Pathological regression of primary tumour and metastatic lymph nodes following chemotherapy in resectable OG cancer: pooled analysis of two trials.

Background: No definitive largescale data exist evaluating the role of pathologically defined regression changes within the primary tumour and lymph nodes (LN) of resected oesophagogastric (OG) adenocarcinoma following neoadjuvant chemotherapy and the impact on survival.

Methods: Data and samples from two large prospective randomised trials (UK MRC OE05 and ST03) were pooled. Stained slides were available for central pathology review from 1619 patients.

Neoadjuvant and adjuvant multimodality therapies in resectable esophagogastric adenocarcinoma.

Gastric and esophageal adenocarcinoma is a leading cause of cancer-related death globally. Surgery is the cornerstone modality for cure where feasible. Clinical studies over the past two decades have provided evidence for the use of perioperative chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy to improve patient outcomes.

Impact of sex and age on chemotherapy efficacy, toxicity and survival in localised oesophagogastric cancer: A pooled analysis of 3265 individual patient data from four large randomised trials (OE02, OE05, MAGIC and ST03).

Background: There is a lack of large-scale randomised data evaluating the impact of sex and age in patients undergoing chemotherapy followed by potentially curative surgery for oesophagogastric cancer.

Patients And Methods: Individual patient data from four prospective randomised controlled trials were pooled using a two-stage meta-analysis. For survival analysis, hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated for patients aged <70 and ≥ 70 years, as well as between males and females.

Broadening the therapeutic horizon of advanced biliary tract cancer through molecular characterisation.

Biliary tract cancers (BTC) comprise a group of rare and heterogeneous poor-prognosis tumours with the incidence of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma increasing over recent years. Combination chemotherapy with gemcitabine and cisplatin is the established first-line treatment for advanced BTC with a significant but modest survival advantage over monotherapy. There remains no accepted standard treatment in the second-line setting, although recent results from a randomised study have shown a survival benefit with 5-fluorouracil and oxaliplatin chemotherapy.

Integrative molecular analysis of colorectal cancer and gastric cancer: What have we learnt?

Gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies comprise a diverse group of cancers with varying aetiology, clinical course, management and prognosis. Advances over the last decade in molecular diagnostics in colorectal cancer (CRC) have helped to improve our understanding of the underlying complex mechanisms in the development and progression of this highly heterogenous disease. Large scale integrative analysis has identified molecularly distinct subgroups of CRC with differing clinical behaviour.

Cisplatin Substitution with Carboplatin During Radical Chemoradiotherapy for Oesophagogastric Carcinoma: Outcomes from a Tertiary Centre.

Background/aim: Cisplatin-based radical chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is utilised in oesophagogastric (OG) cancer but the toxicity profile of cisplatin limits its use. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients treated with either cisplatin or carboplatin based CRT at our institution.

Materials And Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of patients with localised OG cancer undergoing CRT with cisplatin/fluoropyrimidine (CX/F) or carboplatin/fluoropyrimidine (CarboX/F) between January 2001 and December 2014.

Survival Outcomes in Asymptomatic Patients With Normal Conventional Imaging but Raised Carcinoembryonic Antigen Levels in Colorectal Cancer Following Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography Imaging.

Background: This study had two aims: (a) to evaluate the utility of fluorine 18-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)-computed tomography (CT) in detecting occult disease recurrence with raised carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and (b) to establish the prognostic effects of early detection of disease recurrence in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC).

Patients And Methods: Clinico-pathological data were obtained from all consecutive patients undergoing CRC surveillance from 2004 to 2010 who had an elevated CEA level (>3 ng/mL in nonsmokers, >5 ng/mL in smokers) but normal or equivocal conventional investigations. Histopathological confirmation or a minimum of 12 months' clinical and radiological follow-up were required to ascertain disease relapse.