Gastric cancer (GC) is the fourth most common cause of cancer-related deaths, causing more than 750,000 deaths in 2020. Platinum-based 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) combinations improve survival times compared to surgery alone, but emergent treatment resistance limits long-term clinical benefits. Accordingly, there is an urgent need to develop alternative approaches to overcoming chemoresistance.
Breakthroughs in early detection of cancer offer increasing hope for better outcomes and longer lives for individuals affected by malignancies. This year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting highlighted strong results from several companies at the forefront of this potential transformation.
Antengene Corp. Ltd.'s Claudin 18.2 antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) ATG-022 has been granted two orphan drug designations consecutively by the FDA for the treatment of gastric cancer and pancreatic cancer.
Gastric cancer persists as the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Syndecans (SDCs) are a family of four transmembrane heparan sulfate proteoglycans involved in cell proliferation, migration and adhesion, among others, and syndecan-4 (SDC4) expression has been shown to be up-regulated during the early stages of the gastric carcinogenesis.
Claudin 18.2 (CLDN18.2) is involved in the formation of tight junctions and is expressed in normal gastric mucosa, maintaining its expression during malignant transformation of the gastric epithelium. It is also aberrantly expressed in other tumor types, such as esophageal, pancreatic and lung adenocarcinoma, making it an attractive target for cancer immunotherapy.
East China University of Science & Technology has described pteridinone derivatives acting as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR; HER1; erbB1) (mutant) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer.
Helicobacter pylori infection and germline genetic variants interacted with each other to affect the risk of gastric cancer in a study comparing more than 11,000 patients with stomach cancer and 44,000 people without cancer. Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences (IMS) published those findings in the March 30, 2023, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Astellas Pharma Inc.’s zolbetuximab, a monoclonal antibody targeting Claudin 18.2, met the primary endpoint for progression-free survival as well as secondary endpoints for overall survival in the phase III Glow trial in CLDN18.2-positive, HER2-negative, locally advanced unresectable or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.
F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. and Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. have identified macrocyclic compounds acting as GTPase KRAS (G12C) mutant inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer.
Astellas Pharma Inc.’s zolbetuximab, a monoclonal antibody targeting Claudin 18.2, met the primary endpoint for progression-free survival as well as secondary endpoints for overall survival in the phase III Glow trial in CLDN18.2-positive, HER2-negative, locally advanced unresectable or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.
