Novel targeted therapies for advanced esophageal cancer

Esophageal cancer is highly aggressive and is the sixth leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Recent advances in multimodality chemoradiotherapy and surgery has improved survival in patients with loco-regional disease, but most patients with advanced stage esophageal cancer have a poor prognosis. Elucidation of the processes involved in esophageal carcinogenesis has identified a number of promising novel targets for therapy. This review focuses on the current status of targeted therapies with potential application to the treatment of advanced esophageal and gastroesophageal junction cancer. The future challenge is to confirm the efficacy of these targeted agents in appropriately selected esophageal cancer patients, and successfully integrate these agents into effective therapies for all stages and subtypes of disease.

Current therapies and advances in the treatment of pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is a common, highly lethal disease with a rising incidence. In the last years continued efforts in pancreatic cancer research have led to a change in the classic approaches and to the development of new biological agents that appear to show promise. Adjuvant chemotherapy with gemcitabine has recently demonstrated better survival outcomes following surgical resection compared to no treatment, especially in patients with positive margins or lymph nodes. The addition of anti-VEGF agents to adjuvant regimens could improve long-term outcomes. In locally advanced disease, neoadjuvant regimens have not produced complete remissions, but partial responses have been reported ranging between 10 and 20%, with conflicting survival results. Combination trials with radiochemotherapy and new drugs appear well tolerated with encouraging preliminary results. In the metastatic setting, novel chemotherapeutic combinations and molecular targeted agents have shown promise in improving outcomes. To date, second line therapy is increasingly proposed and may even provide survival benefits in the future. This article summarizes the current standards of therapy for patients with resectable, advanced and metastatic pancreatic cancer.