GI Cancers Symposium

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

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.

When durvalumab and tremelimumab were combined with 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. 

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;

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.

Treatment with&nbsp;TAS-102 led to an improvement in overall survival among patients with&nbsp;metastatic gastric/gastroesophageal junction cancer. The improvement was also seen both in patients who had and had not undergone prior gastrectomy, according to a subgroup analysis from the phase III TAGS study.&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.

Based on findings from the phase I/II NivoRam study, investigators at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium reported that the combination of&nbsp;nivolumab and ramucirumab is active in patients with&nbsp;previously treated advanced gastric adenocarcinoma.

In findings reported at the&nbsp;2019 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, 67% of patients with untreated metastatic HER2-positive esophagogastric adenocarcinoma treated with&nbsp;the combination of pembrolizumab, trastuzumab, and chemotherapy&nbsp;remained progression-free at 6 months.

According to findings from the&nbsp;KEYNOTE-181 trial, pembrolizumab demonstrated a significant improvement in overall survival in patients with PD-L1&ndash;positive advanced or metastatic esophageal or esophageal junction carcinoma who progressed on standard therapy, marking the first time a PD-1 inhibitor has demonstrated a survival improvement in this patient population.

According to findings presented at the 2018 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium,&nbsp;the combination of the&nbsp;VEGFR-2 inhibitor ramucirumab (Cyramza) plus the anti&ndash;PD-L1 agent durvalumab (Imfinzi)&nbsp;demonstrated antitumor activity in a phase Ia/b study of patients with previously treated advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.

Superior overall survival was induced with sequencing regorafenib (Stivarga) before cetuximab (Erbitux) compared with the reverse sequence in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer following failure of standard chemotherapy, according to findings from the phase II&nbsp;REVERCE study presented at the 2018 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

According to findings from the phase III&nbsp;CELESTIAL trial released ahead of the&nbsp;2018 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium,&nbsp;cabozantinib (Cabometyx) improved median overall survival by 2.2 months compared with placebo&nbsp;for patients with previously treated advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

Patients with heavily pretreated gastrointestinal stromal tumors responded to treatment with nivolumab (Opdivo) alone and in combination with ipilimumab (Yervoy), according to findings of a randomized phase II study presented at the 2018 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

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

Patients with malignant gastric outlet obstruction who received surgical palliation maintained their quality of life and improved solid food intake for at least 3 months after surgery.

A novel combination regimen of ramucirumab plus pembrolizumab demonstrated modest activity in patients with previously treated gastric or gastroesophageal juncture cancer.

Ian Chau, MD, discusses interim safety and clinical activity results in patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma from a multi-cohort phase I study of ramucirumab plus pembrolizumab.

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 .

Pathologic complete response (pCR) rates were improved by switching neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimens based on PET imaging after induction chemotherapy in patients with esophageal and gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancers, according to findings from the phase II CALGB 80803 study.

According to findings from the phase III ONO-4538-12 trial, treatment with nivolumab (Opdivo) reduced the risk of death by 37% compared with placebo for patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer following second or later-line chemotherapy.

Christophe Mariette, MD, PhD, surgical oncologist and professor of surgery, University Hospital of Lille in France, discusses a nationwide study investigating the impact of age and comorbidities on postoperative mortality after esophageal and gastric cancer surgery.

According to the results of a phase II study, the combination of two specific anti-cancer vaccines, rather than the administration of one as monotherapy, doubles the 1-year survival probability in patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

RAS mutations beyond KRAS exon 2 are negative predictive biomarkers for the EGFR-inhibitor panitumumab in metastatic colorectal cancer, according to an analysis of phase III, second-line data, which are consistent with previously reported data in first-line mCRC.

Patients with carcinoid and pituitary NETs, who have been traditionally chemo-resistant, may obtain "extraordinary responses" with capecitabine and temozolomide (CAPTEM), according to data from an interim analysis of an ongoing phase II study.

According to findings from a four-arm phase III NSABP R-04 trial, single-agent neoadjuvant capecitabine combined with radiation therapy demonstrated similar outcomes as previously established standards of care for patients with stage II or stage III rectal cancer.

The combination of ramucirumab and paclitaxel resulted in a significant prolongation in survival and gains in quality of life when compared to paclitaxel alone for the second-line treatment of patients with metastatic gastric cancer.