Gastrointestinal Cancer

Neoadjuvant pembrolizumab elicited high clinical activity in patients with mismatch repair deficiency/microsatellite instability high solid tumors and was well tolerated.

Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma experienced better health-related quality of life outcomes with tislelizumab vs sorafenib.

Encorafenib plus cetuximab, along with chemotherapy, was linked to antitumor activity and a manageable safety profile in patients with BRAF V600E-mutant metastatic colorectal cancer.

Neoadjuvant chemoradiation followed by pancreaticoduodenectomy resulted in 0.14 more quality-of-life years than upfront surgery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with resectable pancreatic cancer.

Findings from the phase 3 SUNLIGHT study showed that adding bevacizumab to trifluridine/tipiracil boosted overall survival in metastatic colorectal cancer.

The median overall survival with frontline liposomal irinotecan/NALIRIFOX was 11.1 months vs 9.2 months with nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine in patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

The median overall survival with nivolumab plus chemotherapy was 12.8 months, vs 10.7 months with chemotherapy alone, in patients with treatment-naïve advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

An analysis of 141 children who had prenatal exposure to maternal cancer showed promising cognitive and behavioral functions at age 9 years.

Both the gastric and breast cancer HER2 scoring algorithms may be useful in determining which patients with metastatic colorectal cancer may derive benefit with tucatinib/ trastuzumab.

For patients with CLDN18.2-positive, HER2-negative locally advanced unresectable or metastatic gastric/gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, treatment with zolbetuximab/mFOLFOX6 yielded a progression-free survival (PFS) of 10.61 months whereas placebo/mFOLFOX6 resulted in a PFS of 8.67 months.

In an all-randomized population of patients with advanced gastric cancer, gastroesophageal junction, or esophageal adenocarcinoma, adding nivolumab to chemotherapy yielded a 21% reduction in the risk of death.

Patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma experienced similar health-related quality of life scores whether they received a combination of pembrolizumab and lenvatinib or lenvatinib and placebo.

The FDA has granted accelerated approval to tucatinib and trastuzumab for RAS wild-type, HER2-positive metastatic colorectal cancer. The prescribing information includes warnings for diarrhea and hepatotoxicity.

At a median follow-up of 40 months, patients with unresectable, progressive neuroendocrine pancreatic tumors achieved an 80% progression-free survival rate with Lutathera.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has released new guidelines providing recommendations for the optimal treatment of patients with advanced gastroesophageal cancer.

Adjuvant treatment with hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy-infused FOLFOX improved disease-free survival rates for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma with microvascular invasion.

A combined regimen of mitazalimab and mFOLFIRINOX resulted in a 52% objective response rate among 23 patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.

The FDA has approved updated labeling for capecitabine under Project Renewal, an Oncology Center of Excellence initiative aimed at updating labeling information for certain older oncology drugs.

Osheka Hansel, APRN, discusses the recent approval of futibatinib (Lytgobi) for patients with unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic intrahepatic FGFR2-positive cholangiocarcinoma.

Trastuzumab and pertuzumab with a chemotherapy regimen of fluorouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin, and docetaxel increased response, and high-grade toxicity, in patients with HER2-positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer.

Private Medicare beneficiaries face high access barriers and increased mortality rates following oncologic resection than patients with traditional Medicare plans.

Pembrolizumab plus physician’s choice of chemotherapy bested placebo plus chemotherapy in improving overall survival rates in patients with HER2-negative gastric cancer or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, regardless of PD-L1 expression.

An observational study of 2450 patients with stage III colon cancer identified key factors that may increase a patient’s risk of oxaliplatin-induced peripheral neuropathy.

Immunotherapy has changed the face of cancer treatment, but requires appropriate irAE management to reach full potential.

After demonstrating significant efficacy as a third-line treatment for patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki has gained approval from the FDA for 5 indications and is under investigation across solid tumors.

Olaparib is an oral drug manufactured in 150-mg and 100-mg tablets. Olaparib is taken by mouth, twice daily. It can be taken without or without food.

The combination of durvalumab and tremelimumab has been approved for patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma. The combination comes with warnings for immune-related adverse events and infusion reactions.

HER2-directed antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) play an important role in the treatment of breast and gastric cancer.

Selpercatinib demonstrated a promising efficacy profile in patients with RET-fusion positive solid tumors.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy allowed 79% of patients with early-stage I/IIA rectal cancer to pursue organ-sparing excision surgery, potentially preserving their quality of life and bowel function.