Colorectal cancer is the 3rd most common cancer among men and women of all ages in the US and is on track to be the leading cause of cancer death in adults under 50 by 2030. The alarming rise of colorectal cancer in people younger than 50 prompted the US Preventive Services Task Force to lower the colorectal cancer screening age from 50 to 45 in 2021.

In season 4, episode 1 of Targeted Talks, Benjamin L. Schlechter, MD, senior physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, discuses new studies in the gastrointestinal cancers space. Schlechter explains how these studies can inform future research.

Benjamin Schlechter, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, presents expanded data from the microsatellite stable colorectal (MSS-CRC) expansion cohort of the Phase I study of botensilimab (NCT03860272), a multifunctional Fc-enhanced anti-CTLA-4, in combination with balstilimab, an anti-PD1 antibody, in metastatic heavily pre-treated MSS CRC. Efficacy was especially higher in patients without liver metastases, which form a significant minority of patients with MSS-CRC. This interview took place at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2023 Gastrointestinal Cancers (GI) Symposium in San Francisco, CA.

A combination of the next-generation immunotherapies botensilimab and balstilimab showed clinical activity in treating patients with refractory metastatic microsatellite-stable (MSS) colorectal cancer, according to new findings presented by El-Khoueiry et al at the 2023 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium (Abstract LBA8).

Fifteen months after the FDA blindsided Agenus with a decision not to offer accelerated approval for the cervical cancer drug balstilimab, the biotech is back with fresh data for a combo featuring the therapy it claims could finally make headway.