Association of family history with patient characteristics and prognosis in a large European gastroesophageal cancer cohort.

Introduction: The role of the family history in the development and prognosis of gastroesophageal cancer is a controversially discussed topic as appropriate data from western cohorts are lacking. This study aims to explore its associations with disease and outcome parameters in a large European cohort.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed self-reported family history in patients with gastroesophageal cancer treated between 1 January 1990 and 31 December 2021 at the Medical University of Vienna.

Systemic inflammatory biomarkers as prognostic tools in patients with gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma.

Purpose: Gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma is associated with poor prognosis, even in resectable stages. Systemic inflammation plays a key role in cancer progression. Yet, information on prognostic values of systemic inflammatory parameters in European cohorts is scarce.

Recent Advances in the Systemic Treatment of Localized Gastroesophageal Cancer.

The overall survival expectancy of localized gastroesophageal cancer patients still remains under 5 years despite advances in neoadjuvant and adjuvant treatment strategies in recent years. For almost a decade, immunotherapy has been successfully implemented as a first-line treatment for various oncological diseases in advanced stages. In the case of advanced gastroesophageal cancer, 2021 witnessed several approvals of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapies by different authorities.

Optimal treatment strategy after first-line induction therapy in advanced HER2-positive oeso-gastric adenocarcinoma-a retrospective, international, multicentric AGEO study.

Background: The optimal treatment strategy after first-line induction therapy in advanced HER2-positive oeso-gastric adenocarcinoma (OGA) remains challenging.

Methods: Patients treated with trastuzumab (T) plus platinum salts and fluoropyrimidine (F) as first-line chemotherapy between 2010 and 2020 for HER2-positive advanced OGA at 17 academic care centers in France, Italy, and Austria were included. The primary objective was the comparison of F + T vs T alone as maintenance regimen in terms of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) after a platinum-based chemotherapy induction + T.

Absorption of Direct Oral Anticoagulants in Cancer Patients after Gastrectomy.

Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are safe and effective in cancer patients treated for venous thromboembolism (VTE) or atrial fibrillation (AF). Gastrectomy is the treatment of choice in patients with localized upper gastrointestinal cancer. DOACs are absorbed in the upper gastrointestinal tract, but to what extent is unclear.

Immunotherapy for Gastroesophageal Tumors: Is there still Hope for Efficacy?

Immunotherapy represents one of the biggest breakthroughs of the 21st century and redefined modern cancer treatment. Despite this new approach changing the treatment paradigm in various cancer entities, including lung and head-and-neck cancer, the efficacy of these treatment regimens varies in different patient subgroups, and so far, these treatment regimens have failed to meet the high expectations of gastroesophageal cancer patients. This review discusses new treatment approaches concerning immunotherapy in gastroesophageal cancer patients and sheds some light on ongoing trials and new treatment combinations.

Checkpoint inhibitors in metastatic gastric and GEJ cancer: a multi-institutional retrospective analysis of real-world data in a Western cohort.

Background: Safety and efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer could be demonstrated in predominantly Asian cohorts, whereas data in Western patients outside of clinical trials are vastly missing.

Methods: In this multi-institutional retrospective analysis conducted at nine oncologic centers in Austria, we tried to assess feasibility of checkpoint inhibitors in advanced gastric/GEJ cancer in a real-world Western cohort.

Results: In total, data from 50 patients with metastatic gastric/GEJ cancer who received nivolumab or pembrolizumab in a palliative setting between November 2015 and April 2020 have been evaluated.

Programmed death ligand 2 expression plays a limited role in adenocarcinomas of the gastroesophageal junction after preoperative chemotherapy.

Background: The effects of cytotoxic chemotherapy on the expression of programmed death ligand 2 (PD-L2) are unknown and little is known about how the tumor microenvironment changes following neoadjuvant chemotherapy in locally advanced gastroesophageal adenocarcinomas (AEG). Recently, a number of studies reported that cytotoxic chemotherapy affects the expression levels of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and its ligand 1 (PD-L1). Regarding PD-L2, the second known ligand of PD‑1, no data on potential changes in expression patterns in patients with preoperatively treated AEG are available.

Thyroid Hormone Replacement Therapy Is Associated with Longer Overall Survival in Patients with Resectable Gastroesophageal Cancer: A Retrospective Single-Center Analysis.

Introduction: As thyroid hormones modulate proliferative pathways it is surmised that they can be associated with cancer development. Since the potential association of gastroesophageal cancer and thyroid disorders has not been addressed so far, the aim of this study was to investigate the association of thyroid hormone parameters with the outcome of these patients, so novel prognostic and even potentially therapeutic markers can be defined.

Material And Methods: Clinical and endocrinological parameters of patients with resectable gastroesophageal cancer treated between 1990 and 2018 at the Vienna General Hospital, Austria, including history of endocrinological disorders and laboratory analyses of thyroid hormones at first cancer diagnosis were investigated and correlated with the overall survival (OS).

Immunotherapy for Esophageal Cancers: What Is Practice Changing in 2021?

The prognosis of advanced esophageal cancer is dismal, and treatment options are limited. Since the first promising data on second-line treatment with checkpoint inhibitors in esophageal cancer patients were published, immunotherapy was surmised to change the face of modern cancer treatment. Recently, several studies have found this to be true, as the checkpoint inhibitors nivolumab and pembrolizumab have achieved revolutionary response rates in advanced as well as resectable settings in esophageal cancer patients.

Expression of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and programmed cell death 1 ligand (PD-L1) in adenocarcinomas of the gastroesophageal junction change significantly after neoadjuvant treatment.

Background: The effects of cytotoxic chemotherapy on the expression of programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) and its ligand (PD-L1) in cancer cells and peritumoral cells are unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of neoadjuvant chemotherapy on PD-1 and PD-L1 expression in adenocarcinomas of the gastroesophageal junction.

Methods: PD-1 and PD-L1 expression in cancer cells and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in paired diagnostic biopsies and surgical specimens from patients with pretreated and curatively resected adenocarcinomas of the gastroesophageal junction were evaluated by immunohistochemistry.

Soluble PD-L1 is associated with local and systemic inflammation markers in primary and secondary brain tumours.

Background: Immune-modulatory treatments have so far shown limited clinical activity in primary brain tumours. We aimed to investigate soluble programmed death receptor ligand 1 (sPD-L1) as systemic inflammation parameter in patients with brain tumour.

Methods: EDTA plasma was collected from 81 glioma (55 glioblastoma (GBM), 26 lower-grade glioma (LGG)), 17 meningioma and 44 brain metastasis (BM) patients and 24 controls.

Thirteen-year analyses of medical oncology outpatient day clinic data: a changing field.

Background: Novel treatment modalities like targeted therapy and immunotherapy are currently changing treatment strategies and protocols in the field of medical oncology.

Methods: Numbers of patients and patient contacts admitted to medical oncology day clinics of a large European academic cancer centre in the period from 2006 to 2018 were analysed using our patient administration system.

Results: A patient cohort of 9.

Interruption of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 signaling induces a proliferative pulmonary vasculopathy and pulmonary hypertension.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a severe and progressive disease characterized by a pulmonary vascular remodeling process with expansion of collateral endothelial cells and total vessel occlusion. Endothelial cells are believed to be at the forefront of the disease process. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its tyrosine kinase receptor, VEGF receptor-2 (VEGFR-2), play a central role in angiogenesis, endothelial cell protection, but also in the destabilization of endothelial barrier function.

Clinical characteristics and comparison of the outcome in young versus older patients with upper gastrointestinal carcinoma.

Background: The clinical behaviour and outcome of young patients with gastroesophageal tumours (GET) is surmised to differ from older patients, yet data on the comparison of these two patient subgroups is scarce. This study focuses on the investigation of the clinical characteristics and survival outcome of younger-age people with GET, when compared to older patients.

Methods: Patients diagnosed with GET at the Medical University of Vienna between 2004 and 2016 were included in this study.

PD-L1 and HER2 Expression in Gastroesophageal Cancer: a Matched Case Control Study.

Immunotherapy with check-point inhibitors serves as a promising treatment strategy in patients with upper gastrointestinal (GI) tumors. Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is the only identified therapeutic target in upper GI tumors, whose potential interaction with programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) is unknown. The aim of this study was the investigation of PD-L1 and HER2 in upper GI tumors.

Viennese risk prediction score for Advanced Gastroesophageal carcinoma based on Alarm Symptoms (VAGAS score): characterisation of alarm symptoms in advanced gastro-oesophageal cancer and its correlation with outcome.

Introduction: The prognostic value of symptoms at disease presentation of advanced gastro-oesophageal cancer is unknown. Thus, the aim of this study was to characterise these symptoms and correlate them with the outcome, so new prognostic markers can be defined.

Methods: We analysed clinical data including symptoms, therapies and survival of patients with stage IV gastro-oesophageal cancer treated between 2002 and 2018 at the Vienna General Hospital, Austria.

Modification of preoperative radiochemotherapy for esophageal cancer (CROSS protocol) is safe and efficient with no impact on surgical morbidity.

Purpose: Neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy (RCTH) is proven to be highly effective in the treatment of esophageal cancer (EC). We investigated oncological outcome and morbidity in patients treated with a modified CROSS protocol followed by esophagectomy at our institution.

Methods: Patients with EC receiving neoadjuvant RCTH with paclitaxel and carboplatin and concurrent radiotherapy (46 Gy) followed by esophagectomy were included in this retrospective analysis.

Utilization and Efficacy of Palliative Chemotherapy for Locally Advanced or Metastatic Gastroesophageal Carcinoma.

Background/aim: A standard treatment recommendation for advanced stage gastroesophageal cancer is still missing.

Patients And Methods: We retrospectively analyzed clinical data of patients with inoperable locally advanced or metastatic gastroesophageal cancer treated between 2001 and 2017 at the Vienna General Hospital, Austria.

Results: Administration of systemic therapy was positively associated with overall survival (OS) (469 days vs.

New Treatment Options for Advanced Gastroesophageal Tumours: Mature for the Current Practice?

Several clinical trials attempted to identify novel treatment options for advanced gastroesophageal tumours in first, second and further lines. Although results of targeted therapy regimens were mainly disappointing, novel immunotherapy agents showed promising activity, which led to their approval in second and third lines in many countries. This review focuses on the results of recent clinical trials investigating novel agents including targeted therapies, immunotherapy components and chemotherapies and discuss their current impact as well as current approval status on the treatment armamentarium of advanced gastroesophageal tumours.

Elevated Free Thyroxine Levels Are Associated with Poorer Overall Survival in Patients with Gastroesophageal Cancer: A Retrospective Single Center Analysis.

As endocrinological parameters such as thyroid hormones modulate proliferative, metabolic, and angiogenic pathways, it is surmised that their levels can be associated with cancer development and progression. Most patients with gastroesophageal cancer are diagnosed very late and have a poor prognosis, yet the association with endocrinological parameters has not been addressed so far. The aim of this study was to correlate hormones with the outcome, so new prognostic and potentially therapeutic markers can be defined.