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Posts tagged ‘Gastrointestinal cancer’

6th International Society of Gastroenterological Carcinogenesis (ISGC) meeting

By on January 4, 2011

On Thursday this week I’m off to the GI Carcinogenesis meeting hosted by MD Anderson Cancer Center, you can find out more about the event here.

It’s a brand new meeting for me, but according to the program:

“The ISGC is comprised of basic, translational and clinical scientists.  This conference will encourage and develop research and communication in the areas of gastroenterological biology and oncology in both basic and clinical aspects through joint meetings with international and national gastroenterologists.”

I’m particularly looking forward to hearing what Lee Ellis has to say on cancer stem cells and the microenvironment, as well as Emanuel Petricoin on molecular profiling in GI cancers.  There are a whole host of other really interesting talks too, as you can see from the program agenda.

When I first looked at the faculty, my initial reaction was, “Oh my!” It’s a quite serious line-up of some of the top GI cancer researchers and certainly not easy to get them all in the same place together, so it will be fun to chat with them in the poster sessions and get their perspective on the latest happenings in this field.

The meeting runs through Saturday, so I’ll try and post a daily synopsis, as time permits.

If I hadn’t been following Dr Raymond DuBois, the MD Anderson Provost and Co-Chair of the meeting on Twitter, I would have missed this altogether – the power of social media in spreading and communicating awareness of these special events is very much here to stay.

If you have any burning questions in this area, please do add them in the comments below and I will do my best to ferret out some answers.

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Erbitux improves survival in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer and wild type KRAS tumours

By on January 25, 2010

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) held their annual symposium on Gastrointestinal cancers over the weekend in Fort Lauderdale, FL.  I was unable to attend the meeting, but it was interesting to follow it remotely via various people at the event. 

In 2008, van Cutsem first presented the interim phase III data from the front line trial of cetuximab
(Erbitux) with FOLFIRI in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) in a plenary session at the ASCO annual meeting.  The data demonstrated that biomarker data suggested that the presence of wild type rather than mutant type KRAS predicted response to cetuximab in mCRC.

The updated CRYSTAL data was
probably the most anticipated abstract at this meeting.  Here's a snapshot from the abstract:

Picture 200The data above clearly shows a superior response rate, progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in favour of cetuximab in wild type KRAS.

What was also interesting is that BRAF, another mutation that has been shown to increase resistance to EGFR inhibitors, was not predictive of cetuximab activity, based on pooled data from the CRYSTAL and OPUS trials presented by Prof Kohne.

Overall, these data indicate that testing for KRAS mutational status is a valid way of deciding which patients should receive EGFR inhibitors such as cetuximab for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer.  Patients with mutant KRAS or BRAF mutations are less likely to do well on such therapy.

It will be interesting to see whether future trials with a RAS/RAF inhibitor such as sorafenib (Nexavar) with cetuximab are being considered in combination to overcome resistance.

{Updated: I should clarify that the wt KRAS effect is an EGFR class effect as you can see from similar data on panitumumab (Vectibix) in the second line setting in this abstract. 

The presenter, Peeters, noted that in patients with wild type KRAS:

  • PFS was 5.9 months for panitumumab plus FOLFIRI
    vs. 3.9 months for FOLFIRI alone (HR=0.73). 
  • Median OS was
    14.5 months for the study arm vs. 12.5 months for FOLFIRI alone
    (HR=0.85). 
  • Response rate for the panitumumab arm was
    35% compared with 10% for patients assigned to FOLFIRI alone. 

As with cetuximab, there was no difference in PFS, OS or
response rate in patients with mutant KRAS tumours.  The study met its primary endpoint, so it will be interesting to see if regulatory approval will be forthcoming in the second line setting for panitumumab.}

Acknowledgement:  Many thanks to Kerri Wachter who was at the meeting and provided information and tips that lead to this post.

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Science and medical conferences – is there value in going?

By on January 24, 2010

One of the great things about travelling to scientific conferences around the world, is catching up with old friends, meeting new people, learning new things and also seeing some wonderful sights when least expected.

IMG_6038 Here's a quick shot I took at dusk on my 3G iPhone took walking from
the bus stop to the hotel I was staying in for the recent AACR meeting
on molecular origins in lung cancer. 

It was nice to get out at the end
of the day for some fresh air, but the sunset was certainly an added bonus and a heartening welcome after the chill of the East coast winter!

Some meetings you can get a decent flavour of what's going on from the press releases and reports coming out from good science writers, reporters and analysts such as Brooke Wang, Kerri Wachter, Mike Huckman and Roxanne Nelson.  You can't attend every conference, but you can trust in a few good men (and women) to tell the stories in a straightforward and accurate way.

After a while, I can tell who is actually reporting live from the meeting and who is just rehashing a press release or media briefing – the quality of the reporting and analysis shines through beyond mere data repetition :>}.

One of the biggest things I personally gain from being on the spot is the chance to interact with key opinion leaders and ask them questions.  Of course, you can do this by email or phone too, assuming you can track them down in a timely fashion, but checking the nuances on the spot is extremely valuable both for greater understanding and immediacy.

Right now, I'm following the ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancer Symposium from Fort Lauderdale on Twitter via the #GICaSymp hashtag.  Kerri is tweeting and reporting from there and several Pharma buddies are also attending and sending updates by email.  I'm particularly keen to hear what Dr Eric van Cutsem has to say in his update about KRAS and biomarkers from the CRYSTAL trial in colorectal cancer.

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