H. Prenen MD, PhD

Highlights in digestive oncology

At ASCO 2019, several clinical trials regarding upper and lower gastro-intestinal tumors were presented.

Highlights of the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium 2019

SUMMARY

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)

Highlights in gastro-intestinal oncology

Although none of the submitted abstracts in the field of gastro-intestinal oncology reached the presidential sessions of ESMO 2018, some practice-changing and promising data were presented especially in the field of immunotherapy. This report summarises the highlights in the field of colorectal, anal and upper digestive tract cancer.

Highlights in gastro-intestinal cancer

The 2018 annual meeting of the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) was once more hosted in Chicago. Over 40,000 oncologists attended this years’ convention. This report will summarize the highlights from the gastro-intestinal cancer sessions at the meeting.