M. Peeters MD, PhD

Highlights of the European Neuroendocrine Tumour Society (ENETS) Congress

The 17^th Annual European Neuroendocrine Tumour Society (ENETS) Congress took place as a virtual meeting from March 11^th until March 13^th, 2020. This article will provide you with the highlights discussed at the meeting.

Highlights in digestive oncology

Summary

At this years’ virtual annual ASCO meeting, a wide range of interesting studies in the field of gastrointestinal (GI) cancer were presented. The aim of this overview is to discuss the most important of these studies, with a particular focus on data that have the potential to be practice changing. For practical reasons, this report will not follow the traditional subdivision in cancers from the upper and lower GI tract, but will rather focus on three major therapeutic strategies: neoadjuvant therapy, immunotherapy and targeted therapy.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2020;14(5):183-7)

Overcoming intrinsic and acquired resistance to EGFR-targeting agents in cancer treatment: focus on identification of predictive biomarkers and novel therapeutic strategies

SUMMARY

Targeted therapies that inhibit oncogenic signalling pathways are the key for precision medicine in cancer treatment. Research over the past decades has revealed that deregulated or increased signalling of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) plays an integral role in the development of various cancer types, including colorectal cancer (CRC) and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). After initially promising results of EGFR-targeted therapies, it became clear that therapeutic resistance is a major clinical problem. Moreover, as an increasing number of patients are currently considered as candidates for treatment with EGFR-targeted therapy, identification of predictive biomarkers is extremely important. The objective of this PhD project was to unravel and overcome resistance to the EGFR-targeting agent cetuximab in CRC and HNSCC. Hereby, we focused on the identification of drug resistance mechanisms, novel drug targets and therapeutic strategies as well as predictive biomarkers.

The present study demonstrated that afatinib, a second-generation irreversible inhibitor of EGFR, HER2 and HER4, has the potential to overcome cetuximab resistance in CRC and HNSCC cell lines. Therefore, these data support the hypothesis that afatinib may be a promising therapeutic agent to treat CRC and HNSCC patients experiencing intrinsic or acquired cetuximab resistance. Furthermore, we found that increased phosphorylation of Akt seems to be characteristic for acquired cetuximab resistance in HNSCC. Although further confirmation in tumour samples of HNSCC patients is imperative, Akt appears a novel drug target to improve outcome after cetuximab treatment as well as a potential predictive biomarker for EGFR-targeted therapies in HNSCC patients. In this view, we encourage further studies that focus on targeting Akt in combination with cetuximab, as this may be a promising strategy to overcome drug resistance in HNSCC patients. These findings can form a solid basis for further experiments with advanced in vitro and in vivo models.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2020;14(4):155–8)

Covid-19 and cancer care: bullets for cancer clinical practice

These guidelines are a summary derived from national and international guidelines.^1–7

Highlights in digestive oncology

This report will focus on some of the key studies in the field of digestive oncology, presented during the 2019 annual ESMO meeting. During the congress, many studies were presented from early phase I to large phase III trials. Different approaches to activate the immune system against tumours as well as PARP and CDK4/6 inhibitors were once more at the centre of interest for different types of cancer and settings.

Adjuvant chemotherapy of colon cancer: 3 versus 6 months

Summary

For over a decade, oxaliplatin-based adjuvant chemotherapy has been the gold standard for resected early colon cancer. Oxaliplatin is known to cause polyneuropathy, which affects quality of life dramatically. In recent years, there has not been any progress in the development of novel agents to replace oxaliplatin as adjuvant therapy. Consequently, there is a growing interest to investigate whether a shorter course of chemotherapy is sufficient. This article will discuss the history of adjuvant treatment in early-resected colon cancer, the toxicity of oxaliplatin, the results from the IDEA meta-analysis and future prospects.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2019;13(6):234–239)

Highlights of the 2019 annual meeting of the European Neuroendocrine Tumour Society (ENETS)

MARCH 6-8TH, 2019, BARCELONA