Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Gastrointestinal cancer

Targeted therapies in gastric cancer—the dawn of a new era

Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology volume 11, pages 10–11 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

The international phase III REGARD study demonstrated improved overall survival with ramucirumab as second-line therapy for patients with advanced-stage gastric and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. As a novel biological treatment, is ramucirumab also the harbinger of a new era of targeted therapies in this prevalent and highly morbid disease?

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Fuchs, C. S. et al. Ramucirumab monotherapy for previously treated advanced gastric or gastro-oesophageal junction adenocarcinoma (REGARD): an international, randomised, multicentre, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial. Lancet http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(13)61719-5.

  2. Jemal, A. et al. Global cancer statistics. CA Cancer J. Clin. 61, 69–90 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Bang, Y. J. et al. Trastuzumab in combination with chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone for treatment of HER2-positive advanced gastric or gastro-oesophageal junction cancer (ToGA): a phase 3, open-label, randomised controlled trial. Lancet 376, 687–697 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Lauren, P. The two histological main types of gastric carcinoma: diffuse and so-called intestinal-type carcinoma. An attempt at the histo-clinical classification. Acta Pathol. Microbiol. Scand. 64, 31–49 (1965).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Tan, I. B. et al. Intrinsic subtypes of gastric cancer, based on gene expression pattern, predict survival and respond differently to chemotherapy. Gastroenterology 141, 476–485 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Shah, M. A. et al. Molecular classification of gastric cancer: a new paradigm. Clin. Cancer Res. 17, 2693–2701 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Yamada, Y. et al. Impact of dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase status of biopsy specimens on efficacy of irinotecan plus cisplatin, S-1, or 5-FU as first-line treatment of advanced gastric cancer patients in JCOG9912 [abstract 4535]. J.Clin. Oncol. 27 (Suppl.), a4535 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Ohtsu, A. et al. Bevacizumab in combination with chemohterapy as first-line therapy in advanced gastric cancer: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase III study. J. Clin. Oncol. 29, 3968–3976 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Van Cutsem, E. et al. Bevacizumab in combination with chemotherapy as first-line therapy in advanced gastric cancer: a biomarker evaluation from the AVAGAST randomized phase III trial. J. Clin. Oncol. 30, 2119–2127 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The author thanks the DeGregorio Family Foundationfor Gastroesophageal Malignancies forresearch support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York–Presbyterian Hospital, 1305 York Avenue, 12th Floor, New York, 10028, NY, USA

    Manish A. Shah

Authors
  1. Manish A. Shah
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Manish A. Shah.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing financial interests.

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Shah, M. Targeted therapies in gastric cancer—the dawn of a new era. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 11, 10–11 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2013.231

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2013.231

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing