Abstract
Despite its decreasing incidence in western countries, the care of gastric cancer remains a concern. As gastric cancer is often diagnosed at an advanced stage, the prognosis of patients with advanced disease remains dismal. Recent trials in advanced gastric cancer have been focused on targeted therapies. Agents targeting EGFR1 and HER2 have been widely tested. The addition of trastuzumab to cisplatin/fluoropyrimidine-based combination chemotherapy significantly improved survival in patients with HER2 positive advanced gastric cancer, which is now the new standard of care by recent ToGA trial. Other agents targeting VEGF, the PI3K–Akt–mTOR pathway, and other biological pathways have also been investigated in clinical trials, but showed little impact on the survival of patients. This review will focus on the recent progress in targeted agents for the treatment of AGC and summarize the current clinical evidence and ongoing trials supporting the use of targeted agents in the treatment of patients with AGC.
Highlights
Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most common cancer in the world and is the third-leading cause of cancer death
Despite the improvement of surgical techniques and the recent availability of new chemotherapy regimens, outcome of the patients with advanced disease is usually poor, the median overall survival (OS) is approximately 7 to 11 months, and the median progression-free survival (PFS) is 6 to 7 months [4,5,6]. These results suggested that even the most widely accepted regimens, such as fluoropyrimidine and/or platinum based chemotherapy regimens, have not been able to achieve satisfactory survival
This study has shown activity and safety of pertuzumab combined with cisplatin and capecitabine in patients with HER2-positive metastatic gastric cancer
Summary
Hui-yan Luo and Rui-hua Xu1* 1Department of Medical Oncology, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in Southern China, Guangzhou 510060, People’s Republic of China 2Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510006, People’s Republic of China
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
