Research in Brief

Section snippets

Guselkumab for Crohn's disease

Guselkumab shows promise for adults with moderate-to-severe Crohn's disease, according to the GALAXI-2 and GALAXI-3 phase 3 trials. Remo Panaccione and colleagues randomly assigned patients to receive intravenous guselkumab 200 mg followed by subcutaneous guselkumab either at 200 mg every 4 weeks (n=299) or 100 mg every 8 weeks (n=297); intravenous ustekinumab followed by subcutaneous ustekinumab 90 mg every 8 weeks (n=300); or intravenous placebo (n=153). Those without a clinical response to

Durvalumab for gastric cancer

Adding durvalumab to perioperative chemotherapy improves event-free survival (EFS) in patients with resectable gastric or gastro-oesophageal junction cancer, according to the MATTERHORN trial, in which Yelena Y Janjigian and colleagues randomly assigned patients to receive perioperative FLOT (fluorouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin, and docetaxel) plus durvalumab 1500 mg every 4 weeks (n=474) or FLOT plus placebo (n=474). Treatment included two preoperative and two postoperative cycles of FLOT,

Robotic surgery for rectal cancer

Robotic surgery improves long-term outcomes for middle and low rectal cancer, according to results from the REAL trial. Qingyang Feng and colleagues randomly assigned patients with cT1–T3, N0–N1, or ycT1–T3 Nx rectal adenocarcinoma and no distant metastases to undergo either robotic (n=620) or conventional laparoscopic (n=620) rectal cancer resection. At median follow-up of 43 months, 3-year locoregional recurrence was 1·6% (95% CI 0·6–2·6) in the robotic group versus 4·0% (2·4–5·6) in the

Retifanlimab for anal cancer

Retifanlimab added to first-line chemotherapy improves outcomes for patients with inoperable locally recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal, according to the POD1UM-303/InterAACT-2 phase 3 trial. Sheela Rao and colleagues randomly assigned patients to receive intravenous retifanlimab 500 mg (n=154) or placebo (n=154) every 4 weeks plus carboplatin–paclitaxel for up to a year. Median progression-free survival was 9·3 months (95% CI 7·5–11·3) in the retifanlimab group

Colorectal cancer screening in adults aged 45–49 years

Default mailing of a faecal immunochemical test (FIT) was more effective than active choice outreach in promoting colorectal cancer screening among adults aged 45–49 years, according to new research. Artin Galoosian and colleagues randomly assigned average-risk primary care patients to receive either a FIT-only active choice invitation (n=5131), a colonoscopy-only active choice invitation (n=5127), a dual-modality active choice (FIT or colonoscopy; n=5125) invitation, or usual-care default