GI CANCERS

Approach to Unresectable Stage 4 Gastric Adenocarcinoma

Tanios Bekaii-Saab, MD, shares his insights on the results from the ReDOS trial, as well as the IMblaze370 trial for patients with mCRC

Cathy Eng, MD, discusses recent data that could shape the treatment landscape for several GI cancers.

Manish A. Shah, MD, discusses key details of the KEYNOTE-180 trial, as well as results from the BRIGHTER study. He also shared his insights on the unanswered questions that still need to be addressed in the field.

Thierry Conroy, MD, a medical oncologist and director at the Institut de Cancerologie de Lorraine in Nancy, France, shares some background on the PRODIGE 24/CCTG PA.6 trial where a modified FOLFIRINOX regimen was found superior to the adjuvant standard of care, gemcitabine, in patients with resected pancreatic cancer.

According to findings from the CheckMate-032 trial, clinically meaningful and durable antitumor activity was found with nivolumab (Opdivo) alone and nivolumab plus ipilimumab in heavily-pretreated patients with esophagogastric cancer.

A look back at all the FDA news that happened in the month of August 2018, including several new approvals, a priority review, breakthrough therapy designations, and more in a variety of cancer types.

No one doubts that molecular testing has rapidly improved care for patients with colorectal cancer, Stanley R. Hamilton, MD, told his audience at the 2nd Annual International Congress on Oncology Pathology.

Results from a prospective study involving 15,045 tumor samples that underwent next-generation sequencing using MSK-IMPACT and microsatellite-instability testing demonstrate that MSI-high and DNA mismatch-repair deficient tumors are predictive of Lynch syndrome across all tumor types. The results suggest that LS-associated cancers may be more heterogeneous than previously suspected.

Lenvatinib (Lenvima) has been granted approval by the FDA as a first-line treatment for patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma, based on data from the phase III REFLECT trial.

John L. Marshall, MD, chief of the  Division of Hematology/Oncology at Medstar Georgetown University Hospital, Otto J. Ruesch Center for the Cure of Gastrointestinal Cancer, discusses the use of chemotherapy in patients with colorectal or other gastrointestinal cancers. He also highlights the importance of understanding each individual patient’s needs before making a treatment decision. 

Patients with cholangiocarcinoma harboring <em>FGFR2 </em>gene fusions, including patients&nbsp;who had progressed on an FGFR inhibitor, saw a clinically meaningful benefit with TAS-120, according to&nbsp;phase I results presented at the 2018 World Congress on GI Cancer.&nbsp;

The triplet combination of&nbsp;the BRAF inhibitor encorafenib, the MEK inhibitor binimetinib, and the EGFR inhibitor cetuximab has been granted a breakthrough therapy designation by the FDA for the&nbsp;treatment of patients with <em>BRAF</em> V600E&ndash;mutant metastatic colorectal cancer following 1 or 2 prior lines of treatment in the metastatic setting.&nbsp;The designation will expedite the development and review of the novel triplet in this setting.

Compared with sorafenib (Nexavar) alone, sorafenib in combination with selective internal radiation therapy did not provide a significant survival improvement for patients with&nbsp;advanced hepatocellular carcinoma,&nbsp;according to results from the palliative cohort of the SORAMIC trial presented at the 2018 World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer in Barcelona, Spain. However, overall survival improvements were seen with the combination in select subgroup analyses.

The Gene Upshaw Memorial Tahoe Forest Cancer Center has established a cancer care model to address disparities in lung cancer in rural areas. By partnering with the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and their UC Davis Cancer Care Network, they have been able to address a large issue in cancer care, where 20% of the American population is living in a rural area without access to a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center.

Diane Simeone, MD, director of the Pancreatic Cancer Center and associate director of Translational Research at NYU Langone&rsquo;s Perlmutter Cancer Center, discusses the current state of the pancreatic cancer treatment paradigm. She says it is a very exciting time for this field as there is a large body of researchers now involved.

The European Union has approved&nbsp;PF-05280014 (Trazimera), a biosimilar for trastuzumab (Herceptin), to treat&nbsp;patients with HER2 overexpressing metastatic or early breast cancer and HER2 overexpressing metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.