GI CANCERS

John L. Marshall, MD, chief, Division of Hematology and Oncology, Medstar Georgetown University Hospital, discusses the current state of liver-directed therapy in metastatic colorectal cancer. 

The results of a randomized trial showed patients with advanced colorectal cancer had a modest gain in progression-free survival with the addition of irinotecan to standard chemotherapy plus an angiogenesis inhibitor as induction therapy.

The latest clinical trial data strongly support anti&ndash;PD-1 therapy as the new second-line treatment standard for patients with microsatellite instability-high metastatic colorectal cancer, says Michael J. Overman, MD.<br /> &nbsp;

The addition of ADI-PEG 20, a pegylated form of an arginine-depleting enzyme, to nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine has encouraging activity in patients with advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma while demonstrating minimal additional toxicity over that with cytotoxic therapy alone.

<span style="font-size:12px">Treatment administration and supportive care costs were significantly higher for patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer who were treated with FOLFIRINOX as first-line therapy compared with the combination of nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine.</span>

A gemcitabine-free regimen resulted in numerically better survival compared with a conventional gemcitabine regimen in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer, results of a randomized trial showed.

Overall survival was improved and disease progression was slowed in patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma when nanoliposomal irinotecan was added to 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin, irrespective of treatment history, a posthoc analysis of a randomized trial showed.

An immunotherapy-containing regimen was well-tolerated and had a manageable safety profile in patients with microsatellite-high metastatic colorectal cancer, according to results of a preliminary clinical evaluation presented at the 2017 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium<span style="font-size:10.8333px">.</span>

Mark S. Talamonti, MD, clinical professor, NorthShore University HealthSystem, discusses the current and future role of minimally invasive surgery in pancreatic cancer.

Gabriela Chiorean, MD, professor of medicine, discusses an ongoing phase I study of nivolumab with nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine in pancreatic cancer.

As many as one-third of patients with treatment-resistant colorectal cancer attained objective responses with the stemness inhibitor napabucasin plus FOLFIRI chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab.

Patients receiving the same diagnosis, colorectal cancer with synchronous peritoneal metastases (PM), were offered different treatments that led to dramatically different outcomes based upon the institution in which they were diagnosed.

Patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma had objective responses and prolonged survival when treated with single-agent nivolumab, data from a dose escalation/expansion trial showed.

The incidence of hand-foot syndrome occurred significantly less often in patients treated with S-1 compared to capecitabine in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

Geoffrey Y. Ku, MD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the future of immune checkpoint inhibition in gastric and esophageal cancers.

Philip A. Philip, MD, PhD, professor of oncology and pharmacology, Karmanos Cancer Institute, Wayne State University, discusses how researchers in the pancreatic cancer field can learn from recent negative clinical trials.

Salah-Eddin Al-Batran, MD, medical oncologist and Director at the Institute of Clinical Cancer Research, Frankurt, Germany, discusses the findings of a study of paclitaxel with everolimus in gastric cancer.

Lenvatinib was shown to be noninferior to standard therapy with sorafenib in the frontline treatment of patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

Adding a platinum to standard gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel led to impressive responses and overall survival rates in a small pilot trial in patients with stage IV pancreatic cancer.

CCX872-B, a potent, selective oral inhibitor of CCR2, added to FOLFIRINOX was associated with a tumor control rate of 78% at week 12 in a single-arm study of patients with locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Encouraging clinical activity with limited toxicity in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer will lead to further evaluation of nivolumab plus nab-paclitaxel with gemcitabine, investigators reported at the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium in San Francisco.

According to results from a randomized clinical trial,^&nbsp;adding vemurafenib to the routinely employed combination of irinotecan and cetuximab prolonged progression-free survival in patients with <em>BRAF</em>-mutant metastatic colorectal cancer.

In an update of the phase II CheckMate-142 trial,&nbsp;the promising antitumor activity of nivolumab in patients with microsatellite instability-high metastatic colorectal cancer was sustained.

Eileen M. O&rsquo;Reilly, MD, discusses results of a randomized phase II trial of tarextumab in combination with nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine in patients with untreated metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Cabozantinib demonstrated clinical activity in patients with advanced carcinoid and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, according to the results of a single-arm phase II study.&nbsp;

In an analysis of 2 randomized trials,patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal juncture cancer derived a survival benefit from treatment with the monoclonal antibody ramucirumab, regardless of their age.<br /> &nbsp;

Supporting the concept of post-progression survival and the influence of different patterns of progression, a new analysis showed patients with advanced HCC had a worse survival following progression if they developed new extrahepatic lesions as opposed to other types of progression.

Continuing trastuzumab beyond progression may improve survival in patients with HER2-positive advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma who progress on first-line trastuzumab plus platinum-based chemotherapy.

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.