ASCO 2021–Gastroesophageal tumor highlights

Abstract

The oncological community witnessed several practice-changing clinical reports in this years’ annual congress of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Many immunotherapeutic agents were shown to be beneficial for upper gastrointestinal tumors. For advanced squamous cell carcinoma, immunotherapy and chemotherapy combinations revealed by the CheckMate 648 and ESCORT-1st trials have been implemented into the clinical practice. The updates on the CheckMate 649 and CheckMate 577 trials again underlined the significant clinical contribution of nivolumab in advanced and localized gastroesophageal cancer, respectively. However, this effect seems to be dependent to PD-L1 expression. Not only immunotherapy trials, but also targeted therapy studies such as the FIGHT trial investigating the anti-FGFR2b monoclonal antibody bemarituzumab attracted huge interest, not only due to extension of survival in experimental group, but also due to the innovative design of this trial. This review summarizes the highlights regarding gastroesophageal tumors at the ASCO 2021 congress.