Gastrointestinal Cancer

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.

Tanios S. Bekaii-Saab, MD, examines the effectiveness of umbrella trials and their importance in aiding precision medicine in gastrointestinal oncology.

A regimen of avelumab and cetuximab plus oxaliplatin, leucovorin, and 5-fluorouracil in patients with RAS/BRAF-wildtype metastatic colorectal cancer induced a very high response rate but did not meet its primary progression-free survival end point.

Peter R. Galle, MD, discusses the patient-reported outcomes results from the Phase III IMbrave150 study, which he presented at the 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium

Zev A. Wainberg, MD discusses the efficacy findings of pembrolizumab monotherapy versus chemotherapy for patients with PD-L1–positive advanced gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancer of high combined positive score in cohort 1 of the phase II KEYNOTE-059 and in the phase III KEYNOTE-061 and KEYNOTE-062 studies.

Scott Kopetz, MD, PhD, FACP, sheds light on encorafenib triplet and doublet options for patients with BRAF V600E–mutant metastatic colorectal cancer and other novel regimens under investigation.

The triplet regimen of nivolumab (Opdivo), ipilimumab (Yervoy), and cabozantinib (Cabometyx) achieved clinically meaningful responses in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma who were either sorafenib (Nexavar)-naïve, or resistant to or intolerant of sorafenib.

The combination of gemcitabine plus cisplatin with or without veliparib is highly active in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and a germline BRCA/PALB2 mutation.

Patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma who were randomized to first-line lenvatinib (Lenvima), compared with sorafenib (Nexavar), and received subsequent anticancer procedures experienced prolonged overall survival.

Van Morris, MD, discusses research around treatment for patients with unresectable colorectal cancer.

The triplet combination of cabozantinib, nivolumab, and ipilimumab induced higher response rates, progression-free survival, and overall survival compared with nivolumab plus cabozantinib in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

The triplet of nivolumab, ramucirumab and paclitaxel showed promising antitumor activity with durable responses in a phase II study of patients with advanced gastric cancer.

Teresa Macarulla, MD, discusses a new finding from the phase III POLO trial regarding patients who rapidly progressed on treatment.