Colorectal Cancer

The combination of atezolizumab and cobimetinib failed to demonstrate a significant benefit compared with regorafenib in a phase III study of heavily pretreated patients with advanced colorectal cancer.

Michael J. Overman, MD, discusses the combination regimen of nivolumab and ipilimumab in metastatic colorectal cancer and highlights existing challenges that still need to be addressed in future research.

A retrospective study revealed an increase in the incidence of colorectal cancer in patients <50 years across all income brackets and demographic groups, according to investigators from The University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School. The findings were presented at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Although biomarker discovery has been a challenge in colorectal cancer, new findings suggest the presence of select polymorphisms may be promising in predicting treatment outcomes in patients with colorectal cancer.

Pashtoon M. Kasi, MD, MBBS, MS, discusses how genetic testing is underutilized in colorectal cancer, despite its ability to guide treatment dosing and adjustment based on the mutations or variations within a patient.

Before a community oncology practice considers getting involved in clinical trials research, there are many factorsto consider. Perhaps foremost is the fact that cancer clinical trials provide the evidence base for new advances in oncology. 

Artificial intelligence has made inroads in many industries—banking, finance, security—but its adoption in healthcare has been lagging and real-world clinical implementation has yet to become a reality. Nonetheless, proponents say it is only a matter of time and pilot programs are starting to yield some practical results. 

Pashtoon M. Kasi, MD, MBBS, MS, discusses the patient populations with colorectal cancer that are likely to benefit from immunotherapy treatment.

Wells A. Messersmith, MD, reviews key updates to the NCCN guidelines for the treatment of colorectal cancer.

The combination of FOLFOXIRI plus molecular targeted therapies, including bevacizumab, was effective as a first-line treatment in metastatic colorectal cancer, according to findings from a retrospective study recently published in <em>Oncotarget.</em>

The clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of patients with colorectal cancer have been updated by NCCN to include the combination of&nbsp;encorafenib plus binimetinib in addition to EGFR inhibition with either cetuximab or panitumumab as a Category 2a treatment recommendation for patients with <em>BRAF</em> V600E&ndash;mutant metastatic CRC, after 1 or 2 prior therapies for metastatic disease.

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

Optimal Treatment of Chemoresistant mCRC

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&ndash;Medicare linked database.

In an interview with <em>Targeted Therapies in Oncology</em>, Michael Cusnir, MD, explained that Y-90 is a type of beta emitter that is extremely focused, which allows for the treatment to be localized without affecting healthy portions of the liver or other structures surrounding the liver; it is delivered to selectively embolize the liver.

The majority of younger patients ultimately diagnosed with colorectal cancer waited 3 to 12 months to see a doctor after symptoms began and were commonly misdiagnosed with&nbsp;issues such as hemorrhoids, irritable bowel syndrome, and anemia, according to recent findings.