Gastrointestinal Cancer News

Cancer treatment centers in the United States spent $173 million on advertising in the year 2014, according to a research letter published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

The Extended Toronto Criteria provided a 10-year survival rate similar to the currently used Milan Criteria, according to recent findings published in Hepatology. Both criteria are used to determine whether patients with hepatocellular carcinoma should receive a liver transplant by excluding those deemed to have a poor chance of survival. The Milan Criteria uses tumor size and number whereas the Extended Toronto Criteria uses tumor differentiation, cancer-related symptoms, confinement to the liver and venous or biliary tumor thrombus for patients who were previously excluded from transplant by the Milan criteria.

Individuals with type 2 diabetes appeared to have an increased risk for cancer 3 months following and 10 years preceding their diabetes diagnosis, according to the results of a retrospective population-based study.

Adults who consumed more than two sugar-sweetened beverages each day appeared to experience an increased risk for biliary tract cancer, according to the result of a Swedish national prospective cohort study.

Among patients who underwent resection of stage 2 colon cancer, a blood test that detects circulating tumor DNA accurately identified those with a high risk for cancer recurrence, according to the results of a prospective study conducted by Johns Hopkins and University of Melbourne researchers.

Implicit racial biases appeared associated with shorter patient–provider interactions and less patient-centered communication, according to research published in Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Systemic inflammation was associated with poorer quality of life among patients with advanced cancer independent of performance status, according to study results published in Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The novel anti-interleukin 1-alpha antibody Xilonix demonstrated significantly improved outcomes compared with placebo in patients with advanced colorectal cancer, according to phase 3 trial data presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology 18th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer. The agent was also shown to be safe and well tolerated in this trial.

The FDA approved dronabinol oral solution for the treatment of patients with cancer who experience chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, according to a press release from the agent’s manufacturer.

Lymph node status served as the only independent OS predictor after surgery and chemotherapy for patients with esophagogastric cancer, according to a secondary analysis of a phase 3 trial.