Gastrointestinal Cancer

The combination of zanidatamab and standard chemotherapy demonstrated activity when used as a first-line treatment for patients with HER2-positive metastatic or advanced gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma.

Panelists review the HIMALAYA study, investigating durvalumab plus tremelimumab in patients with advanced HCC.

Expert oncologists discuss a patient profile in advanced HCC, evaluating a patient treated with durvalumab plus tremelimumab.

Experts review clinical studies evaluating TACE in patients with intermediate stage HCC.

Expert panelists discuss treatment strategies for patients with intermediate stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) that are unsuitable for transarterial chemoembolization (TACE).

Shubham Pant, MD, MBBS, discusses significant efficacy and safety data from the RAGNAR trial, how erdafitinib fits into the current treatment paradigm for biliary tract cancers, and the role of next-generation sequencing in the selection of FGFR inhibitors for this patient population.

The addition of pembrolizumab to chemotherapy resulted in a significant and clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival, progression-free survival, and objective response rate vs chemotherapy alone when used as first-line treatment in patients with advanced HER2-negative gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.

Centering focus on a patient scenario, panelists break down mainstay diagnostic strategies used to identify biliary tract cancers.

Expert panelists open their discussion on biliary tract cancers by identifying various subsets and noting the growing incidence of these diseases.

Thomas J. George, MD, FACP, highlights the long-term data from the NRG-GI002 trial, the next steps for exploring subsets of patients who may benefit from the addition of pembrolizumab or veliparib to total neoadjuvant therapy, and what the use of total neoadjuvant therapy has meant for patients with stage II/III locally advanced rectal cancer.

James Harding, MD, highlighted current and emerging areas of research in biliary tract cancer, including key contributions from TOPAZ-1 and the phase 3 SWOG 1815 trial, the development of immunotherapy and chemotherapy combinations, and continued efforts to utilize personalized medicine in clinical practice.

Ilyas Sahin, MD, discusses the background and findings of the phase 2 IMbrave 151 trial in advanced biliary tract cancer.

Daniel Walden, MD, discusses the association of low expression of RNA of wild-type homologous recombination genes and survival in colorectal cancer.

Shai Friedland, MD, discusses a multimodal screening blood test for advanced adenomas in colorectal cancer.

The combination of camrelizumab and apatinib led to long-term antitumor activity with manageable toxicities in patients with recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

In an 8 to 5 vote, the FDA’s ODAC voted that data from two proposed single-arm trials will provide adequate means of characterizing the risk-benefit profile of dostarlimab for the treatment of patients with dMMR/MSI-H locally advanced rectal cancer.

Dr D’Amato discusses research in sarcoma and gastrointestinal stromal tumor, incorporating circulating tumor DNA analysis into routine reevaluation of patients with progressive disease, and the importance of establishing a drug’s clinical profile in non–trial target ethnic populations.

Madappa Kundranda, MD, PhD, discusses the sequencing of second-line therapies in hepatocellular carcinoma.

The FDA has granted an orphan drug designation to ezurpimtrostat, a PPT-1 inhibitor for the treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Although the incidence, location, and histology of esophageal cancer vary globally, patients in the Western World typically develop esophageal cancer in the distal esophagus or at the gastroesophageal junction.

Daniel King, MD, PhD, discusses the results of an institutional review evaluating socioeconomic factors associated with disparities for germline genetic testing in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma, why germline testing is necessary for thi population, and how he is addressing gaps in germline testing in his own practice.

Rachna T. Shroff, MD, MS, expands on the rationale for evaluating the addition of nab-paclitaxel to gemcitabine/cisplatin in patients with newly diagnosed biliary tract cancers, data presented from SWOG 1815, and how this study may pave the way for future research efforts in the paradigm.

Laura Dawson, MD, FRCPC, discusses data from the NRG/RTOG 1112 trial examining the addition of stereotactic body radiation therapy to sorafenib, the implications of the data for the locally advanced hepatocellular carcinoma treatment paradigm, and next steps for research.

Closing the discussion on HCC systemic therapies, Drs Abou-Alfa, Lewandowski and Singal review international clinical trials and access to treatments.

Ghassan Abou-Alfa, MD, Robert Lewandowski, MD, FSIR, and Amit Singal, MD discuss potential novel combination therapies including immune checkpoint inhibitors plus tyrosine kinase inhibitors plus local-regional therapeutic strategies.