2021 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium

Axel Grothey, MD, discusses the excitement surrounding HER2-directed therapies in gastrointestinal malignancies, the approval of trastuzumab deruxtecan in HER2-positive metastatic gastric/gastroesophageal junction cancer, and the investigational agents patritumab deruxtecan and zanidatamab that are poised to further advance the paradigm.

Zev A. Wainberg, MD, discusses the need to develop chemotherapy-free options in colorectal cancer.

Axel Grothey, MD, discusses the rationale to evaluate patritumab deruxtecan in HER3-positive colorectal cancer.

Fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki is under study alone and in combination for the treatment of patients with HER2-overexpressing locally advanced, unresectable or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma in the ongoing phase 1b/2 DESTINY-Gastric03 trial.

Axel Grothey, MD, discusses potential combination strategies with fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki in gastrointestinal malignancies.

John L. Marshall, MD, discusses the emergence of novel HER2-targeted therapies for patients with colorectal cancer.

January 17, 2021 - The combination of atezolizumab and bevacizumab continued to display improved survival compared with sorafenib in previously untreated patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

January 17, 2021 — Ivosidenib tablets led to a 21% reduction in the risk of death compared with placebo in previously treated patients with IDH1-mutant cholangiocarcinoma, according to the final overall survival analysis of the phase 3 ClarIDHy trial.

January 16, 2021 - Trifluridine/tipiracil, when used in combination with bevacizumab, led to an improvement in overall survival over capecitabine/bevacizumab in the frontline treatment of patients with unresectable metastatic colorectal cancer who are not eligible for standard chemotherapy.

Bemarituzumab combined with mFOLFOX6 demonstrated a 56% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death compared with placebo and mFOLFOX6 as a frontline treatment in select patients with FGFR2b-positive advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.

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.

The novel HER3-targeted antibody-drug conjugate patritumab deruxtecan is currently being investigated in a phase 2 trial as a potential treatment for patients with advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer who are resistant, refractory, or intolerant to at least 2 previous lines of systemic therapy.