GASTRIC CANCER

Pre-operative chemotherapy alone in esophageal cancer may not be the best choice for patients undergoing resection.

Napabucasin, a STAT3-targeted agent, has received an orphan drug status from the FDA for the treatment of patients with gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer.

Hendrik-Tobias Arkenau, MD, PhD, discusses the phase I JAVELIN trial as well as the future of treatments and immunotherapies in the treatment paradigm of gastrointestinal cancers.

Findings for the new immunotherapy agent targeting claudin18.2 (CLDN18.2) presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting raised the possibility of a new therapeutic agent in a tumor type with relatively few current options. When added to standard chemotherapy, the treatment reduced the risk of death or disease progression by approximately 50% for patients with CLDN18.2-positive advanced gastric cancers.

Neratinib, an experimental TKI being developed for breast cancer, achieved a 36% clinical benefit rate in a phase II trial, according to a poster presented June 5, 2016 at the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Gastric cancers with high-level clonal FGFR2 gene amplification responded to AZD4547, a selective FGFR inhibitor, in a phase II open label trial of previously treated, advanced FGFR amplified cancer. Yet tumors with multiple FGFR1 genes, low level or subclonal amplification of FGFR2 did not respond similarly to the drug.

When a recent trial found that apatinib, an experimental VEGFR inhibitor, met its clinical endpoint and showed efficacy as a third-line therapy in treating advanced refractory stomach cancer, one might have expected at least two cheers. After all, gastric cancer is the third most fatal form of the disease globally, and there is currently no standard third-line treatment for advanced patients.

A meta-analysis found that treatment of the bacterium H pylori with antibiotics in a population at high risk for stomach cancer is associated with a reduced incidence rate of stomach cancer.

Drinking alcohol, eating processed meat, and being overweight can each increase an individual's chance of developing stomach cancer.

Immunotherapies have been tested in melanoma, breast, prostate, kidney, and lung cancers, and are now being studied in advanced gastric cancers.

Keith T. Wilson, MD, Thomas F. Frist, Sr. Chair in Medicine, Professor, Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center explains the link between helicobacter pylori (H pylori) and gastric cancer.

Manish A. Shah, MD, medical oncology, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell discusses novel targets in gastric cancer outside of HER2.

Deidre J. Cohen, MD, assistant professor, Department of Medicine, NYU Langone Medical Center, discusses unmet needs as well as future treatment approaches for patients with gastric cancer.

While the ToGA study showed a survival benefit with trastuzumab plus chemotherapy in HER2-positive gastric cancer, the drug proved no more efficacious when given in larger doses, according to Manish Shah, MD.

Sue Naeyaert, senior director of Biosimilars Policy, EMD Serono, discusses the long-term impact that biosimilars could potentially have on the field of oncology.

A phase III study exploring the combination of olaparib and paclitaxel missed its primary endpoint of improvement in overall survival compared with paclitaxel and placebo for patients with advanced gastric cancer.

Salah-Eddin Al-Batran, MD, Medical Oncologist and Director, The Institute of Clinical Cancer Research and Krankenhaus Nordwest-University Cancer Center, Frankfurt, Germany discusses neoadjuvant 5-FU, oxaliplatin and docetaxel (FLOT) versus epirubicin, cisplatin and 5-FU in patients with locally advanced, resectable gastric/esophagogastric junction cancer.

Updated findings from the KEYNOTE-012 trial have demonstrated promising antitumor activity with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in patients with metastatic gastric cancer.

Josep Tabernero, MD, PhD, gave a synopsis, in a talk at the 2015 World Congress on GI Cancer, of novel agents that are under examination for the treatment of patients with gastric cancer.

Despite their promise, checkpoint inhibitors are not effective in every patient, and research suggests the STING (stimulator of interferon genes) pathway may hold important clues as to why some tumors fail to respond.

Growth in healthcare spending in the United States continues to outpace growth in European countries that enjoy a similar standard of living.

A panel of expert clinical investigators discussed details of several treatments and a dozen patient cases involving gastric, colorectal, and pancreatic cancer at a satellite meeting of the 2015 ASCO GI Cancers Symposium.

Representatives Diana DeGette (D, Colorado) and Fred Upton (R, Michigan) recently released a "discussion draft" of the 21st Century Cures Act.

Eric Van Cutsem, MD, PhD, discusses the challenges of using chemotherapy to treat patients with gastric cancer.

Kei Muro, MD, discusses phase II and III trials which examine pembrolizumab as a treatment for patients with advanced gastric cancer.

Manish A Shah, MD, talks about a recent phase II study of FOLFOX with or without onartuzumab, a MET inhibitor, for the treatment of metastatic gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma.

Metastatic disease accounts for the vast majority of cancer-related deaths. Ensuring a definitive diagnosis and the most effective treatment in a timely fashion is essential for extending life expectancy.

Pembrolizumab showed promising antitumor activity and a manageable toxicity profile in patients with metastatic gastric cancer, according to updated findings from the KEYNOTE-012 study.

Adam Bass, MD, assistant professor, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, provides an overview of the four subtypes of gastric cancer identified in a recent study.

Based on data from the phase III RAINBOW trial, the FDA has approved ramucirumab (Cyramza) in combination with paclitaxel as a treatment for patients with previously treated advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma.