Gastrointestinal Cancer News

Despite significantly decreasing rates of smoking over the past 50 years, cigarette smoking continues to be the cause of death for various types of cancer, according to recently published data in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Next-generation sequencing panels that can identify genomic mutations in precancerous esophageal tissue may be useful for improving surveillance for cancer and dysplasia in patients with Barrett’s esophagus, according to new research data.

Venous thromboembolism incidence has remained low and largely unchanged following colorectal surgery despite an increase in pre- and post-surgical prevention strategies, according to study results.

When the Affordable Care Act established an abbreviated licensure pathway for biosimilars in the United States, development of the agents accelerated at a staggering pace.

CHICAGO — In a randomized phase 2 trial, treatment with Nexavar plus hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy with cisplatin yielded better results vs. treatment with Nexavar alone for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, according to a poster presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting.

While colonoscopy screening rates have increased 5-fold in the past 10 years, first-degree relatives of colorectal cancer patients aged younger than 50 years are less likely to have a colonoscopy than adults aged 50 or older, according to recent study data.

Nearly 5% of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma harbored a germline BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation, according to study results.

New statistics from Cancer Research UK show that esophageal cancer rates in men have increased from 2,700 new cases in the early 1980s to 5,740 in 2012, representing a nearly 50% increase from 15 to 23 cases per 100,000 people after adjusting for population growth, according to a press release.

CHICAGO — A chemotherapy regimen composed of epirubicin, cisplatin and capecitabine demonstrated higher overall toxicity without improving OS compared with cisplatin and 5 fluorouracil in patients with surgically treated esophageal cancer, according to the results of a phase 3 trial presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting.

CHICAGO — In an ongoing phase 2 clinical trial, Inlyta and transarterial chemoembolization therapy was safe and yielded high response rates in Chinese patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, according to a poster presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting.