved progression-free survival in patients with unresectable, progressive neuroendocrine pancreatic tumors.

Leading experts in the field of liver cancer contextualized how recent data are influencing the treatment paradigm in hepatocellular carcinoma.

The FDA has granted an orphan drug designation to QN-302 for the treatment of patients with pancreatic cancer.

A multidisciplinary panel discusses use of immune checkpoint inhibitors in patients with advanced HCC.

Drs Singal and Lewandowski review use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors, sorafenib and lenvatinib, and discuss trials that combined systemic therapy with chemoembolization.

Japan has approved durvalumab monotherapy and durvalumab plus tremelimumab for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma, durvalumab plus tremelimumab and chemotherapy for unresectable, advanced, or recurrent non–small cell lung cancer, and durvalumab plus chemotherapy for curatively unresectable biliary tract cancer.

Adding mitazalimab to mFOLFIRINOX led to a 52% objective response rate as frontline therapy in 23 patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Experts in hepatocellular carcinoma discuss treatment options for locally advanced disease.

Dr Singal reviews the Child-Pugh scoring system, then Dr Lewandowski discusses the importance of considering liver function as well as disease burden when selecting a treatment strategy.

Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma with microvascular invasion who received FOLFOX through hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy experienced improved disease-free survival rates compared with those who received no adjuvant treatment.

Ripretinib improved progression-free survival, objective response rate, and overall survival over sunitinib when given as second-line treatment to patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumor harboring mutations in KIT exon 11 and 17/18 only and who received prior imatinib.

The FDA has granted a breakthrough device designation to the OverC Multi-Cancer Detection Blood Test for the early detection of cancers including esophageal, liver, lung, ovarian, and pancreatic in adults aged to 50 to 75 years with average risk.

Treatment with PDS0101 plus the tumor-targeting IL-12 fusion protein M9241 and bintrafusp alfa elicited encouraging overall survival data in patients with checkpoint inhibitor–naïve and –refractory advanced human papillomavirus–positive anal, cervical, head and neck, vaginal, and vulvar cancer.

Jaffer A. Ajani, MD, has an unyielding drive that has resulted in breakthroughs in a deadly, but often overlooked, disease.

The panel shares insight as to which patients might be candidates for curative therapies such as embolization techniques and liver transplant.

Ghassan Abou-Alfa, MD leads Robert Lewandowski, MD, FSIR, and Amit Singal, MD in a discussion of the main risk factors for hepatocellular carcinoma.

Zanidatamab monotherapy produced responses in previously treated patients with HER2-amplified and -expressing biliary tract cancers.

The European Commission has approved fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki as monotherapy for the treatment of patients with advanced HER2-positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma who have received a prior trastuzumab-based regimen.

The addition of zolbetuximab to capecitabine and oxaliplatin resulted in a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival and overall survival vs placebo/CAPOX in patients with Claudin 18.2–positive, HER2-negative, locally advanced unresectable or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal cancers, meeting the primary and secondary end points of the phase 3 GLOW trial.