We recently traveled to Miami, Florida, for a State of the Science Summit™ on Gastrointestinal Malignancies. Targeted therapy has become an important fixture in oncogene-driven cancers, particularly in BRAF V600E-mutant metastatic colorectal cancer and BRCA-mutant metastatic pancreatic cancer. Although the jury is still out on the actionability of a HER2 mutation versus HER2 overexpression or amplification in colorectal cancer, the importance of performing next-generation sequencing has become apparent with all of the data reported from pivotal phase III studies, such as BEACON CRC and POLO.  

This week, we sat down with Atif Hussein, MD, of Memorial Cancer Institute, and A. Craig Lockhart, MD, MHS, of Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, to discuss the role of targeted therapy in colorectal and pancreatic cancer, the utility of regorafenib and TAS-102 alone and in combination, and the importance of conducting next-generation sequencing.