Blood & Cancer

Daniel G. Haller, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, joins Blood & Cancer host David H. Henry, MD, also of the University of Pennsylvania, to review the top three GI cancer trials presented at the 2019 ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, and how they are changing practice.  Plus, in Clinical Correlation, Ilana Yurkiewicz, MD, of Stanford (Calif.) University, talks about the difficulty in using age to guide cancer treatment.   *  *  * BEACON trial for colorectal cancer Patients with BRAF mutations have a poor prognosis and typically fail treatment prior to second line therapy. BEACON is a phase 3 trial that was designed to test BRAF/MEK combination targeted therapies in patients with BRAF-mutated metastatic colorectal cancer. The study found that the three-drug combination of encorafenib, binimetinib, and cetuximab significantly improved overall survival in patients with BRAF-mutated metastatic colorectal cancer. The response rate for targeted triple therapy was 26%, compa