Older adults with gastrointestinal cancers who had inadequate emotional support were more likely to have poor physical and mental health-related quality of life, in addition to depression, compared to those with adequate emotional support, according to findings from a recent study.
Of note, the patients with and without adequate emotional support did not have major differences with regards to survival outcomes.
Imugene Ltd (ASX:IMU, OTC:IUGNF) has presented new and significant data on HER-Vaxx at the World Congress of Gastrointestinal Cancer in Barcelona.
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Merck’s cancer star Keytruda could be on its way to an updated label in HER2-positive stomach cancer after showing it can stave off tumor progression in a combination study.
Gastric cancer ranks as the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide and the third in China. The overall five-year survival rate stands at approximately 20%. Radical gastrectomy has emerged as a prominent approach in the comprehensive treatment of gastric cancer, aiming to achieve a cure. Over time, advancements in clinical research have led to the evolution of gastric cancer surgery, transitioning from open surgery to laparoscopic surgery and subsequently to robotic surgery.
Summary
- Patients with upper GI cancers are in dire need of new therapeutic options.
- Astellas is sitting on a shoo-in approval for a brand new targeted therapy based on highly promising clinical trial data.
- An approval in this space could mean important new revenue inroads for the company.
CLAUDIN-18 Splice Variant 2
(claudin-18.2; CLDN18.2) has become a promising target for the treatment of patients with digestive malignancies, such as gastric cancer (GC), gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer, esophageal cancer, and pancreatic cancer, because of its limited expression in healthy tissues and abnormal overexpression in a range of malignancies.1 Multiple clinical trials of CLDN18.2-targeted therapies, including monoclonal antibodies, bispecific antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies, are ongoing, with some showing promising early results.1 If these findings hold up in larger trials, standardizing methods of CLDN18.2 detection and positivity thresholds, optimizing novel therapies’ efficacy and safety profiles, and finding rational therapeutic combinations with existing agents will be help to integrate CLDN18.2-targeted therapies into clinical practice.1
The FDA has granted orphan drug designation to ATG-022, a Claudin 18.2 (CLDN18.2) antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), for the treatment of patients with gastric cancer and pancreatic cancer, according to a press release from developer Antengene Corporation Limited.1
Treatment with avelumab (Bavencio) plus GEN-001 in patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma has demonstrated positive antitumor activity, according to an announcement by Genome & Company.1
The finding comes from a phase 2 study (NCT05419362) of GEN-001 in combination with avelumab, for which the primary end point is objective response rate (ORR), and the secondary end points are the incidence of adverse events (AEs), duration of response (DOR), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS). An exploratory end point in the study is analyzing microbiota.
A treatment currently under review by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients with advanced unresectable or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction (G/GEJ) adenocarcinoma has been shown to improve patients’ overall survival, according to an announcement from the biotechnology company behind the treatment.
Interim results of the RATIONALE 305 study showed that tislelizumab in combination with chemotherapy resulted in a median overall survival time (from the start of the trial until death of any cause) of 17.2 months, compared to 12.6 months for patients who received chemotherapy and a placebo, according to an announcement from drug’s manufacturer, BeiGene.