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Personalised Treatment in Gastric Cancer: Myth or Reality?

  • Translational Oncology (L Vecchione, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Despite recent diagnostic and therapeutic advances, the survival of patients with gastric cancer is still poor. The majority of patients are diagnosed with advanced disease and chemotherapy represents the only possible therapeutic approach. However, chemotherapy seems to have reached an efficacy plateau in this setting. Gastric cancer is a complex and heterogeneous disease because it emerges from multiple interactions of genetic, environmental and host factors. A better understanding of its molecular characteristics may lead to an improvement of outcomes. The recent molecular classification by The Cancer Genome Atlas project divides gastric cancer into four subtypes that could be taken into consideration in future clinical trials with targeted agents. So far trastuzumab, a monoclonal antibody addressing the HER2 receptor, is the only targeted agent approved in the first-line setting, but only in patients overexpressing HER2. Negative data have been obtained in first-line therapy when antiangiogenics, anti-EGFR or anti-MET monoclonal antibodies have been studied in randomised controlled trials. Ramucirumab, a monoclonal antibody binding to VEGFR2, is the only antiangiogenic agent currently recommended in patients progressing after first-line treatment. In this review, we discuss whether personalised therapy may have a role in gastric cancer.

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Acknowledgments

Valentina Gambardella holds a grant from the European Society for Medical Oncology. Noelia Tarazona holds a Rio Hortega Contract CM15/00246 from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Medical Oncology, Biomedical Research Institute INCLIVA, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

      Noelia Tarazona, Valentina Gambardella, Marisol Huerta, Susana Roselló & Andrés Cervantes

    2. Rio Hortega Contract CM15/00246, Valencia, Spain

      Noelia Tarazona

    3. ESMO Translational Research Fellow, Valencia, Spain

      Valentina Gambardella

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    1. Noelia Tarazona
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    Noelia Tarazona, Valentina Gambardella, Marisol Huerta, Susana Roselló and Andrés Cervantes declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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    Noelia Tarazona and Valentina Gambardella contributed equally to this work.

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    Tarazona, N., Gambardella, V., Huerta, M. et al. Personalised Treatment in Gastric Cancer: Myth or Reality?. Curr Oncol Rep 18, 41 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11912-016-0525-x

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