Gastrointestinal Cancer

Experts in gastrointestinal cancers share factors to consider when selecting the optimal second-line therapy for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

The addition of the investigational anti-CD39 antibody TTX-030 to frontline treatment with the PD-L1 inhibitor budigalimab and mFOLFOX6 was determined to be safe and tolerable in patients with locally advanced or metastatic HER2-negative gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.

Perioperative pembrolizumab plus standard of care chemotherapy followed by adjuvant pembrolizumab showed a meaningful pathological complete response rate in patients with resectable gastric and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.

The combination of nivolumab with chemotherapy elicited a higher overall survival rate compared with chemotherapy alone in patients with advanced gastric cancer, gastroesophageal junction cancer, and esophageal adenocarcinoma, regardless of tumor mutational burden (TMB) status.

Marketing authorization applications seeking the approval of tislelizumab in patients with advanced or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma following previous systemic chemotherapy and in select patients with non–small cell lung cancer have been submitted to the European Medicines Agency.

Pierre Gholam, MD, comments on systemic immunotherapy options for second-line and beyond treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

Anthony B. El-Khoueiry, MD, reviews anti-angiogenic systemic therapy options for patients with advanced HCC in the second-line and beyond setting.

The European Commission has approved the dual immunotherapy combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab for use in the frontline treatment of adult patients with unresectable advanced, recurrent or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma who had a PD-L1 expression of 1% or higher on tumor cells.

The European Commission has approved nivolumab in combination with fluoropyrimidine- and platinum-based chemotherapy for the frontline treatment of adult patients with unresectable advanced, recurrent or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma with a PD-L1 expression of 1% or higher on tumor cells.

Distinctions in histology, molecular profiles, and tumor location have set diverging course of care for the treatment of patients with gastrointestinal cancers.

An expert gastroenterologist, Dr Pierre Gholam, discusses the phase 3 LAUNCH trial and shares insight on the potential role of liver-directed therapy in the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

Daneng Li, MD, discusses novel regimens in the pipeline being evaluated for the treatment of frontline advanced HCC.

The FDA has granted priority review to a new drug application seeking the approval of futibatinib in the treatment of patients with previously treated locally advanced or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma harboring FGFR2 gene rearrangements, including gene fusions.

Temozolomide priming followed by the combination of low-dose ipilimumab and nivolumab may produce durable clinical benefit in microsatellite stable and MGMT-silenced metastatic colorectal cancer.

Experts in gastrointestinal cancers, Drs Pierre Gholam and Daneng Li, comment on the role of single-agent immunotherapy for first-line treatment of advanced HCC.

Pierre Gholam, MD, considers the optimal treatment selection for patients in whom an atezolizumab-bevacizumab combination isn’t a suitable frontline therapeutic option.

Nicole Rich, MD, reviews the patient selection for atezolizumab-bevacizumab and discusses patients in whom this regimen is contraindicated in the frontline setting in advanced HCC.

Dr Daneng Li reviews updated safety and efficacy results of durvalumab plus tremelimumab from the phase 3 HIMALAYA study in frontline unresectable HCC.

The combination of cabozantinib and atezolizumab was not found to result in an improvement nor a detriment in overall survival vs sorafenib when used in previously untreated patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, according to data from the phase 3 COSMIC-312 trial.

Experts in the field of upper gastrointestinal cancers discuss recent data from the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress 2021 that may bolster the uptake of HER2 as a guide for treatment decisions in the second line.

Since most diagnoses of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma are made when the disease is in advanced stages, investigators have initiated studies to evaluate the efficacy of immunotherapy in earlier lines of therapy, including in combination with chemoradiotherapy.

Daneng Li, MD, evaluates the use of cabozantinib plus atezolizumab in first-line advanced unresectable HCC as seen in the COSMIC-312 study.

Anthony B. El-Khoueiry, MD, provides insight on the evolution of care for frontline systemic therapy in advanced HCC and discusses currently approved first-line standard of care options.

The phase 3 NuTide:121 trial examining the first-in-class nucleotide analogue NUC-1031 in combination with cisplatin vs gemcitabine plus cisplatin in patients with advanced biliary tract cancer is being discontinued.

Liver cancer is a highly vascularized and one of the most drug resistant forms of solid tumors.