Gastrointestinal Cancer

Amir Khan, MD, discusses trends in the overall incidence of gastric cancer and colorectal cancer.

Following significant progress made in the development of novel systemic therapies for patients with cancer, the role of surgery in oncology continues to evolve. To this end, ASCO has selected the refinement of surgical treatment of cancer as its Advance of the Year.

Akshjot Puri, MD, discusses challenges facing older patients with pancreatic cancer.

Amir Khan, MD, discusses the rising incidence of gastric and colorectal cancers in young adult patients.

Modest activity has been observed with anti–PD-1 therapies for patients with gastric, esophageal, and hepatocellular carcinoma in later lines of therapy, but for patients with microsatellite instability–high tumors and other subgroups, treatment with these agents has shown benefit over chemotherapy in the first-line setting, according to recent data.

A new drug application has been filed with the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare for manufacturing and marketing approval of cabozantinib for the treatment of patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma following progression on prior systemic therapy.

Analysis of patient-reported outcomes from the phase III IMbrave 150 study showed meaningful benefits in quality of life, functioning, and key symptoms with atezolizumab plus bevacizumab compared with sorafenib as first-line treatment in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

Trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu) improved overall survival versus chemotherapy in patients with heavily pretreated unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer.

Encorafenib plus cetuximab with or without binimetinib demonstrated longer maintenance of quality of life on patient-reported assessments over current standard of care in the treatment of patients with BRAF V600E-mutant metastatic colorectal cancer.

A supplemental biologics license application has been submitted to the FDA for the combination of atezolizumab and bevacizumab for the treatment of patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma who have not received prior systemic therapy.

Augusto Villanueva, MD, an assistant professor of the Division of Liver Diseases at the Tisch Cancer Institute of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discusses mutations and gene signatures for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, a topic he presented at the 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Eileen M. O’Reilly, MD, discusses the randomized phase II trial of gemcitabine and cisplatin versus gemcitabine and cisplatin and veliparib in patients with pancreas adenocarcinoma harboring a known germline BRCA or PALB2 mutation, which was presented at the 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Third-line treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer using regorafenib plus oral fluoropyrimidine TAS-102 provides clinically meaningful disease control with toxicities consistent with the safety profiles of either agent, according to data from the phase I dose-escalation trial REMETY presented at the 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Ramucirumab as second-line therapy after sorafenib induces improved overall survival compared with placebo, irrespective of Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage, in patients with intermediate-stage hepatocellular carcinoma and an elevated baseline level of alpha fetoprotein.