Colorectal Cancer

Axel Grothey, MD, discusses the results from the safety lead-in phase of the BEACON CRC trial investigating the triplet regimen of BRAF inhibitor encorafenib, MEK inhibitor binimetinib, and anti-EGFR antibody cetuximab in&nbsp;patients with&nbsp;<em>BRAF</em>V600E-mutant metastatic colorectal cancer.

A&nbsp;direct-to-consumer genetic test has been approved by the FDA for providing a&nbsp;risk report on MUTYH-associated polyposis, a hereditary colorectal cancer syndrome, according to&nbsp;23andMe, the personal genetics company that manufactures the test.<br /> &nbsp;

Michael J. Overman, MD, discusses the data presented at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium for the phase II CheckMate-142 in previously treated patients with microsatellite instability-high or mismatch repair-deficient metastatic colorectal cancer.

Treatment with&nbsp;durvalumab demonstrated&nbsp;objective responses in approximately one-fourth of patients with&nbsp;microsatellite instability-high advanced solid tumors, including colorectal cancer, according to data from 2 preliminary clinical trials.

When&nbsp;durvalumab and tremelimumab were combined with&nbsp;best supportive care, the combination reduced the risk of progression or death by 28% compared with best supportive care alone, according to findings from a phase II clinical trial.&nbsp;

Updated findings from the&nbsp;safety lead-in phase of the BEACON CRC trial showed an estimated survival time beyond historic controls from treatment with a triplet combination of&nbsp;encorafenib, binimetinib, and cetuximab for patients with&nbsp;<em>BRAF&nbsp;</em>V600E-mutant metastatic colorectal cancer.&nbsp;

Pashtoon M. Kasi, MD, MBBS, MS, discusses how the triplet regimen of the BRAF inhibitor encorafenib, the MEK inhibitor binimetinib, and the EGFR inhibitor cetuximab, will impact the treatment landscape for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

Pashtoon M. Kasi, MD, MBBS, MS,&nbsp;discusses recent advances with individualized medicine in CRC, as well as the unmet needs that still exist in this area.

Due to the significant decline in smoking and an increase in advances for early cancer detection and screening, the cancer death rate has declined 27% in the United States from 1991 to 2016, according to the American Cancer Society&rsquo;s annual report on cancer rates.

Al B. Benson III, MD, FACP, FASCO, professor of medicine at Northwestern University, shares advice to community oncologists treating patients with colorectal cancer. He emphasizes looking carefully at different patient characteristics before making treatment decisions.

The first patient has been enrolled in the pivotal phase III AGENT trial, which is investigating arfolitixorin in combination with 5-fluorouracil, oxaliplatin, and bevacizumab compared with FOLFOX plus bevacizumab in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, according to Isofol Medical AB, the company developing arfolitixorin.

Novel immunomodulatory agent pixatimod combined with nivolumab, a PD-1 inhibitor, may benefit patients with advanced bowel cancers, including a small subset of those with colorectal cancer considered to be microsatellite stable.

Real-world dosing data for regorafenib in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer was presented at the 2018 ESMO Congress from the prospective, observational CORRELATE study.

Over the past 15 years, cancer therapy has been revolutionized through the development and use of antibodies that block T-cell inhibition via immune checkpoint, such as CTLA-4 and PD-1.

Wasif Saif, MD, MBBS, recently talked about the treatment considerations and decisions he makes when treating patients with colorectal cancer. Saif explained his treatment decisions based on a case scenario during a <em>Targeted Oncology</em> live case-based peer perspectives presentation.

During a <em>Targeted Oncology </em>live case-based peer perspectives presentation, L. Wayne Keiser, MD, talked about the treatment considerations and decisions he makes when treating patients with colorectal cancer. Keiser, a medical oncologist at St. Joseph Health Medical Group, Santa Rosa, California, explained his treatment decisions for the based on a case scenario of a patient with <em>KRAS</em>-mutated metastatic CRC.

Tanios Bekaii-Saab, MD, discusses how community oncologists can play an important role in the advancement of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers despite not having access to major trials.

Cathy Eng, MD, discusses the current paradigm of GI cancers, specifically sharing insight on colorectal cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma.<br /> &nbsp;

Complex drug trials that use a single protocol to test either 1 agent against multiple cancers or multiple agents against 1 cancer can make drug testing faster, cheaper, and more informative, particularly when those trials use the data to constantly improve protocols.

The National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable may have come up short in its goal to get 80% of American adults &ge;50 years screened for colorectal cancer by 2018, but David A. Greenwald, MD, told his audience at the 2018 American College of Gastroenterology Annual Meeting that the group can point to smaller victories that deserve recognition.

According to findings from the first neoadjuvant study to test ipilimumab (Yervoy) plus nivolumab&nbsp;(Opdivo) in early-stage mismatch repair deficient tumors and MMR proficient colon cancers, the combination induced major pathologic responses from all 7 patients with dMMR tumors.&nbsp;

In a presentation at the 33^rd Annual Meeting &amp; Pre-Conference Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cance, Dr. Galon discussed the definition of the immune contexture of Immunoscore, its international validation for the risk-classification of stage I-III colon cancer, and the potential value of Immunoscore in stage IV metastatic disease.

Michael J. Overman, MD, discusses recent data reported at the 2018 ESMO Congress for the frontline combination of nivolumab plus ipilimumab in microsatellite instability-high metastatic colorectal cancer.

An analysis of immunologic biomarkers in a phase II trial of patients with advanced colorectal cancer treated with chemotherapy and PD-1 checkpoint inhibition identified several factors associated with a patient&rsquo;s beneficial response to the chemo-immunotherapy regimen, according to findings presented during the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer.

Matthew Farren, PhD, post-doctoral fellow, Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, discusses immunologic biomarker findings in a study of mFOLFOX6 plus pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in colorectal cancer.