Gastrointestinal Cancer News

CHICAGO — Mismatch repair deficiency may be the first genomic marker to predict how patients with cancer will respond to immune checkpoint blockade with the anti–PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab, according to phase 2 study results presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting.

 The number of adults in the U.S. who underwent the recommended screening tests for breast, colorectal and cervical cancers in 2013 fell below the targets set by the Healthy People 2020 initiative, according to data published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The use of next-generation sequencing panels that included highly penetrant genes associated with colorectal cancer and polyposis syndromes in addition to Lynch syndrome genes appeared to be cost-effective for the evaluation of colon cancer in patients’ relatives, according to study results.

The receipt of a cancer diagnosis was associated with sustained smoking cessation regardless of the cancer’s prognosis or relation to smoking, according to study results.

Genetic mutations at several key loci predicted whether patients with Barrett’s esophagus who had no dysplasia or low-grade dysplasia at baseline would progress to high-grade dysplasia or esophageal adenocarcinoma, according to study results presented at Digestive Disease Week.

Delcath Systems, Inc. announced the intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma study cohort of its global phase 2 trial of Melphalan/HDS therapy for the treatment of unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma is now enrolling patients, according to a press release.

Donations after brain and cardiac death allografts did not increase a patient’s likelihood of developing hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence after liver transplantation, according to newly published data in the American Journal of Transplantation.

Patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors faced an increased risk for developing additional cancers before and after their diagnosis, according to results of a SEER analysis.

WASHINGTON — Patient outcomes are not negatively affected by the endoscopic resection of high-risk colorectal carcinomas followed by surgery, according to study findings presented at DDW 2015.

WASHINGTON — Endoscopic tattooing in colorectal carcinomas prior to surgery can improve finding the lymph nodes that are most prone to harbor tumor cells in addition to lymph node harvesting, according to a Spanish study presented at DDW 2015.