Upper GI Flashcards
Women or men with GERD has a higher risk of Barrett?
Men.
What are the risk factors for squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus, adenocarcinoma of the esophagus, and gastric cancer?
Squamous esophageal: diet, smoking. Adeno esophageal: Barrett. Gastric: diet, H. pylori.
True or False: The longer the Barrett’s segment is, the higher the risk of cancer is.
True.
Does endoscopic surveillance decrease mortality from esophageal adenocarcinoma?
No.
At what depth of invasion is endoscopic mucosal resection no longer curative?
Submucosa. However, endoscopic submucosal resection for shallow submucosal invasion can be considered.
In Japan, what is the reduction in gastric cancer mortality by screening with barium studies?
40-60%
Which countries have the highest incidence of esophageal cancer (mostly squamous)?
Iran, Russia, and northern China. Less common in Japan, Europe, and the US.
What are the risk factors for Barrett’s esophagus?
GERD, white or Hispanic, male, advancing age, smoking, obesity.
What is the relative risk of developing esophageal adenocarcinoma in patients with Barrett’s esophagus?
11.3 compared to the general population.
Does H. pylori infection reduce or increase the risk of esophageal cancer? How about HPV infection?
Reduce esophageal adenocarcinoma due to reduced acidity. HPV increases incidence of squamous cell cancers of the upper esophagus.
Is adjuvant therapy needed after trimodality treatment for esophageal cancer?
No. Not supported by strong evidence but still often given, especially for positive nodes.
What is the 5-year survival for patients with esophageal cancer treated with just surgery?
Less than 10-15%
For esophageal cancer, neoadjuvant or adjuvant radiation has been associated with what outcomes?
Tumor shrinkage, dysphasia improvement, better local-regional control, but no survival benefit over surgery alone.
Are squamous cancers of the esophagus or adenocarcinomas more sensitive to chemorad, suggesting surgery might not be necessary afterwards?
Squamous.
What are the results of the MAGIC trial comparing perioperative ECF with surgery alone?
Better survival for perioperative chemo. This trial included gastric, esophageal, and GEJ cancers. Only about 55% of patients on the chemo arm received postoperative chemo, suggesting that the benefit was due to preoperative chemo.
T or F: Neoadjuvant chemorad for esophageal cancer has similar outcomes to surgery alone.
False. Neoadjuvant chemorad has significantly better outcome.
In esophageal cancer treatment, is chemorad with carbo/taxane less or more toxic than 5-FU/platinum?
Less toxic.
What are the roles of bevacizumab and cetuximab in the treatment of metastatic esophageal cancer?
Bev not helpful. Cetuximab might even be harmful. On the other hand, ramucirumab (anti-VEGFR-2) had better survival than BSC.
T or F: Aspirin and other NSAID use has been associated with a lower risk for GI cancer.
True.
Main risk factors for gastric cancer?
High salt and nitrate intake, low vitamin A and C intake, smoked or cured foods, poor drinking water. H. pylori too.
Does treating H. pylori reduce gastric cancer risk?
A large Chinese study says no. A meta-analysis suggests yes.
T or F: Surgical resection is the only potentially curative treatment for gastric cancer.
True. For early-stage, node-negative disease, the cure rate for surgery can be 75-80%.
T or F: D2 resection for gastric cancer is routinely done in Asia but has not been proven to be better than D1 resection.
False. A large Dutch trial showed D2 had better locoregional control and fewer gastric cancer-related deaths than D1.
For gastric cancer, is surgery alone as good as surgery followed by chemorad?
Not as good.
What are the general approaches to early-stage gastric cancer?
Adjuvant chemorad in the US, perioperative chemo in the UK, adjuvant chemo after D2 resection in Asia.
What is the standard chemo regimen for advanced gastric cancer?
A platinum and a fluoropyrimidine, with or without epirubicin or docetaxel. Irinotecan can replace the platinum.
The ToGA trial randomized patients with advanced gastric or GEJ adenocarcinoma and HER2 over expression to cis/5-FU or cis/5-FU/trastuzumab. What were the results?
Trastuzumab increased OS from 11.1 mos to 13.8 months. (Trials with lapatinib have been disappointing, as are ones involving EGFR monoclonal antibodies.)
What is the role of bev in advanced gastric cancer?
The AVAGAST trial showed superior OS with bev, but for Asian patients.
What is the role of ramucirumab in advanced gastric?
In the second line setting, ramucirumab plus paclitaxel was associated with better OS than paclitaxel alone.
What are the risk factors for pancreas cancer?
Tobacco, chronic pancreatitis, selective mutations of BRCA2 and, to a lesser degree, BRCA1…
T or F: Most pancreatic cancers have KRAS mutations.
True
What are the precursors of invasive ductal carcinoma of the pancreas?
Pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia, intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms, and mucinous cystic neoplasms.
Surgery is the only potentially curative treatment for pancreatic cancer. What is the 5-year survival rate for those able to undergo resection?
5-25%
What is the adjuvant therapy after resection of pancreatic cancer?
Gemcitabine is better than nothing. Gemcitabine is similar to bolus 5-FU/LV. Gemcitabine is inferior to S-1. Gem + chemorad with 5-FU + gem is better than chemorad with 5-FU.
What is the treatment for locally advanced pancreatic cancer?
Chemorad with 5-FU is commonly used. However, in a European phase III, chemorad with cis/5-FU is inferior to gem alone. The LAP-07 phase III showed that (1) the addition of erlotinib to gem has no added benefit and (2) no survival benefit when switching from chemotherapy to consolidating chemorad.
Should preoperative biliary drainage be done routinely in patients undergoing subsequent surgery for pancreas cancer?
No
What is the treatment for metastatic pancreatic cancer?
Gem is better than 5-FU (without LV). Gem + erlotinib is better than gem, by 2 weeks. Gem + a platinum or fluoropyrimidine might be better than gem for patients with good PS. Gem is inferior to FOLFIRINOX, 6.8 mos vs 11.1 mos. Gem is inferior to gem + nab-paclitaxel, 6.7 mos vs 8.5 mos. VEGF and EGFR therapies (except for erlotinib) have been disappointing.
Hereditary diffuse gastric cancer is associated with __ mutation in 30-50% of affected kindreds.
CDH1 (E-Cadherin)
