BJMO - volume 17, issue 3, may 2023
W. Lybaert MD, A. Demols MD, PhD
This year’s conference was organised in San Francisco from 19 until 21 January 2023, again as a hybrid event. It was an excellent meeting, not with the immune checkpoint inhibitors in gastroesophageal cancer in first position this time, like last year, but with two new promising targeted therapies in that tumour type: zolbetuximab and regorafenib. Immunotherapy is also pushing more in the neoadjuvant setting of MSI-high local/locally advanced gastric/gastroesophageal junction tumours. NALIRIFOX is a new chemotherapy scheme that beats gemcitabine + nab-paclitaxel in first-line metastatic pancreatic cancer, while the addition of nab-paclitaxel to cisplatin + gemcitabine in first-line advanced biliary tract cancer brings no advantage. Finally, yet importantly, trifluridine/tipiracil + bevacizumab outperforms trifluridine/tipiracil alone in later-line metastatic colorectal cancer. The combination of botensilimab + balstilimab is also very promising in this more refractory disease setting.
In this report, the most important headlines will be discussed, with comments on the clinical relevance of the different studies.
(BELG J MED ONCOL 2023;17(3):91–9)
Read moreBJMO - volume 16, issue 3, may 2022
W. Lybaert MD, A. Demols MD, PhD
One year after the virtual ASCO GI 2021 meeting, this year’s conference was organised in San Francisco from 20 till 22 January 2022, as a hybrid event in the background of a rising Omicron gulf in Europe and the United States. It was an excellent meeting with the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors in oesophageal and gastric cancer brought in a more critical perspective. Immunotherapy is also pushing forward in the first-line treatment of biliary tract cancer, and combination immunotherapy in the first phase 3 first-line study in hepatocellular carcinoma. Immunotherapy as a neoadjuvant approach in MSI-high local gastric/GEJ tumours and locally advanced rectal cancer seems to start up as a possible new paradigm in the near future. A lot of running studies are looking for the exact place of circulating tumour DNA as a tool in the management of colorectal cancer. Trastuzumab-deruxtecan is flying over from breast cancer in the field of digestive oncology as a very active new kid on the block. In this report, the most important headlines will be discussed, with comments on the clinical relevance of the different studies.
(BELG J MED ONCOL 2022;16(3):142–53)
Read moreBJMO - volume 15, issue 6, october 2021
W. Lybaert MD, A. Demols MD, PhD, I. Dero MD, I. Borbath MD, PhD, J. Collignon MD
The annual Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium was held from 15 till 17 January 2021 in a virtual format. During this meeting, evolving immunotherapy options were shown in the upper digestive tractus, already presented at ESMO 2020. Besides immunotherapy, also the total neoadjuvant treatment approach (TNT) in rectal cancer reached sufficient attention, changing our current standard of practice in 2021. Targeted therapies for different gastrointestinal (GI) tumour locations showed promising results, paving the way for more personalised medicine.
In this report, the most important headlines will be discussed, with comments on the clinical relevance of the different studies.
(BELG J MED ONCOL 2021;15(6):331-9)
Read moreBJMO - volume 15, issue 4, june 2021
Ir A. Hébrant PhD, H. Antoine-Poirel MD, PhD, K.B.M. Claes PhD, F. Dedeurwaerdere MD, J. Van der Meulen MD, F. Lambert MD, J. Van Huysse MD, G. Martens MD, PhD, N. D’Haene MD, PhD, K. Geboes MD, P. Pauwels MD, PhD, A. Jouret-Mourin MD, PhD, P. Peeters MD, M. van den Eynde MD, PhD, R. Salgado MD, PhD, P-J. Van Dam MD, P. Lefesvre MD, PhD, X. Sagaert MD, PhD, S. Metsu PhD, A. Demols MD, PhD, J-L. van Laethem MD, PhD
Pancreatobiliary cancers (PBC) group pancreatic and biliary tract cancers and are among the cancers with the lowest survival rate. Emerging data suggest that novel biomarker-specific targeted therapies can be proposed for selected populations with survival benefit. This review summarises the scientific evidence to test for these biomarkers in order to optimise the management of pancreatobiliary cancers, within the context of the Belgian NGS convention.
(BELG J MED ONCOL 2021;15(4):170-6)
Read moreBJMO - volume 14, issue 6, october 2020
J-L. van Laethem MD, PhD, L. Mans MD, A. Demols MD, PhD
Pancreaticobiliary cancers remain challenging to be treated due to aggressive biology and heterogeneous molecular patterns. Chemotherapy remains the backbone therapy, with two lines available in each cancer. Using targeted therapies in unselected populations has led to complete failure while currently used immunotherapy with anti-PD1 can only be active in instable tumours (MSI-High), a rare condition in these cancers. As recently reported, targeting specific genes in pancreaticobiliary cancers may significantly improve tumour control and offer new ways to manage them, in addition to conventional chemotherapies usually proposed in front line. Consequently, it is now more and more recommended to perform genetic and genomic testing of these tumours, searching for new druggable targets. Dedicated trials focusing on such enriched populations are currently ongoing.
(BELG J MED ONCOL 2020;14(6):274-9)
Read moreBJMO - volume 14, issue 3, may 2020
W. Lybaert MD, A. Demols MD, PhD, I. Dero MD
At the background of the Golden Gate Bridge with a view on the Pacific Ocean, the annual Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium was held from 23rd until 25th January 2020 in the Moscone Congress Center in San Francisco, California. During this meeting, the potential of immunotherapy in the treatment of cancers from the upper and lower digestive tract was discussed, but no major breakthroughs were presented this year. In addition to immunotherapy, ASCO GI 2020 featured several interesting presentations on the molecular profiling of different types of gastro-intestinal cancers. These increased molecular insights will hopefully pave the way for a more biomarker-driven treatment approach for these tumours in the near future. In this report, the most important headlines will be discussed, with comments on the clinical relevance of the different studies.
(BELG J MED ONCOL 2020;14(3):116–25)
Read moreBJMO - volume 13, issue 4, june 2019
W. Lybaert MD, H. Prenen MD, PhD, A. Demols MD, PhD, I. Dero MD
At the background of the Golden Gate Bridge with a view on the Pacific Ocean, the annual Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium was held from 17–19 January 2019 in the Moscone Congress Center in San Francisco, California. The meeting further underlined the invasion of immunotherapy in the treatment landscape of gastrointestinal tumours, both in the upper and lower digestive tract. In addition to immunotherapy, lots of efforts were made in the molecular profiling of gastrointestinal cancers in every possible tumour location, which will hopefully fuel more biomarker-driven medicine in this setting in the near future. In this report, the most important headlines will be discussed, with comments on the clinical relevance of the different studies.
(BELG J MED ONCOL 2019;13(4):142–149)
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