Colorectal Cancer

Certain patients with BRAF non-V600-mutant, RAS-dependent metastatic colorectal cancer may be sensitive to anti-EGFR therapy, according to the results of a&nbsp;a multicenter pooled analysis recently published in Clinical Cancer Research.&nbsp;The analysis suggested that those with&nbsp;RAS<em>-</em>dependent tumors were more likely to respond to anti-EGFR therapy than those with&nbsp;RAS-independent tumors.&nbsp;

The use of more aggressive frontline chemotherapy regimens plus biologics for the treatment of patients with meta-static colorectal cancer may be warranted based on mutational status, tumor sidedness, treatment goals, prognosis, and patient disposition, according to a presentation by Axel Grothey, MD, at the 14th Annual New Orleans Summer Cancer Meeting, held July 19 to 21, 2019, in Louisiana.

Heinz-Josef Lenz, MD, discusses the significance of the latest updates in the CheckMate 142 trial exploring an immunotherapy treatment combination in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer whose tumors are microsatellite instability&ndash;high or mismatch repair deficient.

John L. Marshall, MD, spoke with a group of physicians during a&nbsp;Targeted Oncology&nbsp;live case-based peer perspectives discussion on the different classes of agents available to treat patients with gastrointestinal cancers.

In an interview with <em>Targeted Oncology</em> following his presentation at the <em>3rd Annual</em> Congress on Oncology &amp; Pathology hosted by PER&reg;, Gulam A. Manji, MD, discussed the emergence of new therapies for targeting mutations in patients with colon cancer.

At a recent&nbsp;Targeted Oncology&nbsp;live case-based peer perspectives event, Kanwal P. S. Raghav, MBBS, MD, presented a case scenario of a patient with colorectal cancer who has already gone through first- and second-line treatments. Raghav explained the treatment considerations he would make with similar patients in the clinic and the treatment options available to this patient with CRC in this setting.

Overall survival was not improved with the use of lefitolimod as a maintenance therapy compared with local standard-of-care therapy in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, according to early findings from the pivotal phase III IMPALA trial. The median OS was 22.0 months with lefitolimod compared with 21.9 months with standard of care, which failed to meet the primary endpoint of the trial.

Howard S. Hochester, MD, discusses findings from the pooled safety analysis of TAS-102 in previously treated patients with colorectal cancer and gastric/gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.

A phase III trial is being initiated to evaluate the combination of regorafenib and nivolumab in comparison with regorafenib alone in patients with microsatellite stable metastatic colorectal cancer.

A dose-escalation strategy for giving regorafenib improved the frequency of adverse events while still demonstrating similar efficacy to a standard-dose strategy in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

General Cancer

Updated results from an interim analysis of the phase III BEACON CRC trial demonstrated a significant improvement in overall survival for the triplet regimen of encorafenib, binimetinib, and cetuximab compared with cetuximab and irinotecan-containing regimens in patients with previously treated&nbsp;<em>BRAF&nbsp;</em>V600E&ndash;mutant metastatic colorectal cancer.

In an interview with <em>Targeted Oncology</em>, Shota Fukuoka, MD, PhD, of the Department of Gastrointestinal Oncology, National Cancer Center Hospital East, Kashiwa, Japan, commented on the results of the study and the future plans to expand the research with a larger cohort.

The FDA has approved Zirabev, a biosimilar to bevacizumab for 5 indications.&nbsp;Zirabev has been approved for the treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer; unresectable, locally advanced, recurrent or metastatic non-squamous non&ndash;small cell lung cancer; recurrent glioblastoma; metastatic renal cell carcinoma; and persistent, recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer.

Tanios Bekaii-Saab, MD, discusses the results from the phase III BEACON CRC study; investigators evaluated the efficacy and safety of triplet encorafenib, binimetinib, and cetuximab in patients with&nbsp;BRAF&nbsp;V600E&ndash;mutant metastatic colorectal cancer who previously received up to 2 lines of prior therapy.

The American Cancer Society, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Baptist Cancer Center, and the Mayo Clinic report&nbsp;that treatment patterns varied markedly by cancer type and care facility setting for patients with de novo metastatic disease who died within 1 month after diagnosis, based on an analysis of data from 100,848 patients collected from the National Cancer Database, a hospital-based cancer registry that captures 70% of patients in the United States with a new diagnosis.

The FDA recently released 5 new draft guidance documents that promote broader patient eligibility for cancer clinical trials. The policies encourage inclusion of certain individuals who were previously disqualified due to medical conditions or biological factors, including brain metastases, organ dysfunction, prior or concurrent malignancies, chronic infections, and age.