From June 3 – 7 more than 30,000 cancer specialists – including doctors, researchers, and patient advocates – gathered in Chicago at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Meeting to talk about the latest research in state-of-the-art treatments, new therapies, and patient care.

The theme for this year’s meeting was Collective Wisdom: The Future of Patient-Centered Care and Research. According to ASCO President Julie M. Vose, MD, MBA, FASCO, “the patient is at the centre of a very complex system trying to assist them through their journey of cancer care. I selected the theme of collective wisdom to represent the importance of the multimodality care that is necessary for our patients.”

Following is a summary and excerpts from Cancer.Net.Blog of three  studies presented at the conference. To learn more about these highlighted studies and others visit Cancer.Net.Blog

Location matters when it comes to colorectal cancer

Summary of Findings:

• Researchers found a slight difference in how well cetuximab or bevacizumab worked based on the side of the body where the cancer started.
• Patients with a tumour on the right side who received bevacizumab lived about 7 months longer than those who received cetuximab.
• Patients with a tumour on the left side who received cetuximab lived about 6 months longer than those who received bevacizumab.

Researchers have discovered that a  colorectal tumor  on the left side of the body may be different from one on the right side. For patients with metastatic colorectal cancer that started on the left side of the body who received the drugs bevacizumab (Avastin) or cetuximab (Erbitux) the median survival was about 33 months, compared with about 19 months for those with tumors on the right side. The median is the midpoint, which means that half of patients lived longer and half lived for a shorter time.

Researchers also found a slight difference in how well cetuximab or bevacizumab worked based on the side of the body where the cancer started. For example, patients with a tumor on the right side who received bevacizumab lived about 7 months longer than those who received cetuximab. And patients with a tumor on the left side who received cetuximab lived about 6 months longer than those who received bevacizumab.

What does this mean?  In the future, doctors may use this information to determine treatment options for each patient.

“These findings will likely change the way we approach colorectal cancer treatment and research, even as we seek to more deeply understand the biology driving the difference in outcomes between right- and left-sided cancers.”

–lead study author, Alan P. Venook, MD, Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco

Mixing old and new chemotherapies to treat pancreatic cancer

Summary of findings:

• Adding capecitabine is a new approach to treating pancreatic cancer
• Patients who had completed surgery for early-stage pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma in the previous 12 weeks were assigned to receive just gemcitabine or gemcitabine and capecitabine. In people who received the combination, the average survival was about 2 months longer than in those who only got gemcitabine (28 months compared with almost 26 months).
• The serious side effects of the new treatment were comparable to those of taking just gemcitabine.

Researchers found that adding capecitabine to standard treatment with gemcitabine helped patients live longer. Gemcitabine is the chemotherapy typically used to treat  pancreatic cancer  after surgery. Capecitabine is a chemotherapy most commonly used to treat breast and colorectal cancers. Adding capecitabine is a new approach to treating pancreatic cancer. Both gemcitabine and capecitabine are available as generic drugs.

Patients who had had surgery for early-stage pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma in the previous 12 weeks were assigned to receive just gemcitabine or gemcitabine and capecitabine. In people who received the combined drugs, the median survival was about 2 months longer than in those who only took gemcitabine (28 months compared with almost 26 months). The median is the midpoint, which means that half of patients lived longer and half lived for a shorter time. The serious side effects of the new treatment were comparable to those of taking just gemcitabine.

What does this mean?  This was a large study of pancreatic cancer, with 732 patients, so the study’s results suggest that these effects may also apply to the larger population with pancreatic cancer. “Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most under-studied, hard-to-treat cancers,” says ASCO Expert Smitha Krishnamurthi, MD. “It is a major win to find that adding a generic chemotherapy not only improves survival for these patients, but does so with little effect on patients’ quality of life.”

“Unfortunately, most patients are not candidates for surgery when they are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. These findings are significant because they show that those patients who can undergo surgery have a fighting chance of surviving this cancer with the combination of 2 commonly used chemotherapies.”

–lead study author John P. Neoptolemos, MA, MB, BChir, MD, FMedSci, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Stomach cancer antibody can lengthen life in patients

Summary of findings:

• A new antibody called IMAB362 holds promise for patients with advanced  stomach cancer
• When IMAB362 attaches to claudin18.2 on the surface of cancer cells, the immune system begins destroying cancer cells that are coated with the antibody
• Among patients with the highest levels of claudin18.2, the median overall survival was about 17 months with IMAB362, compared to 9 months with chemotherapy alone

A new antibody called IMAB362 holds promise for patients with advanced  stomach cancer, also called gastric cancer. IMAB362 targets a protein called claudin18.2, which is found in many kinds of tumors, including stomach, pancreatic, lung, esophageal, and ovarian. When IMAB362 attaches to claudin18.2 on the surface of cancer cells, the immune system begins destroying cancer cells that are coated with the antibody.

The first treatment for people with advanced or recurrent stomach cancer is chemotherapy. In some cases, trastuzumab (Herceptin) is added to chemotherapy if the patient has a HER2-positive tumor. However, only 15% of stomach cancers are HER2 positive. In this study, chemotherapy only was compared to chemotherapy plus IMAB362.

For patients who received only chemotherapy, the disease worsened after a median of nearly 5 months, and median survival was a little more than 8 months. The median is the midpoint, which means that half of patients lived longer and half lived for a shorter time. IMAB362 kept the disease from worsening for longer, a median of just under 8 months. IMAB362 also increased the median overall survival to 13 months. Among patients with the highest levels of claudin18.2, the median overall survival was about 17 months with IMAB362, compared to 9 months with chemotherapy alone.

What does this mean?  This therapy nearly doubles how long a patient can survive with stomach cancer if the tumor has high levels of claudin18.2. The antibody is also promising because it may be effective in treating other types of cancer. The researchers are planning to study its use in patients with pancreatic cancer.

“As claudin18.2 is abundant in gastric tumors, we estimate that half of all patients with advanced gastric cancer may be candidates for this new treatment. In addition, this unique target is not present in any healthy tissues except the lining of the stomach, thereby minimizing treatment side effects.”

–lead study author Salah-Eddin Al-Batran, MD, Institute of Clinical Cancer Research, Nordwest Hospital, Frankfurt am Main, Germany