Gastrointestinal Cancer

Hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy with oxaliplatin, fluorouracil, and leucovorin significantly improved overall survival compared with transarterial chemoembolization in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

The addition of nivolumab (Opdivo) to chemotherapy resulted in a statistically significant improvement in PFS and evoked higher ORRs in patients with previously untreated advanced or recurrent gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancer.

The designation was granted to DKN-01 for the treatment of patients with gastric and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma whose tumors express high levels of DKK1.

The combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and chemotherapy led to a statistically significant survival benefit among previously untreated patients with PD-L1–positive advanced gastric cancer, gastroesophageal junction cancer, and esophageal adenocarcinoma.

Frontline pembrolizumab (Keytruda) plus chemotherapy significantly improved overall survival, progression-free survival, and objective response rates compared with chemotherapy alone in patients with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic esophageal cancer.

The medical oncologist spoke about the need to make next-generation sequencing available to all patients with gastrointestinal cancer.

The combination immunotherapy was associated with significant positive outcomes among patients with gallbladder carcinoma and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.

Researchers indicated that results of this study suggest the combination of dabrafenib and trametinib could serve as a much-needed treatment option for patients with BRAFV600E-mutated biliary tract cancer.

The trial is evaluating pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in combination with cisplatin plus 5-fluorouracil for the first-line treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic esophageal cancer.

Bristol Myers Squibb’s CheckMate-577 trial, which evaluated nivolumab to treat patients with resected esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer, met the primary end point of disease-free survival.

This study found that smoking was associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer incidence and mortality, while not drinking was correlated with a stronger beneficial effect of garlic supplementation on gastric cancer prevention.

In this multi-institutional study, regorafenib demonstrated modest clinical efficacy in heavily pretreated patients with biliary tract cancer.

The co-leader of the NCI Center for Cancer Research Liver Cancer Program discussed the clinical utility of the blood test and how it could potentially change liver cancer diagnoses moving forward.

Merck and Eisai announced that the FDA issued a complete response letter to its accelerated approval applications for the combination use of pembrolizumab plus lenvatinib to treat patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

In this open-label, randomized, phase 2 trial, treatment with trastuzumab deruxtecan led to significant improvements in response and overall survival in patients with HER2-positive gastric cancer.

Researchers have developed a new blood test that may help in identifying individuals who are likely to develop hepatocellular carcinoma.

The FDA approved nivolumab for the treatment of patients with unresectable advanced, recurrent or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma after prior fluoropyrimidine- and platinum-based chemotherapy.

The FDA approved atezolizumab in combination with bevacizumab for the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma who have not received prior systemic therapy.

Patients with pretreated microsatellite instability-high cancers treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors were found to have high activity, independent of tumor type and drug used.

A phase II study presented at AACR found that the combination of atezolizumab plus cobimetinib improved cancer control in some patients with biliary tract cancer.

The phase II study found that nivolumab was well tolerated and demonstrated moderate efficacy with durable response in patients with refractory biliary tract cancer.

Researchers found a steady increase in racial inequalities of the mortality rate from liver cancer from 1998-2016 after lifesaving drugs for hepatitis C virus were introduced.

A recent study published in JAMA Oncology revealed that quality improvement initiatives are necessary to optimize treatment and lessen chemotherapy interruption and noncompletion rates among patients with squamous cell anal carcinoma.

The study was presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Virtual Meeting 2020 and demonstrated encouraging preliminary antitumor activity with objective responses as a monotherapy and in combination with nivolumab.

This study found a substantial difference in the number of agents available for use in the metastatic and adjuvant settings for non-small cell lung cancer, breast cancer, and colon cancer.

Identifying early predictors of poor quality of life could allow for the identification of patients who may benefit from early referral to palliative and supportive care according to the researchers.

This is the first FDA approval for this patient population.

Leading cancer experts from across Europe issued an international expert consensus statement regarding radiotherapy treatment options for patients with rectal cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The FDA approved the combination use of encorafenib and cetuximab for the treatment of adult patients with BRAFV600E-positive metastatic colorectal cancer.

In a recent study, researchers indicated that primary liver cancer prevention schedules should give more attention to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and elderly patients.