The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) just concluded their annual meeting. The 2023 gathering was filled with novel and innovative scientific updates for cancer patients, carers and clinicians.

Of note for oesophageal and gastric cancers:

Results from the phase III ATTRACTION-5 (NCT03006705) study showed that adding nivolumab to adjuvant chemotherapy does not improve relapse-free survival (RFS) in a patient population of gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer, according to research presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting 2023. Clinical trials are crucial in understanding whether a treatment will work or not.

Also presented at ASCO, another study (NCT04250948) involving locally advanced GEJ patients aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of adding PD-1 antibody to perioperative chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced resectable gastric or GEJ cancer. Patients were randomized (1:1) to three preoperative and five postoperative 3-week cycles of SOX/XELOX or PD-1 antibody toripalimab plus SOX/XELOX, followed by toripalimab monotherapy for 6 months. The combination PD-1 antibody toripalimab plus chemotherapy significantly improved pathological regression. Further investigation is needed, but this could be a promising option for patients with locally advanced resectable gastric or GEJ cancer.

In other news, new positive results from a planned interim analysis of the MATTERHORN Phase III trial showed treatment with Durvalumab added to standard-of-care FLOT (fluorouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin, and docetaxel) chemotherapy prior to surgery showed a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in the key secondary endpoint of pathologic complete response (pCR) versus neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone for patients with resectable, early-stage and locally advanced GEJ cancers. This trial will continue to assess event-free survival.

At our 8th Annual DiCE Masterclass, leading expert Prof. Florian Lordick will give us a broader scientific update on GEJ cancers, and you don’t want to miss this!