GI CANCERS

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has named Luis A. Diaz, MD, as the head of the Division of Solid Tumor Oncology. He will be taking over the role as the former head of the department, David R. Spriggs, MD, steps down following nearly 13 years of service.

Nivolumab (Opdivo) demonstrated promise as a second-line therapy for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), according to results of the CheckMate-040 trial presented at the 2017 International Liver Congress.

Axel Grothey, MD, addresses the need for tailoring treatments for patients with mCRC in the first-line setting, the debate over tumor sidedness in mCRC, and what ongoing research in the field might reveal over the next year.

Rahmi Oklu, MD, PhD, sheds light on the various approaches physicians use to treat patients who have CRC with liver metastases.

Regorafenib has been approved by the FDA as a second-line treatment for patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma who have previously received sorafenib.

Bert O’Neil, MD, discusses the need for novel treatments for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer as well as why researchers need to develop a deeper understanding of tumor biology.

Amit Singal, MD, discusses the recent successes in the HCC treatment landscape and the challenges that still remain.

Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the trial of MEK162 in combination with gemcitabine and cisplatin in patients with untreated advanced biliary cancer.

According to an assessment of a large global dataset reported at the 2017 International Liver Congress, log₁₀ alpha fetoprotein level in the blood directly corresponded to the years of posttreatment survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma who were previously treated with sorafenib had long-term responses to nivolumab of more than 1 year.

In patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, liver-targeting treatment with selective internal radiation therapy more effectively controlled liver tumor progression and was better tolerated, but the therapy did not improve rates of overall or progression-free survival over sorafenib.

Mipsagargin, a first-in-class prodrug, showed promising antitumor activity and enabled patients with advanced sorafenib-refractory hepatocellular carcinoma to achieve disease stabilization.

Jordi Bruix, MD, discusses findings of a comparison of modified (m)RECIST and RECIST 1.1 assessments in the RESORCE trial.

In updated results presented at the 2017 International Liver Congress, Spanish researchers raised a red flag regarding observations of unexpected higher rates of hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence following treatment with direct-acting antivirals for hepatitis C virus infection.

Researchers have identified higher levels of hepatocytes positive for pERK immunostaining and greater microvascular invasion as independent prognostic factors of recurrence in patients treated with sorafenib Nexavar for hepatocellular carcinoma.

Results from a study of microRNA-34a and natural killer cells presented at the 2017 International Liver Congress suggest that microRNA-34a, one of the most documented tumor suppressor microRNAs, could have a role in regulating cytotoxicity and development of the effector NK cells and their target cells.

Patients were at no elevated risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma after achieving sustained virologic response following treatment with direct-acting antiviral therapy for hepatitis C compared to interferon therapy.

Matthew B. Yurgelun, MD, discusses a colorectal cancer study which found nearly 10% of the individuals had an inherited mutation in a cancer susceptibility gene.

Molecular testing of patients with colorectal cancer should be incorporated into standard practice to establish the mutations each patient has that would affect their response to treatment with EGFR-targeted therapies.

John L. Marshall, MD, discusses efforts to determine the underlying molecular basis for the sidedness issue in colorectal cancer.

Manish A. Shah, MD, discusses the HERACLES clinical trial, which explored treatment with trastuzumab (Herceptin) and lapatinib (Tykerb) in patients with HER2-amplified metastatic colorectal cancer.

The PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab showed single-agent activity in previously treated patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal, resulting in an overall response rate of 24.3%.

Manish Shah, MD, discusses ongoing efforts to understand the distinction between early-onset CRC and traditional CRC.