Gastrointestinal Cancer

January 15, 2021- The FDA has approved fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic HER2-positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma who have received a previous trastuzumab-based regimen.

January 15, 2021 - One-year overall survival was found increased the longer that patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma remained on treatment with liposomal irinotecan plus 5-fluorouracil/leucovorin.

January 15, 2021 - Pembrolizumab with trastuzumab and the combination of cisplatin and capecitabine appeared effective in treating HER2-positive advanced gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancer, regardless of a patient’s PD-L1 status.

January 15, 2021 - Patients with esophageal/gastroesophageal cancer treated with nivolumab had improved esophageal-specific and general quality of life, although trends were similar in those treated with placebo.

January 15, 2021 - A novel combination comprised of camrelizumab and apatinib was found to have promising clinical efficacy with an acceptable safety profile when used as a second-line treatment in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

January 15, 2021 - Pembrolizumab plus lanreotide elicited a stable disease rate of 39% in patients with advanced, progressive gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs), according to findings from the phase 1b/2 PLANET study.

January 15, 2021 - A novel artificial intelligence-based search tool made it easier for patients to find and understand cancer clinical trials, while also offering more clarity on how to enroll in them

January 15, 2021 - Findings from an analysis determined that stage 4 gastrointestinal stromal tumors were rare and led to hepatic metastases, although overall survival was up to 51% at 5 years.

January 15, 2021 - Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in combination with capecitabine and bevacizumab (Avastin) was found to show encouraging tolerability when used in patients with microsatellite stable (MSS) metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), according to data from a phase 2 trial (NCT03396926) presented during the 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Ronan J. Kelly, MD, MBA, discusses the safety profile of adjuvant nivolumab in resected esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer.

Weijing Sun, MD, FACP, discusses the design of the KEYNOTE-062 trial in advanced gastric/gastroesophageal junction cancer.

Jordan D. Berlin, MD, discusses unmet needs in pancreatic cancer.

Prakash Pandalai, MD, discusses the role of HIPEC in CRC peritoneal carcinomatosis and data from the PRODIGE 7 and PROPHYLOCHIP-PRODIGE 15 trials.

Michael J. Cavnar, MD, highlights the role of surgery in colon cancer, the role of tumor sidedness in informing surgical decisions, and research efforts that are being done to evaluate the utility of hepatic artery infusion pumps.

Myriam Chalabi, MD, discusses the utility of microsatellite instability (MSI) testing in colorectal cancer,

Yelena Y. Janjigian, MD, discusses the importance of routine HER2 testing in gastric/gastroesophageal cancer.

The addition of adjuvant oxaliplatin to fluoropyridine improves overall survival and disease-free survival compared with fluoropyridine alone in patients with stage III colon cancer with microsatellite instability.

A gene expression signature based on tumor cell lineage/state compositions can predict survival in patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis.

Jonathan R. Strosberg, MD, discusses the need to develop additional targeted therapies in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Myriam Chalabi, MD, highlights the importance of testing for microsatellite instability and mismatch repair deficiency in colorectal cancer.

The field of HER2-positive gastrointestinal malignancies witnessed a surge of data in 2020 regarding investigational agents, such as the antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki, that could play a pivotal role in transforming treatment selection in the coming years.

Although rates of hepatocellular carcinoma incidence started to plateau in 2013, many cases continue to be diagnosed at more advanced stages, especially in patients without liver disease.

Aman Chauhan, MD, discusses future directions with Lutathera in gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.

Elena Gabriela Chiorean, MD, discusses the role of genetic testing in pancreatic cancer.

Yelena Y. Janjigian, MD, discusses the expanding treatment armamentarium in HER2-positive gastric cancer.