Doctors React to the New Treatment Landscape for Gastric and Gastroesophageal Junction Cancers
Key Points
- Multidisciplinary teams are extremely valuable for managing patients with gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancers.
- The MATTERHORN trial established perioperative durvalumab plus chemotherapy as standard of care, and supported a benefit even if patients require dose reductions or chemotherapy discontinuation.
In light of continued positive findings and data updates from the MATTERHORN trial, Charbel Matar , MD, of The George Washington University Hospital, and Raji Shameem, MD, of Orlando Health, discussed the developing treatment landscape for patients with resectable gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancers.
Patients with upper gastrointestinal cancers face several challenges, including impaired nutrition from disease, side effects of systemic therapy, or recovery from surgery. Multidisciplinary teams are extremely valuable for reaching a consensus on treatment selection and optimizing different treatment modalities for patients, said Dr. Shameem.
The doctors also highlighted the incorporation of the MATTERHORN regimen as standard of care. In MATTERHORN, the use of perioperative durvalumab plus chemotherapy improved survival for patients with gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer, regardless of PD-L1 status. Dr. Shameem appreciated that the MATTERHORN protocol allowed for dose reductions or chemotherapy discontinuation, as may be required in real-world patients, particularly in those dealing with postsurgery recovery.