10 Must-Read Posts in GI Oncology This Week

10 Must-Read Posts in GI Oncology This Week

The second week of December delivered notable advances across GI oncology, covering health equity, real-world evidence, immuno-oncology mechanisms, neoadjuvant strategies, surgical decision-making, and early translational research. Population-level and real-world studies highlighted how socioeconomic status, molecular subtypes, and metastatic patterns affect outcomes in hepatocellular and colorectal cancers, while mechanistic and preclinical work clarified immune and therapeutic interactions that inform clinical practice.

A systematic review and meta-analysis led by Kennedy Ng of the National Cancer Centre Singapore pooled 15 studies including 199,404 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and found that lower income and absent or reduced insurance coverage were associated with worse overall survival. The authors note most available data come from high-income settings and call for more evidence from low- and middle-income countries and Asian populations, alongside health-financing reforms and equity metrics in guidelines and trials.

Real-world data reported by Daisuke Kotani and colleagues examined ERBB2-amplified metastatic colorectal cancer in the Flatiron database. Among 5,545 patients, 144 (3.1%) had ERBB2 amplification. ERBB2 amplification was associated with worse progression-free survival but not overall survival, and no significant OS difference was observed between first-line anti-EGFR monoclonal antibodies and bevacizumab.

Houston Methodist hosted the GI Oncology Summit 2025. Organizers and faculty, led by HMRI CEO Edward Jones, delivered sessions spanning clinical updates and multidisciplinary care, with participants citing strong engagement from speakers, chairs, and the CME team.

New mechanistic data published in the New England Journal of Medicine illuminate why aspirin appears to affect colorectal cancer outcomes reported in ALASCCA. Investigators identified platelet-derived thromboxane A2 as a suppressor of antitumor immunity during metastatic spread via ARHGEF1 on T cells. Inhibiting COX-1 with low-dose aspirin reduced TXA2 signaling, preserved T-cell activity, and limited metastatic outgrowth, effects most relevant in immunogenic tumors such as MMR-deficient and PI3K-altered colorectal cancers.

At the 15th International Gastrointestinal Cancers Conference in Belek–Antalya, delegates presented multidisciplinary tumor-board cases on potentially resectable colorectal liver metastases, emphasizing practical management insights and opportunities for collaboration across surgery, radiology, radiation oncology and medical oncology.

A multi-institutional analysis published in Annals of Surgical Oncology led by Kunal Nandy reviewed 558 gastric adenocarcinoma patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by radical gastrectomy from 2017 to 2023, focusing on those with positive peritoneal cytology but no macroscopic peritoneal metastases. The study found nodal metastasis to be the dominant prognostic factor and concluded that routine prophylactic HIPEC cannot be recommended based on current evidence, underscoring the need for prospective trials and individualized decision-making.

JCO Precision Oncology published data exploring DLL3 as a therapeutic and imaging target in gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms, providing early precision-oncology insights into target expression and functional imaging applications.

Phase II results from the PROCEED trial evaluated the addition of pembrolizumab to radiotherapy and chemotherapy as neoadjuvant treatment for esophagogastric adenocarcinoma. The single-arm study addresses integration of immune checkpoint inhibition into multimodal preoperative therapy and contributes to evolving neoadjuvant strategies.

A single-cell transcriptomic study identified epithelial marker genes linked to colorectal cancer survival. SPINK1 expression correlated with better outcomes, TIMP1 with worse outcomes, and age emerged as an independent prognostic factor. Investigators combined these features into a risk score model to stratify patients into high- and low-risk groups.

Preclinical research in the Journal of Biotechnology reported synergistic antitumor effects of recombinant interleukin-21 combined with 5-fluorouracil in HepG2 hepatocellular carcinoma cells, showing greater cytotoxicity than 5-FU alone while preserving low toxicity to normal L929 cells, supporting further exploration of IL-21–based combination strategies.

Also see 10 Must-Read Posts in GI Oncology from the first week of December on OncoDaily.