Ductal adenocarcinoma and its variants account for most pancreatic malignancies. High-quality multiphase imaging can help to preoperatively distinguish between patients eligible for resection with curative intent and those with unresectable disease. Systemic therapy is used in the neoadjuvant or adjuvant pancreatic cancer setting, as well as in the management of locally advanced unresectable and metastatic disease. Clinical trials are critical for making progress in treatment of pancreatic cancer. The NCCN Guidelines for Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma focus on diagnosis and treatment with systemic therapy, radiation therapy, and surgical resection.
This selection from the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) for Colon Cancer focuses on systemic therapy options for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), because important updates have recently been made to this section. These updates include recommendations for first-line use of checkpoint inhibitors for mCRC, that is deficient mismatch repair/microsatellite instability-high, recommendations related to the use of biosimilars, and expanded recommendations for biomarker testing. The systemic therapy recommendations now include targeted therapy options for patients with mCRC that is HER2-amplified, or BRAF V600E mutation–positive. Treatment and management of nonmetastatic or resectable/ablatable metastatic disease are discussed in the complete version of the NCCN Guidelines for Colon Cancer available at NCCN.org . Additional topics covered in the complete version include risk assessment, staging, pathology, posttreatment surveillance, and survivorship.
The NCCN Guidelines for Rectal Cancer provide recommendations for the diagnosis, evaluation, treatment, and follow-up of patients with rectal cancer. These NCCN Guidelines Insights summarize the panel discussion behind recent important updates to the guidelines. These updates include clarifying the definition of rectum and differentiating the rectum from the sigmoid colon; the total neoadjuvant therapy approach for localized rectal cancer; and biomarker-targeted therapy for metastatic colorectal cancer, with a focus on new treatment options for patients with BRAF V600E- or HER2 amplification-positive disease.
Pancreatic cystic lesions (PCLs) are a common incidental finding on cross-sectional imaging. Given the high signal to noise and contrast resolution, multi-parametric capability and lack of ionizing radiation, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become the non-invasive method of choice to predict cyst type, risk stratify the presence of neoplasia, and monitor changes during surveillance. In many patients with PCLs, the combination of MRI and the patient’s history and demographics will suffice to stratify lesions and guide treatment decisions. In other patients, especially those with worrisome or high-risk features, a multimodal diagnostic approach that includes endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) with fluid analysis, digital pathomics, and/or molecular analysis is often necessary to decide on management options. The application of radiomics and artificial intelligence in MRI may improve the ability to non-invasively stratify PCLs and better guide treatment decisions. This review will summarize the evidence on the evolution of MRI for PCLs, the prevalence of PCLs using MRI, and the MRI features to diagnose specific PCL types and early malignancy. We will also describe topics such as the utility of gadolinium and secretin in MRIs of PCLs, the limitations of MRI for PCLs, and future directions.
TPS512 Background: Targeting cell cycle checkpoints has the potential to enhance the efficacy of chemoradiation therapy. Tumor cells commonly have an abnormal G1 checkpoint due to mutations in the p53 pathway making them reliant on the G2 checkpoint to repair DNA damage. In our preclinical studies, WEE1 inhibition with AZD1775 abrogates the G2 checkpoint and sensitizes pancreatic cancer cell lines and xenografts to chemoradiation. Additionally, AZD1775 attenuates homologous recombination repair and promotes replication stress in cancer cells. Given our preclinical findings, we designed a phase I dose escalation study of the WEE1 inhibitor AZD1775 with gemcitabine and radiation in patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer (NCT02037230). Methods: The primary objective of our phase I study is to determine the MTD (maximum tolerated dose) of AZD1775 when combined with gemcitabine and radiation in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer. Our secondary objectives are to estimate the efficacy of this regimen at the target dose and to determine if WEE1 is inhibited by AZD1775 at or below its target dose in surrogate tissues (hair follicles). Patients with unresectable, non-metastatic pancreatic cancer are eligible for the study. Protocol therapy consists of the administration of AZD1775 and gemcitabine at the assigned dose levels in accordance with a Time-to-Event Continual Reassessment Method. All patients on the study are treated with four cycles of therapy consisting of AZD1775 given orally on days 1, 2 and 8, 9 of a 21 day cycle with gemcitabine given intravenously over 30 minutes on day 1 and day 8. Cycles 2 and 3 are administered with concurrent radiation therapy, 52.5 Gy in 25 fractions to the primary pancreatic tumor. The MTD will be determined by the development of dose limiting toxicities (DLT) within the first 4 cycles of therapy with a target DLT rate of 25%. Blood samples obtained at baseline and after cycles 1, 2, and 4 will be used for correlative studies on circulating tumor cells and tumor derived exosomes. Our estimated accrual is 36 patients. To date we have enrolled 21 patients. Supported by P50 CA130810, R01 CA163895, Cancer Center Core grant P30 CA46592, and the Taubman Institute. Clinical trial information: NCT02037230.
Abstract Background Evaluating structural damage using imaging is essential for the evaluation of small intestinal Crohn’s disease (CD), but it is limited by potential interobserver variation. We compared the agreement of enterography-based bowel damage measurements collected by experienced radiologists and a semi-automated image analysis system. Methods Patients with small bowel CD undergoing a CT-enterography (CTE) between 2011 and 2017 in a tertiary care setting were retrospectively reviewed. CT-enterography studies were reviewed by 2 experienced radiologists and separately underwent automated computer image analysis using bowel measurement software. Measurements included maximum bowel wall thickness (BWT-max), maximum bowel dilation (DIL-max), minimum lumen diameter (LUM-min), and the presence of a stricture. Measurement correlation coefficients and paired t tests were used to compare individual operator measurements. Multivariate regression was used to model identification of strictures using semi-automated measures. Results In 138 studies, the correlation between radiologists and semi-automated measures were similar for BWT-max (r = 0.724, 0.702), DIL-max (r = 0.812, 0.748), and LUM-min (r = 0.428, 0.381), respectively. Mean absolute measurement difference between semi-automated and radiologist measures were no different from the mean difference between paired radiologists for BWT-max (1.26 mm vs 1.12 mm, P = 0.857), DIL-max (2.78 mm vs 2.67 mm, P = 0.557), and LUM-min (0.54 mm vs 0.41 mm, P = 0.596). Finally, models of radiologist-defined intestinal strictures using automatically acquired measurements had an accuracy of 87.6%. Conclusion Structural bowel damage measurements collected by semi-automated approaches are comparable to those of experienced radiologists. Radiomic measures of CD will become an important new data source powering clinical decision-making, patient-phenotyping, and assisting radiologists in reporting objective measures of disease status.
Prostate-specific antigen recurrence after radical prostatectomy signifies minimal residual disease.Early application of short-term more intensive androgen deprivation therapy (androgen annihilation) using newer agents may offer an opportunity for cure.
