Pragmatic and Observational Research

Optimizing patient outcomes by personalizing therapeutic management for gastrointestinal malignancies

In this Article Collection, Pragmatic and Observational Research hopes to shed light on the real-world effectiveness and key considerations surrounding personalized medicine initiatives for the diagnosis and management of gastrointestinal cancers. Despite advancements in chemotherapy-based regimens, the clinical efficacy and survival outcomes for patients with advanced gastrointestinal malignancies remain inadequate. Such limited outcomes are due to a variety of factors that promote resistant mutations, compromise the tumor immune microenvironment, re-shape the tumor stroma to aid oncogenesis, and due to increased toxicity associated with conventional standard of care treatment approaches. Effective diagnostic and therapeutic strategies addressing these barriers should significantly optimize clinical outcomes for difficult to treat gastrointestinal cancers and are thus urgently needed.