Gastrointestinal Cancers

It was once thought that after guiding the development of male sex organs in a fetus, the Y chromosome did not do much else. But over the past few years, results from multiple studies have challenged that belief. The most recent evidence comes from a new study that suggests that the Y chromosome may actually protect men from aggressive bladder cancer. Read More ›

The HER2-targeted bispecific investigational antibody zanidatamab, either as monotherapy or in combination with chemotherapy, has shown promising antitumor activity in an ongoing phase 1 study of patients with HER2-expressing biliary tract cancer or gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma, reported Funda Meric-Bernstam, MD, Chair, Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, at the 2021 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. Read More ›

San Francisco, CA—Second-line treatment with a 3-drug regimen that included the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo), the VEGF receptor antagonist ramucirumab (Cyramza), and chemotherapy with the taxane paclitaxel, showed durable and impressive response rates, regardless of PD-L1 expression, in patients with advanced gastric cancers. Read More ›

The FDA approval of avapritinib marks the first time a drug has been approved specifically for patients with GIST harboring PDGFRA exon 18 mutations, which are involved in approximately 10% of GIST cases. Read More ›

Gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs), also known as carcinoids and islet-cell tumors, are tumors of the neuroendocrine cells that occur in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. GEP-NETs are heterogeneous and complex. Although relatively rare, GEP-NETs are more common than other tumors of the GI tract, including stomach and pancreatic carcinomas combined. Read More ›

Phase 3 data from a global clinical trial indicated an improvement in overall survival (OS) when the investigational angiogenesis inhibitor ramucirumab was added to chemotherapy as second-line therapy in patients with advanced gastric cancer. Read More ›

Patients with gastric or gastroesophageal cancer commonly experience long-term complications from treatment that compromise their quality of life (QOL), according to self-reported answers to an Internet-based survey questionnaire. Difficulty swallowing appears to be universal, and other problems range from dry mouth and taste changes to cardiovascular disease, according to a study presented at the 2012 American Society of Clinical Oncology Gastrointestinal Symposium held in San Francisco, California.

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CHICAGO—At the ASCO session “Moving the Bar in Upper GI Malignancies,” 2 speakers examined whether recent trials of targeted agents are clinically meaningful or just statistically positive, and whether value is being gained for the enormous amount of money being spent in treating noncolo rectal gastrointestinal (GI) cancer.

Eileen Mary O’Reilly, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, weighed in by examining the bottom line of the major trials.

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ANAHEIM—Overweight as well as obese chemo therapy recipients who are dosed according to total body weight do not experience more adverse drug events or cycle delays than normal weight recipients.

The finding, which comes from a 10-year retrospective analysis of patients with gastrointestinal (GI) cancers, should allay concerns about overdosing and the potential for increased toxicities when calculating the chemotherapy dose using total body weight, said lead investigator Tiffany Dea, PharmD.

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