GIST

The US Department of Defense has selected Sanjeevani Arora, PhD, as the recipient of the Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program Career Development award and grant for fiscal year 2017. The grant will be used to fund clinical efforts benefiting both military and civilian patients.

According to early results of an ongoing early-phase study presented at the 2018 Society of Interventional Radiology Annual Scientific Meeting, image-guided injections of talimogene laherparepvec immunotherapy (T-VEC, Imylgic) were deemed tolerable in patients with advanced-stage liver metastases.

Internationally renowned expert, Johanna C. Bendell, MD, has been promoted to chief development officer at Sarah Cannon. Her title responsibilities include developing and expanding physician, site, and Pharma relationships across the Sarah Cannon Network, thereby expanding the organization’s efforts to bring more qualitative treatment options to its patients.

Prostate Cancer

John Marshall, MD, recently discussed the treatment options and decisions he makes when treating patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Marshall explained his treatment decisions based on 2 case scenarios during a <em>Targeted Oncology </em>live case-based peer perspectives presentation.

According to results from the CALGB 8903 study published in the <em>Journal of Clinical Oncology, </em>there is an association between total nut intake and improved outcomes in patients with stage III colon cancer. Results of the study showed patients who ate at least 2 servings of nuts per week had superior disease-free survival and overall survival.

The FDA has granted a fast track designation to pamrevlumab for the treatment of patients with locally advanced, unresectable pancreatic cancer, according to FibroGen, the manufacturer of the first-in-class anti-CTGF antibody.

According to findings from the phase III REFLECT trial now published online in the <em>Lancet,</em>^&nbsp;lenvatinib improved progression-free survival and was noninferior for overall survival compared with sorafenib for the frontline treatment of patients with&nbsp;unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

Hackensack Meridian <em>Health</em> John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center has appointed Louis M. Weiner, MD, to its advisory board. Weiner is the director of the Georgetown Lombardi Cancer Center and director of the MedStar Georgetown Cancer Institute.

Michael A. Morse, MD, discusses a number of key trials that have broadened the treatment landscape of mCRC, the importance of toxicity management in this setting, and other ongoing developments in GI cancers.

Thomas Karasic, MD, investigator at Penn Medicine, discusses a phase II trial of palbociclib (Ibrance) in patients with advanced&nbsp;<br /> esophageal or gastric cancer.<br /> &nbsp;

Updated findings of the CheckMate-142 study presented by Michael J. Overman, MD, at the 2018 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium&nbsp;continued to support the use of nivolumab alone or in combination with ipilimumab for previously treated patients with DNA mismatch repair-deficient/microsatellite instability-high metastatic colorectal cancer.

NYU Langone Health&rsquo;s Perlmutter Cancer Center has announced that Paul E. Oberstein, MD, a nationally renowned clinician-scientist, will serve as director of Gastrointestinal (GI) Medical Oncology and assistant director of its recently established Pancreatic Cancer Center.

Maria Svensson, MD, Lund University, discusses associations of PD-1 and PD-L1 expression with mismatch repair status and prognosis in chemoradiotherapy-na&iuml;ve esophageal and gastric adenocarcinoma.<br /> &nbsp;

Tanios Bekaii-Saab, MD, professor of medicine, Mayo Clinic, discusses a randomized phase II trial to evaluate dosing strategies for regorafenib (Stivarga) in patients with refractory metastatic colorectal cancer.

Based on results of the phase III NETTER-1 trial, Lutathera has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of patients with somatostatin receptor-positive gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.

Michael Pishvaian, MD, PhD, director, Phase I Clinical Program, co-director of the Ruesch Center Pancreatic Cancer Program Medical Oncology, Otto J. Ruesch Center for the Cure of Gastrointestinal Cancer, Georgetown University Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the results of a study investigating entrectinib in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer who harbor <em>NTRK</em> and <em>ROS1</em> fusions.

In phase II data reported at the&nbsp;2018 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, treatment with the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) elicited promising progression-free survival and overall survival results&nbsp;in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma who received previous treatment with sorafenib.

According to findings presented at the 2018 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium,&nbsp;the combination of the&nbsp;VEGFR-2 inhibitor ramucirumab (Cyramza) plus the anti&ndash;PD-L1 agent durvalumab (Imfinzi)&nbsp;demonstrated antitumor activity in a phase Ia/b study of patients with previously treated advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.

According to results reported at the 2018 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, early&nbsp;signs of efficacy were seen with the&nbsp;investigational oral cancer stem cell pathway inhibitor napabucasin (BBI608) combined with the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in the first 8 patients enrolled in a multicenter phase I/II trial of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.