GI CANCERS

The healthcare community is still awaiting a response from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to the opposition of the agency’s proposal to substantially revise the Medicare Part D protected drug classes.

Overtreating men 70 years or older with prostate cancer cost Medicare more than $1.2 billion from 2004 to 2007, according to the results of a retrospective study using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results–Medicare linked database.

A fourth trastuzumab biosimilar has been granted approval by the FDA. The approval was for PF-05280014 for the treatment of patients with HER2-overexpressing breast cancer as well as HER2-overexpressing metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.

AstraZeneca and Merck, the codevelopers of olaparib, have announced that findings from the phase III POLO trial showed use of the PARP inhibitor as a frontline maintenance for patients with germline <em>BRCA</em>-mutated metastatic adenocarcinoma of the pancreas&nbsp;significantly reduced the risk of disease progression or death versus placebo.

Based on data from the phase III TAGS trial, TAS-102 has been approved by the FDA as a treatment for&nbsp;adult patients with metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma previously treated with at least 2 prior lines of chemotherapy that included a fluoropyrimidine, a platinum, either a taxane or irinotecan, and if appropriate, HER2/neu-targeted therapy.

Merck,&nbsp;the developer of pembrolizumab, has announced that the coprimary endpoints of the&nbsp;KEYNOTE-240 trial were not met, as adding the agent&nbsp;to best supportive care failed&nbsp;to improve&nbsp;progression-free or overall survival in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma who were previously treated with systemic therapy.

Hani M. Babiker, MD, shares his advice for community oncologists treating patients with pancreatic cancer.

General Cancer

Frontline treatment with ibrutinib plus nab-paclitaxel/gemcitabine did not have a statistically significant benefit in progression-free survival or overall survival compared to placebo plus&nbsp;nab-paclitaxel/gemcitabine in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Achieving an objective response to TKI therapy was associated with longer overall survival in patients with&nbsp;previously untreated hepatocellular carcinoma, according to findings of a retrospective analysis presented during the 2019 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Regorafenib reduced the risk of progression by 51% compared with placebo in patients with&nbsp;metastatic or unresectable biliary tract cancer who were previously treated with gemcitabine and platinum-based chemotherapy, according to results from the phase II REACHIN trial that were presented at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.&nbsp;

Combined BRAF and MEK inhibition induced a promising response rate and survival rates among patients with&nbsp;<em>BRAF&nbsp;</em>V600E&ndash;mutated biliary tract cancer (BTC), according to the results of the ROAR trial that were presented&nbsp;during the 2019 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.