Colorectal Cancer

The impact of the recent findings regarding tumor sidedness in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer are potentially practice-changing, with data demonstrating that patients with right-sided tumors have a poorer prognosis than those with left-sided tumors. In addition, sidedness could be clinically relevant as a predictive biomarker of response to standard frontline treatments.

Brian Hemphill, MD, provides insight on some of the challenges currently being faced in GI malignancies—specifically, colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, and gastic cancer—and how molecular profiles of tumors will dramatically change outcomes for these patients.

Michael J. Overman, MD, medical oncologist, Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses updated results from the CheckMate-142 trial, which investigated nivolumab alone or in combination with ipilimumab in patients with DNA mismatch repair deficient/microsatellite instability high metastatic colorectal cancer. 

Arturo Loaiza-Bonilla, MD,&nbsp;the potential role of <em>BRAF</em> and <em>CTNNB1</em> mutations in the survival difference between CRC patients with left- and right-sided tumors.

Ali Maawy, MD, and Patrick M. Boland, MD, provide a brief review of the immune environment of colorectal cancer (CRC) and recently reported studies of immunotherapy in CRC.

John L. Marshall, MD, chief, Division of Hematology and Oncology, Medstar Georgetown University Hospital, discusses the current state of liver-directed therapy in metastatic colorectal cancer.&nbsp;

The results of a randomized trial showed patients with advanced colorectal cancer had a modest gain in progression-free survival with the addition of irinotecan to standard chemotherapy plus an angiogenesis inhibitor as induction therapy.

The latest clinical trial data strongly support anti&ndash;PD-1 therapy as the new second-line treatment standard for patients with microsatellite instability-high metastatic colorectal cancer, says Michael J. Overman, MD.<br /> &nbsp;

An immunotherapy-containing regimen was well-tolerated and had a manageable safety profile in patients with microsatellite-high metastatic colorectal cancer, according to results of a preliminary clinical evaluation presented at the 2017 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium<span style="font-size:10.8333px">.</span>

As many as one-third of patients with treatment-resistant colorectal cancer attained objective responses with the stemness inhibitor napabucasin plus FOLFIRI chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab.

Patients receiving the same diagnosis, colorectal cancer with synchronous peritoneal metastases (PM), were offered different treatments that led to dramatically different outcomes based upon the institution in which they were diagnosed.

The incidence of hand-foot syndrome occurred significantly less often in patients treated with S-1 compared to capecitabine in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

According to results from a randomized clinical trial,^&nbsp;adding vemurafenib to the routinely employed combination of irinotecan and cetuximab prolonged progression-free survival in patients with <em>BRAF</em>-mutant metastatic colorectal cancer.

In an update of the phase II CheckMate-142 trial,&nbsp;the promising antitumor activity of nivolumab in patients with microsatellite instability-high metastatic colorectal cancer was sustained.

Engaging in moderate physical activity daily was shown to reduce mortality and cancer progression&nbsp;in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

A watch-and-wait approach is emerging as a potential treatment strategy for patients with rectal cancer, according to the results of real-world data from a large observational study .

Tanios Bekaii-Saab, MD, professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic,&nbsp;discusses optimizing sequencing beyond disease progression in colorectal cancer (CRC).

Maria Ignez Braghiroli, MD, discusses a study that parsed out patients with solely NRAS-mutated colorectal cancer, what the current treatment paradigm is for these patients, and how the mutation status of a patient with colorectal cancer may affect their treatment.

Tanios Bekaii-Saab, MD, discusses&nbsp;questions regarding regorafenib and TAS-102 in mCRC, compares the mechanisms of action and toxicities of both therapies, and shares his views on the optimal sequencing of the 2 agents.

Alan P. Venook, MD, The Madden Family Distinguished Professor of Medical Oncology and Translational Research at the University of California, San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses key considerations in the selection of frontline therapy in metastatic colorectal cancer.

Selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) using yttrium 90 (Y-90) microspheres has been recommended for selected patients with chemotherapy-resistant or refractory metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) with liver metastases in an update to the NCCN guidelines for colon cancer and rectal cancer.

Michael Morse, MD, discusses treatment considerations and options for 2 cases of patients with colorectal cancer