Sawyer Bawek, MD: So in colorectal cancer with liver metastasis, studies have shown that immunotherapy has a poor response on those patient populations. So what we wanted to do is one look at the role of immunotherapy and gastroesophageal cancer in patients with liver metastasis and see if it also has a poor response.
So we looked at all phase three. randomized controlled trials looking at immunotherapy um, in advanced metastatic gastroesophageal cancer. And after analyzing all the studies, we found about seven studies that had data on overall survival and progress and free, progression free survival with liver metastasis.
And what we found was that immunotherapy does seem to have a beneficial role in overall survival and progression free survival in patients with or without liver metastasis. So that opens up the door to future questions on being able [00:01:00] to further gather data on immunotherapy with advanced cancer, with liver metastasis, looking at more studies and also looking at what patient populations respond best to immunotherapy.
OncologyTube: Can you explain the significance of the meta analysis findings regarding the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors in patients with gastroesophageal cancer and the impact of clinical practice?
Sawyer Bawek, MD: Yeah, so our data suggests that immunotherapy has a beneficial role in gastroesophageal cancer with liver metastasis.
But further data is needed to really identify what clinical role it has. Further data such as seeing immunotherapy and subsequent lines of therapy as our study showed that most of our study was in the upfront setting, the six out of the seven studies were in the upfront so seeing what role it has in subsequent lines and also just gathering more data and hopefully with more randomized controlled trials being done and having more data out there, really determining the significance of it [00:02:00] and then also what patient populations do best with that.
So further data is needed to really identify what role it has in clinical practice, but it does raise a very interesting question something that would. be a great interest to study further.
OncologyTube: What factors should be considered when determining the most appropriate treatment approach for GE cancer patients with liver metastases, especially in light of the consistent benefit observed with ICIs in this meta analysis?
Sawyer Bawek, MD: Yeah current factors for the guideline approaches that we use today should still be utilized, and as we gain more data on patients with GE cancer with liver metastasis and what line of settings, and just more data with the randomized controlled trials may be able to further identify different factors, but currently still using guidelines with this meta analysis.
OncologyTube: Are there any specific patient characteristics or biomarkers that may help identify individuals who are more likely [00:03:00] to respond favorably to ICIs in the context of GE cancer with or without liver metastases?
Sawyer Bawek, MD: Yeah, so current guidelines in the biomarkers should still be used in patients with or without liver metastasis like CPS when determining treatment and then as we gain more research and looking at this area of immunotherapy we’d be able to gain more data and analysis for that for future studies.
OncologyTube: This has been an interview with Dr. Sawyer Bawek, MD medical doctor, internal medicine resident at University of Buffalo. Thank you so much for sitting down with us. Thank you for having
Sawyer Bawek, MD: me.