August 10, 2018 – Analyzing Potential Therapies in Gastric/GEJ Cancer
Current research of esophagogastric cancer is heading toward building on the signals of activity seen for immunotherapy. Though phase I and phase II trials have given a mixed results, scientists are looking forward to the results of first line immunotherapy trials some of which involve the claudin protein in the body. This protein is overexpressed in most gastric cancers and it is a gap junction protein. Claudin protein combined with chemotherapy has shown great data for its phase II trials and will soon be undergoing phase III trials given improved overall survival of esophagogastric patients. We now know that VEGF-targeted drugs, HER-2 targeted agents, neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radiation added to surgery all improve outcomes in patients with esophagus and gastroesophageal cancers.