Gastrointestinal Cancer News

CHICAGO — At the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, HHS released the second edition of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, which provides new recommendations for children and adolescents aged 3 years through 17 years.

SAN FRANCISCO — Patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease carried a 91% higher risk for malignancy and the risk for cancer with obesity is “driven by NAFLD,” according to a presentation at The Liver Meeting 2018.

The FDA granted accelerated approval to pembrolizumab for the treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who received prior sorafenib.

Transarterial radioembolization with yttrium-90 safely and effectively treated unresectable primary malignant liver tumors in pediatric patients as an alternative therapy bridge to surgical resection or liver transplant, according to data published in Pediatric Blood and Cancer.

A number of significant advances in molecular oncology have come to light in recent weeks, providing new knowledge for understanding immunotherapy response, immune evasion, metastasis, radiosensitization, PARP inhibitor action and relapse of small cell lung cancer, among other areas. Here is an overview of discoveries that may be of particular interest to the clinical oncology community.

NEWARK, Del. — The presentations at the second annual GI Symposium focus on areas of significant change in gastroenterology, as well as problematic and timely topics for both patients and providers, Warren Butt, MD, gastroenterologist at Christiana Care Health System and director of the symposium, told Healio Internal Medicine.

NEWARK, Del. — Pancreatic cancer is on the rise and is expected to surpass colon and rectal cancer as the third-leading cause of cancer-related death, Fedele DePalma, MD, gastroenterologist at Christiana Care Health System, said at the second annual GI Symposium.

Patients who received a positive fecal occult blood test as an initial screening for colorectal cancer may need more counselling to ensure they go on to a follow-up colonoscopy, according to research published in The American Journal of Gastroenterology.

Hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence rates and patterns did not differ between patients who underwent interferon-based antiviral therapy for hepatitis C and those who received direct-acting antiviral therapy, according to a recently published study.

African-American patients presented with more advanced stages of hepatocellular carcinoma and had worse five-year survival rates compared with Caucasian patients, according to a study published in American Journal of Gastroenterology.