Month: January 2025

Traditionally, decisions regarding adjuvant chemotherapy after colorectal cancer surgery have been based on a patient's risk of recurrence, determined by TNM staging and histopathological features. However, emerging evidence suggests that these guidelines, in place since 2004, may not be the most effective approach and could be inadequate. In fact, surgery alone has already achieved high cure rates, preventing recurrence in 80% of stage II and 50% of stage III patients. Although adjuvant chemotherapy moderately improves disease-free survival (5–10% in stage II and 15–20% in stage III patients), many patients are exposed to unnecessary toxicity. Notably, even with adjuvant therapy, 15% of stage II and 30% of stage III patients still experience recurrence. This growing evidence highlights the relatively limited absolute benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy. Precisely predicting which patients will benefit from adjuvant therapy remains a significant challenge, underscoring the importance of developing more accurate biomarkers to guide treatment decisions.

Lateral lymph node (LLN) metastasis in locally advanced rectal cancer is associated with patient prognosis. However, the clinical significance of lateral lymph node dissection (LLND) has always been a matter of debate in the academic community. We have invited Dr. Petrv Tsarkov from Chechenov State Medical University in Moscow to share his insights and thoughts on the clinical controversies surrounding lymph node dissection in colorectal cancer.

The decision on whether high-risk MSI-H (microsatellite instability-high) stage II colorectal cancer patients should receive adjuvant therapy remains controversial. Dr. Ashwin Somasundaram, a medical professor at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, shares his insights on this complex issue.

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women worldwide, with approximately 5% to 10% of patients carrying BRCA gene mutations. These patients often present with more advanced disease, face a higher risk of recurrence, and have poorer prognoses. For patients with germline BRCA-mutated (gBRCA) triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), platinum-based chemotherapy remains the standard treatment but offers limited survival benefits and comes with significant side effects. Meanwhile, for hormone receptor-positive (HR+)/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2-) breast cancer patients, endocrine therapy combined with CDK4/6 inhibitors is the first-line standard treatment. However, the optimal therapy after progression on CDK4/6 inhibitors is still unclear. In this era of precision medicine, there is a pressing need for more effective treatments for gBRCA-mutated HER2-negative breast cancer. At the 2024 Cross-Strait Breast Cancer Forum and the Annual Academic Conference of the Fujian Medical Association Breast Disease Branch, Oncology Frontier invited Dr. Huiping Li from Peking University Cancer Hospital to discuss the latest progress in precision treatment for BRCA-mutated breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women worldwide, with approximately 5% to 10% of patients carrying BRCA gene mutations. These patients often present with more advanced disease, face a higher risk of recurrence, and have poorer prognoses. For patients with germline BRCA-mutated (gBRCA) triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), platinum-based chemotherapy remains the standard treatment but offers limited survival benefits and comes with significant side effects. Meanwhile, for hormone receptor-positive (HR+)/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2-) breast cancer patients, endocrine therapy combined with CDK4/6 inhibitors is the first-line standard treatment. However, the optimal therapy after progression on CDK4/6 inhibitors is still unclear. In this era of precision medicine, there is a pressing need for more effective treatments for gBRCA-mutated HER2-negative breast cancer. At the 2024 Cross-Strait Breast Cancer Forum and the Annual Academic Conference of the Fujian Medical Association Breast Disease Branch, Oncology Frontier invited Dr. Huiping Li from Peking University Cancer Hospital to discuss the latest progress in precision treatment for BRCA-mutated breast cancer.

At the highly anticipated 2024 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), numerous groundbreaking studies in breast cancer treatment were unveiled. Among them, the Working Group for Gynecological Oncology (WSG) presented long-term survival data from the WSG ADAPT-HR+/HER2- early breast cancer chemotherapy cohort (Abstract No.: GS3-04). This study integrates clinical pathology, genomic testing, and endocrine therapy response to refine risk stratification for recurrence in HR+/HER2- patients. Oncology Frontier invited Dr. Jia Wang from The Second Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University to provide insights and commentary on this significant research.

The 16th Shanghai Breast Cancer Symposium and Annual Meeting of the Shanghai Anti-Cancer Association Breast Cancer Committee, hosted by the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association Breast Cancer Professional Committee (CBCS) and the Shanghai Anti-Cancer Association, and organized by the Breast Cancer Professional Committee of the Shanghai Anti-Cancer Association, was held from December 20 to 21, 2024, in Shanghai. On the afternoon of December 21, the 2025 CBCS & CSOBO Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Guidelines and Standards (Essentials), known as the "Little Red Book," was officially released. Oncology Frontier invited Dr. Jian Zhang, a key member of the guideline development team and expert from Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, to discuss updates on medical treatments for various breast cancer subtypes in the new edition.

In the field of immunotherapy for colorectal cancer (CRC), ADAR1, an essential RNA-editing enzyme, has gained significant attention in recent years. At the 2024 ESMO Asia Congress, Dr. Da Kang from Dr. Zhizhong Pan’s team at the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center presented their latest findings on ADAR1 expression in T cells and its impact on immunotherapy resistance in CRC (Abstract No. 95P). Digestive Oncology Frontier interviewed Dr. Da Kang at the conference to delve deeper into this groundbreaking research.

Previous Phase II NEOTAX study results demonstrated that neoadjuvant therapy with toripalimab combined with axitinib effectively downstaged inferior vena cava tumor thrombi in some patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC), significantly improving perioperative outcomes. However, resistance to therapy remains a challenge for some patients, necessitating further investigation. At the 2024 ESMO ASIA Congress, Dr. Liangyou Gu and Dr. Yaohui Wang from the Department of Urology at the Chinese PLA General Hospital shared insights into overcoming treatment resistance, providing valuable strategies for improving patient prognosis. Urology Frontier invited Dr. Yaohui Wang to offer an in-depth perspective.