Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium (ASCO GI)

For patients with advanced midgut neuroendocrine tumors, the peptide receptor radionuclide therapy Lu-Dotatate continues to confer a major therapeutic benefit, reducing the risk of disease progression or death by 79% and signaling an improvement in overall survival as well.

Treatment with a multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor led to a small but statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with advanced, previously treated metastatic colorectal cancer.

Kei Muro, MD, of the Aichi Cancer Center Hospital in Nagoya, Japan, discusses updated findings from the KEYNOTE-012 study, which looked at pembrolizumab for the treatment if several types of cancer.

Laura Dawson, MD, Princess Margaret Hospital, University of Toronto, talks about the challenges in treating hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Almost half of patients with borderline resectable or locally advanced pancreatic cancer had objective responses to treatment with an investigational chemokine receptor antagonist.

Lanreotide improved progression-free survival and resulted in more disease control compared with an observation strategy among patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.

An analysis of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma and elevated α-fetoprotein who received second-line ramucirumab showed a significant improvement in overall survival.

Expanded analysis of the NAPOLI-1 trial's per-protocol population continues to support the benefit of adding the nanoliposomal encapsulation of irinotecan MM-398 to 5-fluorouracil plus leucovorin for the treatment of patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer who were previously treated with gemcitabine.

Two polymorphisms of a vasodilatory enzyme had significant associations with improved survival in liver cancer treated with an inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR), data from a retrospective study reported at the 2015 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium showed.

Manish A. Shah, MD, talks about a recent phase II study of mFOLFOX paired with the MET inhibitor onartuzumab for the treatment of metastatic, HER2-negative gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma (GEC).

Changing the administration schedule for gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel from weekly to every other week significantly reduced side effects without impacting efficacy as a frontline treatment for patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Pamela L. Kunz, MD, assistant professor, Division of Oncology, Stanford University School of Medicine, discusses the impact of the approval of lanreotide.

The CLARINET study led to the approval of lanreotide (Somatuline Depot) for the treatment of patients with advanced unresectable, metastatic gastrointestinal and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs.)

Patients with advanced, MET-amplified gastroesophageal cancer had a high likelihood of response to an investigational MET inhibitor, results from a preliminary, dose-escalation trial suggested.

Among patients with metastatic gastric cancer treated with the anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody pembrolizumab, the agent showed promising antitumor activity and a manageable toxicity profile.

Chiara Cremolini, MD, discusses findings from the phase III TRIBE trial that combined FOLFOXIRI with bevacizumab as a frontline treatment for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

Eric Van Cutsem, MD, PhD of University Hospitals Gasthuisberg/Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, discusses the use of trastuzumab for the treatment of advanced HER2-positive gastric cancer.

Intensifying the chemotherapy component of a standard first-line bevacizumab-containing regimen reduced the risk of death by about 20% and doubled the 5-year overall survival (OS) rate among patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

A 'watch and wait' surveillance approach may allow certain patients with rectal cancer to achieve excellent outcomes without immediate surgery.

Patients with newly diagnosed metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) who had higher levels of vitamin D in their blood lived a median of 8 months longer and experienced greater disease-free survival after their cancer treatment.

Second-line treatment with the VEGFR2 inhibitor ramucirumab (Cyramza) combined with standard FOLFIRI extended survival by 1.6 months versus FOLFIRI alone in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), according to results from the phase III RAISE trial.

Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, Gastrointestinal Oncology Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses a retrospective study to determine the prognostic value of C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who are undergoing sorafenib treatment

Ramesh K. Ramanathan, MD, medical director, Clinical Trials Program, Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center, describes the results from an analysis of metabolic response by positron emission tomography (PET) compared with tumor response by computed tomography (CT) from the phase III MPACT trial.

Pamela L. Kunz, MD, assistant professor of medicine, Oncology, Stanford University Medical Center, discusses current and future treatment options for patients with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs).

Marc Peeters, MD, PhD, department of oncology, Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerpen, Belgium, discusses an analysis of RAS mutations in the phase III study 20050181, which compared panitumumab plus FOLFIRI versus FOLFIRI for second-line treatment of mCRC

Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, discusses the phase II study of a novel transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β1) receptor I kinase inhibitor, LY2157299 monohydrate, in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which was presented at the 2014 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Roberto Bordonaro, MD, discusses first-line treatment options for advanced colorectal cancer (CRC).

Marwan G. Fakih, MD, professor, director, Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, City of Hope, discusses extended RAS mutations in colon cancer.