Joseph Kim, MD, on Liquid Biopsies as a Diagnostic for GI Cancers

Article
Conference|ASCO Annual Meeting: Gastrointestinal Cancer

The chief of surgical oncology at the UK Markey Cancer Center discussed liquid biopsies and their potential importance for diagnosing gastric cancer.

Joseph Kim, MD, chief of the division of surgical oncology at the UK Markey Cancer Center, spoke about the importance of liquid biopsies, specifically in gastric cancer, at the 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, held January 23-25, in San Francisco, California. 

 

Transcription:

Currently, liquid biopsies are really in their infancy in diagnostics for (gastrointestinal) cancers, especially gastric cancer. Liquid biopsies are being tested in a number of cancers, but I think it’s particularly important for gastric cancer where it may be difficult to get enough tissue to do all of the genetic testing that we need, and so the liquid biopsies provide an avenue for us to get that data which would potentially help change the type of treatments that are offered for patients with gastric cancer. 

Recent Videos
Epistemic closure, broad-scale distribution, and insurance companies are the 3 largest obstacles to implementing new peritoneal surface malignancy care guidelines into practice.
“This is something where this is written by the trainees, for the trainees, and, of course, for all the other clinicians who take care of patients,” said Kiran Turaga, MD, MPH.
“Everyone—patients, doctors—we all want the same thing. We want [patients] to live longer,” said Kiran Turaga, MD, MPH, on patients with peritoneal surface malignancies.
The new peritoneal surface malignancy care guidelines had clinicians gather from every disease state to show increased representation.
These new guidelines aim to alleviate some of the problems caused by patients with peritoneal metastases being diagnosed with the disease in late stages.
Those being treated for peritoneal carcinomatosis may not have to experience the complication rates or prolonged recovery associated with surgical options.
For patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis, integrating PIPAC into a treatment regimen does not interrupt their systemic therapy.
According to Benjamin J. Golas, MD, PIPAC could be used as a bridging therapy before surgical debulking or between subsequent large surgical operations.
According to Benjamin Golas, MD, PIPAC is emerging as minimally invasive laparoscopic approach for patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis.
Related Content
A total of 34 patients were included in the efficacy analysis; all received 320 mg of atebimetinib once daily plus 1000 mg/m2 of gemcitabine and 125 mg/m2 of nab-paclitaxel.

Atebimetinib Plus SOC Chemo Improves Survival/Safety in 1L PDAC

Tim Cortese
September 25th 2025
Article

Atebimetinib with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel achieved a 9-month OS and PFS of 86% and 53%, respectively, in patients with pancreatic cancer in frontline settings.

Benjamin Golas, MD, discusses how the use of PIPAC may work in conjunction with systemic chemotherapy for those with peritoneal carcinomatosis.

Harnessing PIPAC to Improve Outcomes in Peritoneal Carcinomatosis

Benjamin J. Golas, MD
June 30th 2025
Podcast

Benjamin Golas, MD, discusses how the use of PIPAC may work in conjunction with systemic chemotherapy for those with peritoneal carcinomatosis.

analysis of biomarkers associated with outcomes from the trial was presented.3 The biomarker analysis demonstrated that intratumoral myeloid cells and T cells were activated in responding patients.

Mitazalimab/Chemo Yields Promising Survival/Responses in Untreated PDAC

Tim Cortese
September 22nd 2025
Article

At 30 months, mitazalimab plus mFOLFIRINOX achieved an OS rate of 21% in patients with previously untreated metastatic PDAC.

The approval of sotorasib plus panitumumab is a “welcome step” in KRAS G12C-mutated colorectal cancer, according to Marwan G. Fakih, MD.

Sotorasib Combo Approval May Address Novel Therapy Need in KRAS G12C+ CRC

Marwan G. Fakih, MD
February 24th 2025
Podcast

The approval of sotorasib plus panitumumab is a “welcome step” in KRAS G12C-mutated colorectal cancer, according to Marwan G. Fakih, MD.

Favorable survival outcomes were identified, overall, in the wild-type and GOF groups vs the non-GOF group.

P53 Mutations May Reveal Viability of Different Pancreatic Cancer Therapies

Tim Cortese
September 20th 2025
Article

Patients with PDAC and non-GOF mutations had less favorable OS and DFS outcomes in various instances compared with those who had wild-type or GOF mutations.

An independent data monitoring committee recommended the continuation of the phase 2 AMPLIFY-7P trial evaluating ELI-002 7P in PDAC in August 2025.

ELI-002 7P Elicits T Cell Responses in Mutant KRAS-Driven Tumors

Roman Fabbricatore
September 18th 2025
Article

An independent data monitoring committee recommended the continuation of the phase 2 AMPLIFY-7P trial evaluating ELI-002 7P in PDAC in August 2025.