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‘Suboptimal Percentage’ of People with Advanced Cancer Get Biomarker Testing

In a recent analysis, only about a third of newly diagnosed people with advanced cancer had tumor testing. The study, which was published in JAMA Network Open, looked at claims data from January 2018 to January 2022 and included 26,311 people with advanced breast, colorectal, non-small cell lung, ovarian, pancreatic and stomach cancers. On average, 35% of patients’ records showed evidence of comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP), which is testing that can identify multiple genetic alterations from a single tumor sample. CGP increased from 32% in 2018 to 39% in 2021-2022. People with colorectal or non-small cell lung cancer who had CGP testing were more likely to receive targeted therapy than those do did receive genetic testing. Researchers noted the lack of testing in advanced cancer represents a potential gap in care, MedPage Today reported. “Given the well-established survival advantage for patients treated with biomarker-matched targeted therapies, this finding represents potential suboptimal care of patients with metastatic cancer, especially in cancer types in which targeted therapy is most appropriate,” the researchers wrote. In an accompanying commentary, Kenneth Kehl, a medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, stressed that testing can only improve outcomes if effective targeted therapies are available for the person’s specific cancer. He also noted more people may gain access to CGP due to the emergence of blood biopsies and the approval of treatments for specific molecular or genetic features across multiple tumor types.

Gastrointestinal Cancers Rise in People Younger Than 50

Adults under 50 are being diagnosed with gastrointestinal cancers, which include colorectal, stomach and pancreatic cancers, at increased rates, according to American Cancer Society statistics. In an analysis published in JAMA, researchers assessed 115 studies published between January 2014 and March 2025 to estimate global incidence of gastrointestinal cancers among people younger than 50 in 2022. The most common early-onset gastrointestinal cancer—with 20,805 diagnoses that year—was colorectal cancer, which underscores the importance of starting screening at age 45, Kimmie Ng, the review’s co-author, told NBC News. While researchers are still investigating potential causes, the study emphasized lifestyle factors and environmental exposures as contributing factors. “It’s really what people were doing or exposed to when they were infants, children, adolescents that is probably contributing to their risk of developing cancer as a young adult,” Ng, a gastrointestinal oncologist and the director of the Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, told NBC News. Colon cancer was once unheard of in people younger than 50, but the increase is likely related to changes in the gut and the bacteria that line the gastrointestinal tract, according to John Marshall, an oncologist and chief medical consultant at the nonprofit Colorectal Cancer Alliance who was not involved in the study. Diet, antibiotic use, microplastics and exposure to environmental chemicals can all influence a person’s gut bacteria.

Immunotherapy Combination Offers Lasting Results in Locally Advanced Melanoma

Most people with stage III or IV resectable melanoma treated with the immunotherapy drugs Opdivo (nivolumab) and Opdualag (relatlimab) were alive and without disease nearly four years after treatment, according to results of a phase II clinical trial published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Of 30 people who received the drugs before surgery, 87% were alive, and 80% remained disease-free. Of those people, 29 proceeded to surgery, and 27 received the dual immunotherapy after surgery, with 15 completing the full 55 weeks of treatment. Researchers also analyzed tissue samples from 27 patients and found those who had higher expression of two biomarkers were likely to have a durable response. “The responses to treatment in this study led to durable, positive outcomes in patients,” study author Elizabeth Burton, a cancer researcher at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, told MedPage Today. “That 80% of patients are recurrence-free after four years is quite remarkable in a very high-risk set of patients who otherwise would have recurred quite quickly.”