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The phase III NRG Oncology RTOG 0436 trial has shown no survival benefit of adding cetuximab (Erbitux) to paclitaxel/cisplatin and radiation therapy in patients with esophageal cancer treated without surgery. These results were reported by Mohan Suntharalingam, MD, MBA, of the Marlene and Stewart...
On September 22, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for patients with recurrent locally advanced or metastatic, gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma whose tumors express programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) as ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved bevacizumab-awwb (Mvasi) as a biosimilar to bevacizumab (Avastin) for the treatment of multiple types of cancer. Bevacizumab-awwb is the first biosimilar approved in the U.S. for the treatment of cancer. “Bringing new biosimilars to...
The superiority of docetaxel-based triplet therapy over standard of care in patients with resectable esophagogastric cancer has been confirmed in late-breaking results from the FLOT4 trial presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract LBA27_PR)....
Patients requiring surgery for esophageal cancer fare better after undergoing a hybrid minimally invasive esophagostomy compared to an open esophagostomy, according to long-term results of the MIRO trial presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract ...
Female patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer treated with chemotherapy and radiation therapy before surgery are more likely to have a favorable response to the treatment than male patients are, and women are less likely to experience cancer recurrence, according to a study published by...
A UK phase III trial (UK MRC OE05) has shown no significant survival benefit of extended and intensified neoadjuvant chemotherapy with epirubicin, cisplatin, and capecitabine vs standard cisplatin/fluorouracil followed by resection in patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma. The findings were...
The phase III NRG Oncology RTOG 0436 trial has shown no survival benefit of adding cetuximab (Erbitux) to paclitaxel/cisplatin and radiation therapy in patients with esophageal cancer treated without surgery. These results were reported by Suntharalingam et al in JAMA Oncology. Study Details In...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Shah et al, the phase IIIB HELOISE trial has shown no survival benefit of high-dose vs standard trastuzumab (Herceptin) maintenance plus chemotherapy in the first-line treatment of metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma....
As reported by Petty et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, analysis of outcomes in the UK phase III Cancer Esophagus Gefitinib trial showed an overall survival benefit with second-line gefitinib (Iressa) in patients with advanced esophageal cancer who had epidermal growth factor receptor...
Salah-Eddin Al-Batran, MD, of the Institute of Clinical Cancer Research Krankenhaus Nordwest, discusses phase III study findings on perioperative chemotherapy with docetaxel, oxaliplatin, and fluorouracil/leucovorin vs epirubicin, cisplatin, and fluorouracil or capecitabine for resectable gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. (Abstract 4004)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review a supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for pembrolizumab (Keytruda) seeking approval for treatment of patients with recurrent or advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma who have already...
Radiotherapy alone is often used to treat early-stage glottic cancer. However, the optimal radiation treatment schedule remains unknown. Both hypofractionated radiotherapy and conventionally fractionated radiotherapy are recommended treatment options. In an attempt to compare differences in overall ...
In the March 25, 2017, issue of The ASCO Post, Steven H. Lin, MD, PhD, shared his thoughts on the role of positron-emission tomography (PET) in assessing response to induction chemotherapy in patients with resectable esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer. He noted that complete pathologic...
A test that measures the levels of five chemicals in the breath has shown promising results for the detection of cancers of the esophagus and stomach, in a large patient trial presented by Markar et al at the 2017 European Cancer Congress (Abstract 6LBA).1 Together, stomach and esophageal cancers...
The adaptive phase II/III GATSBY trial has shown no survival difference between ado-trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) vs taxane treatment in patients with previously treated locally advanced or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. Results were reported by Thuss-Patience et...
“CALGB 80803 really helps move the field forward,” said press briefing moderator and ASCO spokesperson Nancy Baxter, MD, PhD, a surgeon from St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. “PET [positron-emission tomography] scans may prove to be a valuable tool to help oncologists fine-tune...
In patients with resectable esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer, positron-emission tomography (PET) imaging was used to assess response to induction chemotherapy. PET nonresponders were identified after the first few cycles and were switched to an alternate regimen. This strategy greatly ...
In a Japanese phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Kudo et al found that nivolumab (Opdivo) had activity in heavily pretreated patients with advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Study Details In the study, with enrollment between February and November 2014, 65 patients...
Patients with esophageal cancer who suffer sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass) during neoadjuvant chemotherapy survive, on average, 32 months less than patients with no sarcopenia. This is the central finding of a recent study conducted at the Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) of MedUni Vienna and...
In the UK Medical Research Council ST03 phase II/III trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Cunningham et al found that adding bevacizumab (Avastin) to perioperative chemotherapy did not improve survival in patients with operable esophagogastric cancer and may have been associated with impaired...
A test that measures the levels of five chemicals in the breath has shown promising results for the detection of cancers of the esophagus and stomach in a large patient trial presented by Markar et al at the 2017 European Cancer Congress (Abstract 6LBA). Together, stomach and esophageal...
Ian Chau, MD, of the Royal Marsden Hospital, discusses the continuum of care in esophageal and gastric cancers and the multiple active lines of treatment. Routine adoption of genomic testing may lead to further refinement of current treatment and more options in the future.
Geoffrey Ku, MD, MBA, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the promise of immunotherapy drugs and the search for biomarkers that will help identify patients more likely to respond, not only to these medications, but to combinations of immunotherapies, other targeted treatments, chemotherapy drugs, and radiation.
Karyn A. Goodman, MD, of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, discusses initial study findings on PET scan–directed combined-modality therapy for esophageal cancer (Abstract 1).
Results of the ONO-4538-12 trial demonstrated that nivolumab (Opdivo) significantly reduced the risk of death by 37% (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.63; P < .0001) in patients with previously treated advanced gastric cancer refractory to or intolerant of standard therapy, a condition without current ...
Findings from a federally funded clinical trial—CALGB 80803 (Alliance)—point to a new way to improve the outlook for patients with esophageal cancer: using positron-emission tomography (PET) scans to assess tumor response to initial chemotherapy may allow doctors to tailor further...
A new integrated genomic study by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network identified genetic alterations that distinguish the two most common subtypes of esophageal cancer. Esophageal cancer is a rare cancer in the United States, but the 8th most frequently diagnosed cancer worldwide. It...
As reported by Angela N. Bartley, MD, of St Joseph Mercy Hospital, Ann Arbor, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the College of American Pathologists (CAP), the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), and ASCO have released a guideline on HER2 testing and clinical...
In studies presented at the 2016 European Society for Surgical Oncology (ESMO) Congress, two different neoadjuvant treatment approaches improved the outcomes of patients with esophageal cancer. Investigators from the Australasian Gastro-Intestinal Trials Group (AGITG) reported that the addition of...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology, Puya Gharahkhani, PhD, of QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia, and colleagues identified several new genetic risk variants for the development of Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma through a large-scale meta-analysis of...
In the phase II portion of a German phase II/III trial (FLOT4) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Al-Batran et al found that preoperative docetaxel-based vs anthracycline-based triplet therapy produced a higher complete histopathologic regression rate in patients with resectable gastric or...
Among Japanese patients with esophageal cancer, those whose cancer tested positive for DNA from the bacterium Fusobacterium nucleatum had shorter cancer-specific survival compared with those whose cancer had no DNA from the bacterium, according to study results published by Yamamura et al in...
In a secondary analysis of a clinical trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Chu et al found that use of proton pump inhibitors (gastric acid suppressants) reduced the effectiveness of oral capecitabine in patients with advanced gastroesophageal cancer. The study involved analysis of the effect of...
Martin H. Schuler, MD, of the University Hospital Essen, discusses in German findings from this phase II trial of epirubicin, oxaliplatin, and capecitabine with or without the antibody IMAB362 as first-line therapy in patients with advanced CLDN18.2+ disease. (Abstract 614O)
Martin H. Schuler, MD, of the University Hospital Essen, discusses findings from this phase II trial of epirubicin, oxaliplatin, and capecitabine with or without the antibody IMAB362 as first-line therapy in patients with advanced CLDN18.2+ disease. (Abstract 614O)
As reported in The Lancet Oncology, Gharahkhani et al identified several new genetic risk variants for the development of Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma through a large-scale meta-analysis of genome-wide studies. Study Details The study involved a meta-analysis of four...
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute scientists have shown that unexpectedly, esophageal cancer cells do not divide faster than their normal neighbors. Unlike normal cells, however, the tumor cells produce slightly more dividing daughter cells than nondividing cells, forming a tumor. The study,...
Researchers at University Hospitals Case Medical Center have discovered that a rare genetic mutation is associated with susceptibility to familial Barrett's esophagus and esophageal cancer. The findings were published by Fecteau et al in JAMA Oncology. Amitabh Chak, MD, of University Hospitals...
FOLFOX (oxaliplatin, leucovorin, fluorouracil [5-FU]) seems to be a safer and more reliable regimen than ECF (epirubicin, cisplatin, 5-FU) and irinotecan/cisplatin as a backbone for treatment in future studies of metastatic esophageal and gastroesophageal junction cancers. This finding from the...
Immune checkpoint inhibitors have emerged as one of the most promising new areas of drug development in oncology. Broad activity has been observed for these agents across a spectrum of hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. As reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Muro and colleagues now...
The KEYNOTE-012 phase Ib trial assessed single-agent pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in patients with advanced programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1)–positive gastric cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, urothelial cancer, and head and neck cancer. The activity of pembrolizumab in study patients with...
A novel immunotherapy agent, the first in its class, reduced disease progression by more than 50% when added to standard chemotherapy for patients with advanced gastric cancer, according to results from an international phase II trial presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 The drug, IMAB362,...
Salah-Eddin Al-Batran, MD, of the Institute of Clinical Cancer Research and Nordwest Hospital, discusses findings from this international phase II study of epirubicin, oxaliplatin, and capecitabine with or without IMAB362, as first-line treatment of gastric and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma (Abstract LBA4001).
African American patients with esophageal cancer survive fewer months after diagnosis than white patients, but only if they also have low incomes, according to a study presented by Loretta Erhunmwunsee, MD, at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Dr. Erhunmwunsee led the study...
Jaffer Ajani, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the importance of HER2/neu testing and other aspects of treating patients with advanced gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma.
Healy et al found that greater use of positron-emission tomography (PET) for detection of recurrence of lung and esophageal cancers was not associated with improved survival, suggesting potential overuse of the modality in this setting. They reported their results in the Journal of the National...
Increased surgeon experience was associated with markedly better short- and long-term survival in patients undergoing esophagectomy for esophageal cancer, according to a report by Markar et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Study Details The study involved data from 1,821 patients who...
University of Louisville School of Dentistry researchers have found that a bacterial species responsible for gum disease, Porphyromonas gingivalis, is present in 61% of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. The findings, published by Gao et al in Infectious Agents and Cancer, only...
A new study suggests that one approach to watching for a cancer's return is being inappropriately used at many hospitals and isn't helping patients survive longer. The findings are published by Healy et al in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study looked at how often survivors ...