ASCO: Advances in the Management of Gastrointestinal Cancers

As part of our coverage of the 2014 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, held May 30–June 3 in Chicago, we are speaking with Andrew Lowy, MD, director of surgical oncology at the University of California, San Diego Moores Cancer Center. Dr. Lowy manages patients and does research mainly on cancers of the pancreas, liver, and the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. He will be providing an overview of the biology and advances in biomarkers for upper GI tract tumors at the meeting on June 2. Today we are discussing advances in management of upper GI tract tumors, as well as highlighting clinical trial results that will be reported at the meeting.

Cancer Network: Let’s start with the main types of non-colorectal GI tract cancers. There are quite a lot of these. How are they distinguished, and at what stage are these malignancies typically diagnosed?