In honor of Rare Disease Day on February 28, the Oncology Data Advisor Editorial Board held a live panel discussion that featured updates on rare gastrointestinal cancers from Dr. Thomas Abrams, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School; perspectives on nursing management of mantle cell lymphoma from Maria Badillo, Research Nurse Manager at MD Anderson Cancer Center; and updates on rare genitourinary cancers from Dr. Ulka Vaishampayan, Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center.  

At this weekend's American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2023 Gastrointestinal Cancer Symposium, Dr. Josep Tabernero, Director of the Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology, presented results of the phase 3 SUNLIGHT trial of trifluridine/tipiracil plus bevacizumab for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. In this interview, Dr. Tabernero further elaborates on the significance of this treatment combination and its emerging role in the treatment landscape.  

At the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago, Dr. Jeanne Tie spoke with Oncology Data Advisor to share more about her presentation regarding the clinical utility of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) analysis to guide treatment decision making for patients with colorectal cancer.  

At the recent American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, Dr. Augusto Villanueva, an Associate Professor of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, discussed the role of the four main etiologies of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in the response that patients may experience to treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors. In this interview, Dr. Villanueva delves further into the question of whether etiology should play a part in immune-based treatment selection, as well as the role of liquid biopsy for patients newly diagnosed with HCC. 

Treatment options are limited for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who have microsatellite-stable disease, which renders them ineligible for immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. In a cohort of the COSMIC-021 trial, a team of researchers led by Dr. Thomas Abrams, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, investigated the efficacy of cabozantinib plus atezolizumab for this patient population. Dr. Abrams recently presented the trial's results at the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. In this interview, he discusses the role that cabozantinib/atezolizumab may play for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, particularly those with RAS wild-type disease, in the coming years.  

On World Cancer Research Day, Dr. Thomas Abrams, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the new Editor in Chief of Oncology Data Advisor, discusses his career as a gastrointestinal cancer researcher, the recent advancements that have been made, and the progress that is on the horizon in this field.