New treatments
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Adding irinotecan brought more side effects without improving rectal cancer outcomes
At 36 months, disease-free survival was 68% with irinotecan plus capecitabine chemoradiotherapy and 67% with capecitabine chemoradiotherapy alone, hazard ratio 0.91 (95% CI 0.68–1.23). This phase 3 randomised…
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Potential new drug target could make oxaliplatin work better
In colorectal cancer cells, patient-derived organoids and mouse models, removing Tex10 made tumors more sensitive to oxaliplatin. Gemcitabine monophosphate bound Tex10 with a reported dissociation constant of 3.51…
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A liver-made RNA package shrank some mouse bowel tumours
In three orthotopic mouse models of colorectal cancer driven by KRAS G12D, G12V or G13D mutations, a treatment designed to make the liver release tumour-targeted RNA packages suppressed…
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Adding sidewall node surgery may raise urinary problems after rectal treatment
Across 11 studies involving 2,069 people, adding lateral lymph node dissection to chemoradiotherapy and standard rectal surgery was associated with higher odds of urinary dysfunction, OR 5.94 (95%…
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The Robot Advantage in Rectal Cancer Surgery
In a Chinese randomised trial of 1,171 people with middle or low rectal cancer, robotic surgery was linked to 1.6% locoregional recurrence at three years versus 4.0% after…
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Starting chemotherapy sooner after surgery was linked to longer survival
Across 11 observational cohort studies involving 72,873 people, starting postoperative chemotherapy more than 8 weeks after surgery was associated with a higher risk of death than starting within…
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Short radiotherapy and chemotherapy improved five-year survival in rectal cancer
At five years, overall survival was 78.1% with short-course radiotherapy followed by chemotherapy, compared with 69.7% with long-course chemoradiotherapy, HR 0.739 (95% CI 0.550 to 0.993). Disease-free survival…
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Bevacizumab triplet had 0.99 probability of top surgical-conversion ranking
Across seven randomised trials in initially unresectable colorectal liver metastases, bevacizumab plus triplet chemotherapy ranked highest for disease control and conversion to R0-1 surgery. That ranking drew partly…
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Tislelizumab regimen reached 45.3% pathological complete response in rectal cancer
In this 118-patient randomised phase II trial, adding tislelizumab to short-course radiotherapy and CAPOX chemotherapy was associated with a higher pathological complete response rate than the same treatment…
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First-line immunotherapy reduced progression hazard 39% in MSI-H metastatic colorectal cancer
A meta-analysis of two randomised phase III trials found longer progression-free and overall survival with first-line checkpoint-inhibitor therapy than chemotherapy in MSI-H/dMMR metastatic colorectal cancer. The evidence is…