GI CANCERS

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.

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.

Tanios Bekaii-Saab, MD, professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic,&nbsp;discusses optimizing sequencing beyond disease progression in colorectal cancer (CRC).

Maria Ignez Braghiroli, MD, discusses a study that parsed out patients with solely NRAS-mutated colorectal cancer, what the current treatment paradigm is for these patients, and how the mutation status of a patient with colorectal cancer may affect their treatment.

The combination of PEGPH20 with nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine demonstrated improvements in progression-free survival compared with nab-paclitaxel/gemcitabine alone for untreated patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.

Tanios Bekaii-Saab, MD, discusses&nbsp;questions regarding regorafenib and TAS-102 in mCRC, compares the mechanisms of action and toxicities of both therapies, and shares his views on the optimal sequencing of the 2 agents.

Multidisciplinary tumor boards led to higher utilization of guideline-recommended curative therapies, which was associated with improved overall survival (OS) for patients with early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma.

Alan P. Venook, MD, discusses several of the big queries that remain in mCRC and the possible explanations for survival differences between left- and right-sided tumors. He also explained how answering these questions could pave the way for more novel treatment approaches.

The FDA has granted a priority review to a supplemental biologics license application (sBLA) for pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for previously treated patients with advanced microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) cancer.