Overview of Targeted Therapies for Esophageal and Gastric Cancers

摘要

Research on targeted therapies for patients with gastro-esophageal cancers has resulted in the approval of one targeted agent to date and the promise of more to come in the future. Pathways that have been studied in recent clinical trials include the HER2, VEGFR, EGFR, mTOR, and c-met pathways. Trials with agents that block these pathways have also included biomarker studies to try to identify patient populations who may specifically benefit from these treatments. The first targeted agent to be approved for patients with gastric cancers was the anti-HER2 antibody trastuzumab. In the randomized phase III ToGA trial, patients with first-line metastatic gastric cancer who were defined as HER2 overex-pressing by either immunohistochemistry (IHC 3+) or FISH positivity were randomly assigned to standard chemotherapy (infusional 5-fluorouracil or capecitabine plus cis-platin) with or without trastuzumab.