Gastrointestinal Cancer News

PET scans used to assess tumor response to initial chemotherapy allowed clinicians to tailor additional treatments for patients with esophageal cancer, leading to an improvement in pathologic complete response rates, according to results of a federally funded clinical trial scheduled for presentation at the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Richard M. Goldberg, MD, has been appointed director of the WVU Cancer Institute.

Patients with rectal cancer who achieve a clinical complete response to treatment may be able to follow a watch-and-wait approach rather than undergo surgery, according to results of a multicenter, observational study scheduled for presentation at the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

In Chinese adults, diabetes was significantly associated with an increased risk for mortality from a range of cardiovascular and noncardiovascular disease, study data show.

Patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who engaged in moderate exercise for at least 30 minutes a day experienced reduced risks for cancer mortality and progression, according to a phase 3 trial scheduled for presentation at the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Most patients with wild-type gastrointestinal stromal tumors who underwent extensive and serial resections survived with disease progression and no improvement to EFS, according to study data recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The implementation of a simple technology to collect and store patient-reported outcomes could improve patients’ quality of life and outcomes and enhance patient–provider communication, according to Ethan Basch, MD, MSc, director of UNC Lineberger Cancer Outcomes Research program.

The addition of cetuximab to chemoradiotherapy reduced the incidence of locoregional failure in patients with HIV–associated squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal, according to results from the phase 2 AIDS Malignancy Consortium Trial.

MET amplification and overexpression — measured by immunohistochemistry, spectrometry-based selected reaction monitoring and fluorescence in situ hybridization — were associated with a worse prognosis for gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma, according to study findings.

177Lu-Dotatate conferred longer PFS and a significantly higher response rate than high-dose octreotide long-acting repeatable in patients with advanced midgut neuroendocrine tumors, according to results of the randomized, controlled, open-label, phase 3 NETTER-1 trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine.