New hope for advanced gastric cancer.

摘要

On Jan 28, 2010, European authorities approved trastuzumab-a monoclonal antibody against HER2-in combination with chemotherapy forfirst-linetreatment of patients with HER2-positive advanced gastric cancer. The licence was granted following the positive opinion of the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, and was reviewed through an accelerated process after promising findings were reported from the international phase 3 ToGA (Trastuzumab for Gastric Cancer) trial comparing trastuzumab in combination with standard chemotherapy versus standard chemotherapy alone for the treatment of HER2-positive advanced gastric cancer. This is the first targeted biological therapy to show a survival benefit in this difficult-to-treat cancer and, with several targeted agents currently being tested in randomised trials, is likely to be followed by others.