Latest Conference Articles

Nelson J. Chao, MD, discusses a shift at Duke Cancer Institute from in-office care to home care in patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for hematologic malignancies.

Experts who treat chronic graft-versus-host disease have not only learned to understand the pathophysiology of the disease but are also understanding how to implement new treatment modalities.

The combination regimen was well tolerated with promising preliminary anti-tumor activity in patients with heavily pretreated esophageal cancer, who had not received immunotherapy.

“We observed much more deeper responses and more meaningful responses [in the treatment arm] compared with the placebo arm, in which 15% of the population had deep responses of ≥ 80%."

Michael J. Overman, MD, discusses the advances in testing for rare genomic alterations in colorectal cancer.

A biomarker analysis utilized liquid biopsies to find potential prognostic and predictive biomarkers for patients with BRAF V600E–mutant metastatic colorectal cancer treated with BRAF, EGFR, and/or MEK inhibitors.

The combination of paclitaxel and GSK2636771 showed encouraging antitumor activity and a manageable toxicity profile and in patients with PTEN-deficient advanced gastric cancer who progressed after first line chemotherapy.

Final overall survival and long-term safety results of the phase 3 NETTER-1 trial were presented during the World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer 2021.

Findings from the OCTOPUS Consortium of trial data have indicated that obese patients with colorectal cancer have a poorer survival from adjuvant chemotherapy treatment due to reduced treatment dose and average cumulative relative dose.

In a first-of-its-kind study, data reveal that unnecessary antibiotic use may increase the risk of colon cancer—especially in people under age 50. Findings were presented at the 2021 World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer.

Treatment with avapritinib in Chinese patients with PDGFRA D842V-mutant gastrointestinal stromal tumors revealed promising clinical benefit, according to a bridging study of the NAVIGATOR trial.

Scott Kopetz, MD, PhD, FACP, reviews the results of the phase 1b multicenter KISIMA-01 study, for which he presented preliminary results during the ESMO World Congress of Gastrointestinal Cancer 2021.

Pembrolizumab monotherapy demonstrated improvement in health-related quality of life in patients with previously treated metastatic microsatellite instability-high/ mismatch repair deficient advanced noncolorectal solid tumors, with the biggest improvements seen in those who achieved a complete remission or partial remission.

A phase 2 trial of tislelizumab and another trial of Tumor Treating Fields accompanied by sorafenib are filling unmet needs in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, although more data are still needed in this space.

Dostarlimab achieved durable antitumor responses in patients with non-endometrial mismatch repair–deficient solid tumors treated in an expansion cohort of the phase 1 GARNET trial, according to interim findings presented during the ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer.

Patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma with Child-Pugh class B liver function experienced a similar tumor size reduction as their Child-Pugh class A counterparts, all treated with lenvatinib, according to a post-hoc analysis of the phase 3 REFLECT study.

The phase 3 LEAP-015 trial is actively looking at the efficacy and safety of the combination of pembrolizumab, lenvatinib, and chemotherapy in the first-line setting for patients with advanced gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma compared with chemotherapy alone.

The phase 3 KRYSTAL-10 trial continues to look at the combination of adagrasib and cetuximab in patients with previously treated advanced colorectal cancer and a KRAS G12C mutation in their tumor.

A phase 2 study is underway to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the pembrolizumab and quavonlimab coformulation in combination with lenvatinib as treatment of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

Treatment with nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine versus gemcitabine alone in patients with resected pancreatic cancer showed positive 5-year overall survival outcomes that were consistent with the primary analysis of the phase 3 APACT clinical trial as well as a post hoc analysis.

Increasing the dose of the primary treatment modality for anal squamous cell carcinoma, chemoradiotherapy, may further improve efficacy for patients with effective organ preservation and disease control.

A propensity score matching analysis presented in a poster during the 2021 World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer demonstrated that lenvatinib was superior to sorafenib as a first-line treatment for patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

The combination of camrelizumab and apatinib has shown long-term survival benefit in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, according to updated results from the RESCUE trial.

Benefit was seen with daratumumab maintenance therapy for patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma who received autologous stem cell transplant plus induction and consolidation therapy with bortezomib, thalidomide, and dexamethasone.

Intensified induction therapy with daratumumab plus cyclophosphamide, bortezomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone followed by bortezomib-augmented autologous stem cell transplant resulting in deep remissions or patients with ultra¬ high-risk multiple myeloma or primary plasma cell leukemia.

Daratumumab plus cyclophosphamide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone induction followed by daratumumab maintenance therapy achieved durable and deep responses in patients with newly diagnosed or relapsed multiple myeloma, regardless of transplant status.

The frequency of moderate to severe cytokine release syndrome was reduced in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma who received anakinra prophylaxis with orvacabtagene autoleucel, a BCMA-targeted CAR T-cell therapy, according to findings presented at the European Hematology Association 2021 Virtual Congress.

With longer follow-up, significant responses were still observed with the BTK inhibitor zanubrutinib as a single agent in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia in the phase 2 BGB-3111-205 trial.

Updated results from the phase 1/2 CARTITUDE-1 trial showed that responses to ciltacabtagene autoleucel were deep and durable in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. Data at a median follow-up of 18 months were presented at the 2021 European Hematology Association Congress.

Following rituximab resistance, the combination of lenalidomide and rituximab led to durable improvements in outcome for patients with indolent B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas and mantle cell lymphomas, even after 10 years of follow-up, according to long-term results presented at the European Hematology Association 2021 Congress.