Emerging biological drugs for the treatment of gastro-oesophageal adenocarcinoma

Expert Opin Emerg Drugs. 2021 Nov 23. doi: 10.1080/14728214.2021.2010705. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTINTRODUCTION: Gastric cancer (GC) and gastro-oesophageal junction cancer (GOJC) patients have a poor prognosis with a 5-year relative survival rate of 6% in the metastatic setting. Despite the well-characterized molecular features, patients have been historically considered for treatment with universal and undistinguishing chemotherapies and targeted agents, except for the HER2-positive population and some immunological approaches.AREAS COVERED: In this review we discuss the intrinsic characteristic of GC/GOJC from an epidemiological, molecular, and clinical perspective with an exhaustive evaluation of the reported and ongoing phase II/III clinical trials with targeted therapies.EXPERT OPINION: The absence of robust biomarkers, the difficulties on measuring it due to the well-recognized molecular heterogeneity, and in part because of non-optimistic clinical trial designs have been a major cause of frequent failure. Current efforts should focus on proper recognition of the distinctive molecular and clinical features of each GC/GOJC patient. Sequencing both tumour tissue DNA and ctDNA could identify targetable alterations, including rare alterations, thus allowing GC/GOJC patients for a precision medicine benefit.PMID:34814781 | DOI:10.1080/14728214.2021.2010705
Source: Expert Opinion on Emerging Drugs - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Authors: Source Type: research